Digital Commons Network^™

A Guide To Freshwater Aquariums, Noah Savastano

Senior Honors Projects

The objective of this project was to create a complete guide, useful for someone of any aquarium expertise level, describing how to set up and care for an aquarium. This guide explains the science behind processes involved in setting up and maintaining an aquarium. It also educates the reader on how to properly prioritize the safety of the fish. A full text was first created including all relevant information gathered from scholarly texts and online sources. Original photographs were incorporated as a supplement to the text. Fish and aquatic plants were drawn to further illustrate the concepts that were described …

Un-Affirmative Action: The Persistence Of Anti-Black Racism In The Higher Education System Of Postcolonial Brazil, Zakiya T. Daniel

Honors College Theses

Public education systems institutionalize the socialization process which directly disseminates cultural and national values and assimilates the population through mass education. But how does colonial-era anti-Black racism persist in the higher education institutions of contemporary postcolonial societies? Using the Federative Republic of Brazil as a case study, I examine the effects of incomplete decolonization, anti-Blackness, and the role of history, economics, and pedagogy on social outcomes that exclude and marginalize Black and other minority groups. The Brazilian higher education system follows a pattern centered around anti-Black racism which serves to disempower Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations during the colonial and …

Experiences Of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities Pre-Transition, Sydney Epps

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) - affectionately known as The Divine Nine - are places of support and leadership development for students. However, these groups espouse traditional gender role themes that align with sexual orientation and gender rigidity. This paper explores how four NPHC members negotiate their identity as both nonbinary or transgender, and Greek. Using the narrative inquiry approach, the researcher will explore how sorority members who no longer identify as cisgender women are treated post-gender transition by other sorority members.

Safe At Home? Narratives Of Reintegrated Victims Of Child Trafficking From Lake Volta, Ghana, Emma Seyram Hamenoo, Geraldine Macdonald, Edmond Kwablah Hamenoo

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk

Abstract

Trafficking in persons; especially children, have been a major concern in the fields of medicine, early childhood development, and social welfare among others. The impact of trafficking on victims of all ages is devastating. However, after their rescue, intervention processes have been rehabilitation and reintegration into societies of origin in most instances. The current study investigated the experiences of child victims rescued from fishing on Lake Volta, Ghana and reunited with their families in communities from where they were once trafficked. The study explored (a) whether or not reintegrated trafficked victims of school going age were placed in school; …

The Experience Of Learning: Early Adolescents In Organized Youth Programs, Jennifer A. Skuza

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Although researchers and policymakers have focused on school as the critical place in which learning occurs, organized youth programs offer different environments in which early adolescents can learn. However, early adolescent learning in organized youth programs is an under-researched area of learning, which may limit the ability of youth development practitioners to respond appropriately to early adolescent learning needs. The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of learning in an organized youth program by finding meaning in early adolescents’ lived experience through a phenomenological methodology. For youth in this study, learning in an organized program is an …

Education, Hurricanes, And Bananas: Studying Abroad In Honduras, Daphne Fauber

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The College of Education Honduras Study Abroad program has been sending students to Honduras for a 17-day investigation of Honduran history, educational systems, and social justice in education since 2003. Honduras is a Central American country with a long history of exploitation, political conflict, and environmental disasters. The country began with a swift and brutal colonization by the Spanish, which left the indigenous people persecuted and massacred. In 1998, Honduras experienced a devastating hurricane that decimated many buildings and infrastructure. Large-scale farming operations run by foreign investors has resulted in political turmoil and a struggling working class. However, Honduras has …

Reflections On Bodies And Absences In The Covid-19 Interregnum, Matthew Weinstein

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This is a meditation on the role of absence during the COVID-19, especially the ways absences are felt and experienced. It explores the roles of bodies as both symbols and material. Bodies are both thought through the logic of borders and difference but also as the raw resources of scientific investigations. This is all examined within and against “education” both in my and in my students’ (pre and in-service teachers) classes and our anxieties of not knowing the what or how we of our jobs in these conditions.

Fa 2020 About This Issue: The Power In Slowing Down

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Whether it be videotaping, guided classroom conversations, lecture-based, or written, feedback is the backbone of educational excellence. We use it to mentor beginning undergraduates, writers, readers, explorers, and experimenters. And, if we are thoughtful, feedback becomes a loop by which we slow down learning, we engage reading, writing and exploring, and we collaborate our way to becoming better.

Learning From The Outcomes Of Existing Prison Parenting Education Programs For Women Experiencing Incarceration: A Scoping Review, Belinda J. Lovell, Angela Brown, Adrian Esterman, Mary Steen

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This scoping review addresses the question, what are the outcomes of existing prison parenting education programs for women experiencing incarceration and what can we learn? The framework used was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Significant positive changes were identified after attending prison parenting programs and women generally provided positive feedback about their experiences however, there were also insights into the distress caused. The content covered in the programs is also explored. In conclusion, prison can be an opportunity for parenting education and support although currently the best way to …

Design Thinking As A Common Language Between Higher Education And Employers, Johnna Denning-Smith

Dissertations

This qualitative study explores student skill preparedness for the work force through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with current college students, faculty members, and employers. Responses from study participants were transcribed, coded, and thematically organized into the following four categories of skills that employers seek in recent college graduates: critical thinking skills, resiliency, workplace skills, and discipline specific skills. The findings include participant perceptions of the importance of these skills and whether higher education effectively prepares recent graduates for the workforce. As part of this discussion, design thinking is presented as a bridge between these groups and as a solution …

The Link Between Nativity Status And Racial Infant Mortality Disparities, Hannah Pierson

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

The United States has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the developed world. Studies indicate infant mortality varies greatly across racial groups. Black women are twice as likely to report preterm birth or infant death relative to White women. Foreign-born Black women have similar rates to that of native-born White women rather than native-born Black women, suggesting the link between race and reproductive health is more complex than previously understood. Thus, this study examines the interplay between nativity, race, and reproductive health. The cumulative disadvantage perspective has been employed to better unpack how life course stressors may …

A Meta-Analysis Of Graphic Organizer Reading Interventions For Learning Science And Social Studies Content, Ashley Sandoval

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

In this meta-analysis, the effects of text-based graphic organizer interventions on content learning in Science and Social Studies for students in grades 3-12, including typically developing and struggling students, and students with disabilities (i.e., LD, ID, and ASD) were assessed. A random-effects model with a correlated robust variance estimation approach was used and showed text based graphic organizer interventions had a large overall positive effect (ES = 1.65) on content learning in both Science and Social Studies. In addition, moderator analysis indicated that text-based graphic organizer interventions were more effective when students received teacher instruction prior to completing graphic …

Legislative Brief, Tn Ready Test Development, Process And Costs, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Office of Research and Education Accountability

No abstract provided.

Chairs Of Excellence Annual Report 2020, Tennessee. Higher Education Commission.

Academic Programs and Workforce Reports

No abstract provided.

A Call For Data-Driven Networks To Address Equity In The Context Of Undergraduate Biology, Seth K. Thompson, Sadie Hebert, Sara Berk, Rebecca Brunelli, Catherin Creech, Abby Grace Drake, Sheritta Fagbodun, Marcos E. Garcia-Ojeda, Carrie Unviersity Of New Hampshire, Jordan Harshman, Todd Lamb, Rachael Robnett, Michèle Shuster, Sehoya Cotner, Cissy J. Ballen

Psychology Faculty Research

National efforts to improve equitable teaching practices in biology education have led to an increase in research on the barriers to student participation and performance, as well as solutions for overcoming these barriers. Fewer studies have examined the extent to which the resulting data trends and effective strategies are generalizable across multiple contexts or are specific to individual classrooms, institutions, or geographic regions. To address gaps in our understanding, as well as to establish baseline information about students across contexts, a working group associated with a research coordination network (Equity and Diversity in Undergraduate STEM, EDU-STEM) convened in Las Vegas, …

Data Services At An Undergraduate-Research And Teaching-Centered University: Supporting Faculty And Students, Jeanine M. Scaramozzino, Marisa L. Ramírez, Karen J. Mcgaughey, Cameron Anvari

Library Scholarship

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) is one of the 23 campuses within the California State system. It is a four-year, public university, emphasizing comprehensive undergraduate education with a total enrollment of ~20,000 undergraduate and graduate students (96% undergraduate). Teaching and scholarship are both required by faculty but with limited research support services. A survey of faculty research data services needs was conducted in 2012. Survey invitations were emailed to a stratified random sample of 449 faculty (tenure-track or tenured assistant, associate and full professors only) and 226 responded for an overall response rate of 50%. The survey results provided …

Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Global Education, Santanu De

Biology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been one of the most dreaded, recent pandemics impacting multifarious global sectors, including education. To control contagion, affected nations ordered academic campus closures and home-schooling plans. Schools, colleges, and universities underwent a paradigm shift adopting internet-based delivery of lectures, synchronously or asynchronously (recorded), with virtual labs. Medical education suffered significantly; suspending student internships in hospitals decreased practical exposure to clinical specialties, impairing students’ performance, and competency.Teachers of traditional classes, with technical assistance, undertook rigorous trainings to restructure pedagogical and assessment strategies online using web/mobile applications and other digital tools.

Mediating Students’ Fixation With Grades In An Inquiry-Based Undergraduate Biology Course, Dayna Jean Defeo, Trang C. Tran, Sarah Gerken

ISER Articles

The paper analyzes focus group data to explore student perceptions of an inquiry-based undergraduate biology course. Though the course was designed to mimic the scientific process by incorporating uncertainty, peer review, and self-reflection, students came to class focused on getting As and with a developed schema for didactic instruction and passive learning. They perceived the autonomy and self-directedness of the learning experience as a threat to their grades, and responded with strategies that protected their grades and ego, but were deleterious to learning. Students could identify merits of the inquiry-based approach; however, they made clear: they prioritized grades, and were …

Covid-19 And Telehealth, Education, And Research Adaptations., N Romesh Wijesooriya, Vimal Mishra, Paul L P Brand, Bruce K Rubin

Project ECHO Bibliography

For decades, there have been government funded services to provide healthcare telephonically to remote sites both on the earth and in the air. This capability has evolved into what we now know as telehealth. The use of telehealth dramatically accelerated as a result of concerns for patient and healthcare provider safety during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Similarly, concerns regarding transmission of infection have required medical schools to provide robust, easily accessible virtual education options. At short notice, faculties have had to develop new telehealth focused curriculum components. However, telehealth, online education, and internet enabled research should not be simply a new …

A Singular Paradigm For Understanding The Necessary Skills, Mindsets, And Attitudes Of Effective Schools, Leaders, And Educators In The New Normal Of Today, Jessica Bogunovich, Kimberly Greene, Carlos V. Guzman

School of Education Faculty and Staff Scholarship

It was thus that a Spring Faculty Retreat became a collaborative meeting-of-the minds where experts and expert practitioners in credentialing, mastery practitionership, and leadership examined, deconstructed, and juxtaposed relevant research, expert opinion, and theory. This resulting work culminated in presentations to the entire faculty on recommendations for crucial skills, aptitudes, attitudes, and actions, for Brandman SOE faculty and students (mostly P-12 teachers and administrators) and the greater educational community across the United States. Upon further examination, what emerged was the unexpected identification of a corresponding concept: Reciprocal Altruism (Trivers, 1971). Further exploration of this construct led to the creation of …

Impact Of Humanities And Social Sciences Curriculum In An Undergraduate Medical Education Programme, Kulsoom Ghias, Kausar S. Khan, Rukhsana Ali, Shireen Azfar, Rashida Ahmed

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

Objective: To evaluate the impact of humanities and social sciences curriculum in an undergraduate medical education programme.
Methods: The qualitative study was conducted from May 2016 to May 2017 at a private medical college in Karachi where humanities and social sciences subject is an art of the undergraduate curriculum as a 6-week module at the start of Year 1 of the five-year programme. Focus group discussions were held with students from all the five years as well as with faculty related to humanities and social sciences, basic sciences and their clinical counterparts. The views of alumni of the undergraduate programme …

Exploring Student Motivation In Quantitative Biology, Alexander Richard Kulacki

Master's Theses and Capstones

The field of biology is becoming increasingly reliant on quantitative tools, methods, and techniques, driving a need for incoming biologists to have robust quantitative skills. However, efforts to incorporate more quantitative skills at the undergraduate level are hampered by low student engagement with math in biology. Students’ motivation towards quantitative biology can provide insight into how best to increase their engagement and thus performance with these topics. This thesis examines students’ motivation towards math in biology through two key constructs: 1) students’ self-efficacy, through the theoretical lens of Social Cognitive Theory; and 2) students’ task-values, through the theoretical lens of …

Fyc Students’ Emotional Labor In The Feedback Cycle, Kelly Blewett

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay explores the emotions first-year composition students experience when receiving feedback on their writing. Culling data from 32 hours of interviews with students, as well as two different data streams students provided regarding their emotional reactions to feedback, I argue that students undergo what Arlie Hochschild calls transmutation as they process feedback on their writing. Two implications are suggested: first, that future studies should utilize non-alphabetic tools for capturing emotion; second, that teachers wishing to assist student reception of feedback should be attentive to building rapport in the classroom. Finally, the essay calls for additional study of the impact …

The Effect Of A Paired Lab On Course Completion And Grades In Nonmajors Introductory Biology, Dayna Jean Defeo, Andrew Bibler, Sarah Gerken

ISER Articles

This paper explores the effect of a paired lab course on students’ course outcomes in nonmajors introductory biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage. We compare course completion and final grades for 10,793 students (3736 who simultaneously enrolled in the lab and 7057 who did not). Unconditionally, students who self-select into the lab are more likely to complete the course and to earn a higher grade than students who do not. However, when we condition on observable course, academic, and demographic characteristics, we find much of this difference in student performance outcomes is attributable to selection bias, rather than an …

Inspiring Change In An Uncertain Future, Volume I, 2020 Inaugural Edition, Tennessee. Higher Education Commission.

Academic Programs and Workforce Reports

No abstract provided.

On-Farm Research And Student Engagement To Assess And Promote The Use Of Organic Amendments To Improve Agricultural Soil Health And Resilience Of Crop Production Systems In Nebraska, Agustin Jose Olivo

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In nearly every production environment, there are opportunities to capture profits if waste streams can be further processed or enhanced to create “value added” products. On-farm research studies were initiated in 2019 at four locations across Nebraska to assess the impacts of livestock manure, cedar mulch from forestry management and coal char from sugar beet processing, on agricultural cropland. Study treatments included beef cattle manure (CM), beef cattle slurry (CS), coal char (CC), woody biomass (WB) CM+WB, CS+WB, CM+CC and control (CON; no organic amendment). Soil properties and corn yield were evaluated after a single growing season. Results indicate that …

Bullying By Teachers: Preventative Measures In Hogwarts, Zenobia Allen (1), Shannon Eshman (1), Ashley Mayer (1), Caitlin Schwartz (1)

Student Bibliography

In our case study, the Battle of Hogwarts, we decided to address the problem of bullying by teachers against students in the forms of discrimination, indoctrination, and maltreatment of students and how that might result in negative educational outcomes such as a lack of self-esteem, racist beliefs, discrimination, and stress. Students who were bullied before, during, and after the battle may have long-lasting problems that resulted from such instances of mistreatment. For example, professors such as Snape and the Carrows discriminated against Muggle-born students like Hermione. During the take-over of Hogwarts by the Death Eaters, Defense Against the Dark Arts …

Undergraduate Student Experiences Of Publishing Biomechanics Research, Stuart A. Mcerlain-Naylor

ISBS Proceedings Archive

The aim of this study was to investigate student experiences of publishing undergraduate research in biomechanics. Twenty-five individuals with experience of publishing peer-reviewed undergraduate biomechanics research completed an online survey regarding their perceived benefits and their level of involvement in various aspects of the research process. Areas of the greatest and least perceived benefits and student involvement were identified. Correlations suggested numerous beneficial effects of relatively low student involvement, more likely related to the concurrent greater supervisor involvement. Staff should make informed decisions regarding their level of involvement in each aspect of the research process rather than simply focusing on …

Students’ Perception On Teaching Style And Learning Outcome, Chengtu Hsieh, Duane Knudson

ISBS Proceedings Archive

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of active learning on students‘ learning outcomes in undergraduate introductory biomechanics and students‘ preference of teaching style. Five undergraduate biomechanics classes from four public universities in the United States were recruited (N = 204). Survey questions were administered over the internet. A total of 160 valid responses were analyzed. The students who rated their class was somewhat interactive and very interactive had significant learning improvement (p < 0.05). There was no significant learning improvement in groups that rated their classes either pure lecture (p = 0.09) or primarily interactive (p = 0.46). This indicated that moderate amounts of active learning enhance learning outcomes above …

Eusectra: European Nuclear Security Training Centre Providing Hands-On Training And Education In Nuclear Security And Safeguards, Willem Janssens, Veronique Berthou, Abbas Kamel, Jean Galy, Klaus Luetzenkirchen, Klaus Mayer, Stefan Nonneman

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The European Nuclear Security Training Centre (EUSECTRA) inaugurated under this global name about 10 years ago and operated by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), located both on the Karlsruhe (Germany) and Ispra (Italy) sites, includes a large variety of capacity building and professional development activities which span from the hands-on training for nuclear security and safeguards actors (e.g. respectively border guards or customs and nuclear inspectors) to educational efforts in both nuclear security and safeguards. Whereas the first ones, which gave rise to the new name, focus mainly on detection, on-site assistance, crime-scene management, technical reach-back and nuclear …