Digital Commons Network^™

An Arithmetic Expedition, Aaron T. Kirtland

Sierpinski’s Square

An arithmetic expedition through a student's life as he encounters new fields and finds their logic within himself. As he moves from Calculus to Linear Algebra to Numerical Analysis, he finds new realizations and thoughts for the future. Can binary mathematics fully express sociality and nature?

Understanding Why Undergraduate Students Declare And Continue To Study An Exercise Science-Related Major, Matthew Vaartstra, Vanessa Kercher, Amanda Start, Amber Brown, Mark Peterson, Ryan Mcgrath

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(5): 807-817, 2017. Understanding factors that contribute to a student’s selection of an exercise science-related major is important to student success, higher education and industry. This study sought to 1) better understand why undergraduate students study an exercise science-related major, 2) determine whether positive influences to study an exercise science-related major differ by academic classification, and 3) identify what student’s aspirations are after graduation. Department administrators from four-year colleges and universities offering an exercise science-related major in the Northwest Region of the United States (i.e., Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington) were contacted. Cooperating department administrators …

Patient Fall Prevention, R9 West Cardiovascular, Cathy Palleschi, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

PATIENT FALL PREVENTION STRATEGIES IN AN ACUTE HOSPITAL

Every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of patients fall resulting in injury. Injured patients often require prolonged hospital stays and a resultant increase in medical costs.

The purpose of this study was to identify the current state of fall prevention strategies on a hospital inpatient acute care cardiac unit. Through a root cause analysis, some deficiencies were identified and a process improvement plan was implemented.

Several positive outcomes were attained as a result of the countermeasures initiated. Patient falls per month and total waste in dollars saw a decline …

Electronic Health Record Utilization And Education: Improving Role-Specific Confidence And Competence In The Outpatient Setting, Nicole Neuman

Master's Projects and Capstones

The call for meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) and its universal benefits are well known. Despite mandates for change resistance to adoption of paper-less system remains problematic. Non-use of the EHR has persisted in the outpatient specialty care setting in spite of 4 all-staff trainings and stakeholder backing. This project suggests that implementing team leadership and educational tools provides staff with confidence and supportive resources to achieve proficiency. Objectives for this project include (a) providing staff with training and tools to access self-guided troubleshooting videos, follow quick-guide checklists for crucial tasks, and provide handouts for patient portal access, …

Compulsory Education And Resilience In Northern Alaska: The Role Of Social Learning And Youth In Healthy Sustainable Communities, Douglas Scott Cost

Indigenous Studies

How can education in the Arctic foster individual and community resilience in a time of rapid social-environmental change? Education and learning, have powerful potential to affect future social-environmental system resilience. This research unpacks and examines the connections and feedbacks among studies of social-environmental systems (SESs), resilience, compulsory education and Indigenous knowledge. The last few decades have witnessed global recognition of rapid climate change in the Arctic; primarily the diminishing cryosphere. This has led to discussion and debate over the role of schools in addressing local knowledge, environmental changes, and community priorities. In the U.S. state of Alaska and in other …

Innovation In Teaching: Clinical Reasoning Through Cooperative Gaming, Kathleen M. Williamson, Robin Lockhart, Melody Chandler

General Submissions: Presentations (Oral and Poster)

The innovation presented is a cooperative game designed to teach content and promote intraprofessional and interprofessional collaboration and teamwork. The game is unique in that it is simple to adapt to any teaching plan, simple to play with any number of players, consists of common and inexpensive materials, and provides content rather than reviews it. This presentation will share how course objectives can be met by utilizing cooperative gaming. During the presentation, the process of how to adapt the game to any content and a demonstration of how to play it will be included. This presentation will share the implementation …

2017 Fall Faculty Conference: Telling Our Stories, Demonstrating Excellence In Teaching, Academic Affairs

Fall Faculty Conference

The 2017 Fall Faculty Conference featured teaching showcases by Kyriacos Aristotelous (Business, Accounting, and Economics), Phyllis Lynne Burns (English), Terry Hermsen (English), Mike Hudoba (Engineering), and Leesa Kern (Sociology, Criminology, and Justice Studies).

Breakout sessions followed.

Community-Based Asthma Intervention Programs And Their Impact On Childhood Health Outcomes And Burdens On The Healthcare System, Danika Ng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since 1997, asthma prevalence rates have increased by 3% annually, leading to a current rate of 18.4 million adults and 6.2 million children with asthma, high hospitalization and emergency department visit rates, and an overall healthcare spending of 50 billion dollars. However, this increase in prevalence is disproportionately impacting children. Asthma is the third leading cause for hospitalization in children, have higher proportions of children being hospitalized with asthma symptoms, and have higher rates of asthma attacks. Recent literature shows that perceived lack of adequate education in areas such as medication adherence, medical device usage, asthma trigger avoidance, lack of …

Statefulness And Tangible Interaction In Design Education, Alex Lobos, Tim J. Wood

Presentations and other scholarship

Interaction in Industrial Design is expanding from tangible realms to intangible digital experiences. In this new environment, Interaction Design provides logical sequences and behaviors that allow users to easily navigate through complex workflows. This paper discusses a framework in which interaction design provides an innovative approach to traditional industrial design. This includes the concept of ‘statefulness’, where the dynamic changes of complex systems are broken down into states that can be defined and manipulated in order to achieve a desired user experience. This framework goes beyond having physical components of a product control digital interfaces and develops experiences that jump …

Undergraduate Student Motivation In Modularized Developmental Mathematics Courses, Keith Allen Pachlhofer

Theses and Dissertations

This study used the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire in modularized courses at three institutions across the nation (N = 189), and multiple regression was completed to investigate five categories of student motivation that predicted academic success and course completion. The overall multiple regression analysis was significant and two variables, Task Value and Self-Efficacy, were significant in predicting student progress in the course. Also, open-ended items were collected to help determine the students’ evaluation of what helps them to succeed and this was then compared to the findings from the multiple regression analysis.

Game Design & Development Curriculum: History & Future Directions, Elizabeth L. Lawley, Roger Altizer, Tracy Fullerton, Andrew Phelps, Constance Steinkuehler

Presentations and other scholarship

It has been nearly twenty years since the first undergraduate degree program in computer game development was established in 1998. Since that time, the number and size of programs in game design and development have grown at a rapid pace. While there were early efforts to establish curricular guidelines for the field, these face a number of challenges given the diverse range of academic homes for game-related programs. This panel will address the history of curricular development in the field, both in individual programs and across institutions. It will also explore the potential risks and rewards of developing curricular and/or …

Connect 226 - August 2017

Connect

Click on the DOWNLOAD link to obtain a PDF of this issue

The Effects Of Positive Youth Development Education On Youth Minister Self-Efficacy, Kenna Storey Spiller

Theses and Dissertations

Youth minister self-efficacy may be affected by the education received regarding positive youth development and adolescent development in general. A survey intended to explore the correlation between youth minister self-efficacy and education was administered to 43 Southern Baptist youth ministers in Mississippi. The survey used Lykert-type scales, multiple-choice questions, and open-ended questions to assess self-efficacy and positive youth development and adolescent development knowledge. Analysis of variance and correlations were used to analyze the data. Findings indicate that youth minister self-efficacy is related to adolescent development knowledge, but not significantly related to positive youth development knowledge. These findings provide insight into …

Could Reducing Compulsory Years Of Schooling In A Developing Country Be Beneficial?, Dina Al Ajmi

Theses and Dissertations

Towards the end of the 1980s Egypt introduced an educational policy aimed at reducing the years of compulsory primary schooling from six years to five years. This reduced the overall compulsory years of schooling from nine years to eight years. This paper will examine the educational and labor outcomes of this policy change differentiated by urban and rural areas using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2006 and 2012 rounds. Regressions estimated in this paper differentiated between the urban and rural populations. The results suggested that the effect on the rural community was much larger than the effect on …

A Portfolio Of Lesson Plans For A High School Spanish Classroom With Critical Reflection, Jasmyn Chacko

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This Capstone projects features a portfolio of lesson plans along with assessments of these lesson plans, written by a site supervisor, and journal entries, written personally after teaching the lesson in the classroom. After reviewing and analyzing all of these documents, general reflections were written to show the changes I made over time and to consider what future improvements I commit to make. These general reflections will be supplemented with current research in the field of second language pedagogy and the critique written by my site supervisor. Overall, the goal of this Capstone project is to produce useful materials in …

Predicting Underperformance From Students In Upper Level Engineering Courses, William J. Darlington

Theses

Recent research in academic analytics has focused on predicting student performance within, and sometimes across courses for the purpose of informing early interventions. While such an endeavor has obvious merit, modern contructivist learning theory expresses an importance on more individualized support for students. In keeping with this theory, this research describes the development of a model that predicts student performance within a course, relative to their past academic performance. This study is done using the minimum sources of data possible while still developing an accurate model. Useful logistic models using data from the institution’s student information system, learning management system, …

Fighting For An End To Federal Ethanol Mandates May Be An Ideal Social Justice Cause For Students At U.S. Catholic Universities, Alex Keller, James A. Kling Ph.D.

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

For educators, the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) form an excellent framework for bringing Catholic values and social awareness into the classroom as described by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2005). Aside from the inherent benefit of being a renewable and domestically produced energy source, ethanol production and the supportive U.S. mandate have been shown to have some positive aspects. As educators, this issue represents an opportunity for teaching and action. In addition to introducing Catholic Social Teaching, this topic makes science and economics approachable. The idea that a gallon of ethanol does not appear out …

Educating Students In Poverty: Building Equity And Capacity With A Holistic Framework And Community School Model, Dan W. Rea, Cordelia D. Zinskie

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Journal

Educators are often blamed for the achievement gap between low-income and higher income students. We propose to replace the divisive “blame game” with a holistic framework for collaborative action between schools, families, and communities. This 5H Holistic Framework (5HHF) is composed of the 5H protective factors (Health, Hands, Heart, Head, Home). These protective factors holistically address the educational needs and capacities of all students—especially students in poverty—for physical/mental health (Health), safety/security (Hands), social-emotional care (Heart), cognitive development (Head), and family/community support (Home). The 5HHF is used to identify and organize best educational practices and to recommend the community school model …

Interview With Eric Jensen: Enriching Mindsets For Teachers Of Students In Poverty, Dan W. Rea

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Journal

In this interview, Eric Jensen, an internationally recognized speaker and writer on student poverty and brain-based learning, discusses how the educational mindsets and practical strategies from his latest two books, Poor Students, Rich Teaching: Mindsets for Change (2016) and Poor Students, Richer Teaching: Mindsets for Change (2017), can enrich the learning of students in poverty. Some of the new mindsets include how to enrich classroom relationships, student achievement, student engagement, and school climate for student success.

Grit And Agency: A Framework For Helping Students In Poverty To Achieve Academic Greatness, Anindya Kundu

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Journal

Recent research in psychology introduces “grit” as a characteristic observable in successful students (Duckworth, 2016). Popular applications of the grit framework can further the notion of "rugged individualism," placing the onus of achievement upon the individual. This perspective can lead failures to be considered the result of deficiencies, overlooking effects of structural factors associated with learning. Sociologically, certain applications of grit can be limited in explaining mobility: they may not address the social contexts of the people they assess; or, they may lack a dynamic understanding of students’ cultures. This article applies a qualitative, sociological framework offering “agency” as a …

Layers Of Estrangement: Social-Emotional And Educational Implications Of Homelessness On K–12 Students, Rajni Shankar-Brown

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Journal

This qualitative case study examines and illuminates the social-emotional and educational experiences of children ages 5 to 18 residing in an urban, family emergency housing shelter located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Data were collected and triangulated through participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Findings revealed deep educational estrangement and adverse impacts on the social-emotional development of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The study suggests an urgent need to provide high-quality educational preparation to public school administrators and teachers working with children living in poverty and experiencing homelessness in the U.S. With persistent and rising child …

Art Corner: “Our Children, Our World, Our Future”, George E. Miller Ii

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Journal

George E. Miller II, a child advocacy artist based out of northeast Florida, displays his artwork in this issue. His colorful illustrations are vibrant, multicultural, and uplifting. He uses his artistic gift to draw attention to educational concerns such as literacy, dropout prevention, mental health, child abuse prevention, and homelessness. His current contribution illustrates children looking ahead to the future with hope.

Implementing For Success And Sustainability, Michele Paulo

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Nurses, including those with additional education and training as professional development specialists, face challenges to implementing evidenced-based practice changes effectively and efficiently. Nurse bedside performance can drift away from evidence-based practice (EBP) and revert to methods previously taught when the strategy, planning and implementation lacks resources to support sustainable change. While knowledge and skills attainment are important, they do not ensure the successful transition in practice change at the point of care. An intervention has been developed that integrates several evidence-based implementation concepts and frameworks into a single framework named the Identify and DRIVE framework. Additionally, the Identify and DRIVE …

Youth Perceptions Of A School-Based Mentoring Program, Samantha Weiss, Jeanette Harder, Christiana Bratiotis, Emily Nguyen

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Academic mentoring programs promote high school completion for at-risk youth. The purpose of this study was to hear the voice of youth in order to inform program services and develop best practices for meeting their academic needs. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted 14 focus groups to examine high school students’ perceptions and experiences in the Avenue Scholars Foundation program. This study supported previous findings: students’ comments reflected on the importance of the relationships built in the program, the knowledge they gained, and their experiences regarding higher education and careers. The students shared that these experiences were increasingly meaningful …

A Case Study Of The Relationship Between Professional Learning Communities And Teacher Efficacy, Rebecca Carter

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Traditionally, professional development opportunities to improve teaching and learning have been practiced through isolated events that do not allow learning to happen within the context of the school. Research showed schools are beginning to implement professional learning communities. This descriptive single case study addressed the questions: (a) What are teachers’ perceptions regarding the relationship between a professional learning community and teacher efficacy? and (b) From teachers’ perspectives, in what ways, if any, do professional learning communities impact teacher efficacy? The case study examined the relationship between professional learning communities and teacher efficacy as well as the impact of professional learning …

On Novices' Interaction With Compiler Error Messages: A Human Factors Approach, James R. Prather, Raymond Pettit, Kayla Holcomb Mcmurry, Alani Peters, John Homer, Nevan Simone, Maxine Cohen

School of Information Technology and Computing

The difficulty in understanding compiler error messages can be a major impediment to novice student learning. To alleviate this issue, multiple researchers have run experiments enhancing compiler error messages in automated assessment tools for programming assignments. The conclusions reached by these published experiments appear to be conflicting. We examine these experiments and propose five potential reasons for the inconsistent conclusions concerning enhanced compiler error messages: (1) students do not read them, (2) researchers are measuring the wrong thing, (3) the effects are hard to measure, (4) the messages are not properly designed, (5) the messages are properly designed, but students …

Hiroshima On Peace Education And Problems With U.S.-Centric Historical Narratives In A World Without Survivors, Matthew S. Thome

International ResearchScape Journal

As time passes, the number of survivors from major world tragedies like the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki grows fewer and fewer. These survivors are a powerful resource for educating students of all ages about the importance of world peace. Drawing on the writing of Richard Moody and Frans Doppen, as well as Paul Ham, and Herbert Feis respectively, I outline the important role of hibakusha, or a-bomb survivors, in peace education at the secondary and collegiate levels. I explain how personalized survivor testimony provides an alternative and highly effective and necessary counterweight to teaching solely a U.S.-centric historical …

Shifting School Design To The 21st Century: Challenges With Alternative Learning Environments, Bryan H. Perez

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

There is a need for major change in our educational system and in particular the design of schools. Our existing school model was defined in the mid- to late-1800s, as a response to the Industrial Revolution, and does not reflect the needs of the next generation of 21st century students. One of the key elements of change in schools is the shift from confined classrooms towards alternative learning environments – spaces that are designed for a specific learning type or activity.

This thesis focuses on secondary education and examines three schools identified as having innovative school designs. While all three …

Family Literacy Bags: A Rural-Appalachian Approach For Parental Involvement And Education, Ashley Good Overton

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this concurrent, mixed-methods study was to investigate the implementation of the non-presumptuous literacy bag program as a critical component of increasing parental involvement in rural Appalachia schools related to student literacy achievement. The program was designed to increase parental involvement in book readings and related activities. The intent of the program was to encourage parents to become actively involved in their children’s literacy and to assist children to develop stronger literacy skills. In an effort to better understand parental involvement in a rural Appalachian community, I conducted a pre-program, parental involvement questionnaire in order to gain a …

Evaluating The Policies That Lead To Stem Educational Attainment At The University Of Arkansas For Transfer Students, Bryan Hill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The US has a critical need to produce more STEM graduates and that need is exponentially more critical in Arkansas. Arkansas currently ranks last in the percent of STEM degrees conferred compared to overall degrees awarded. Students intending to pursue a STEM four-year college degree who start at a two-year college are significantly less likely to succeed in earning that degree. Arkansas passed Acts 672 and 182 aimed at strengthening the success of students who transfer from two-year colleges into four-year institutions. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the Acts by determining if the University of Arkansas (UA) …