Engaging Minds: Assessing The Impact Of Arts-Integration On Science Achievement And Engagement Using Planned Experimentation, Fonda G. Dupre

All Dissertations

Elementary science education is essential for fostering inquiry, critical thinking, and problem-solving, yet it is often reduced or deprioritized due to the pressures of high-stakes testing in reading and mathematics. Despite federal calls for a well-rounded education under the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015), instructional time for science remains limited in many schools, particularly in under-resourced and high-poverty contexts. This reduction of science instruction time exacerbates achievement gaps and limits student engagement and interest in STEM fields.

This planned experiment investigates whether Arts-Integrated science instruction can increase student engagement and improve academic achievement among fourth-grade students at Foothills Academy of …

Advancing Life Cycle Assessment For Environmental Sustainability Of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites (Cfrps)), Hao Chen

All Dissertations

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) have emerged as promising materials, particularly for lightweight applications, with the potential to reduce environmental impacts across multiple sectors, including automotive, aerospace, and renewable energy. However, fully realizing their sustainability potential requires a more comprehensive and context-specific understanding of their environmental performance throughout the entire life cycle—from raw material production to end-of-life management.

This dissertation advances life cycle assessment (LCA) practices for CFRPs by addressing key challenges across multiple phases of the CFRP life cycle. First, I conducted a critical review and meta-analysis of carbon fiber manufacturing, revealing substantial variability in reported data on energy …

Influence Of Experience And Risk With Natural Hazards On Geoscience Interest And Career Expectations, Shannon Conner

All Dissertations

Understanding student interest in geoscience is important, as it has the potential to inform departmental decisions such as the selection of classroom examples and marketing strategies to attract new geoscience majors. Recruitment to geoscience is critical to address future social and environmental challenges. Our work may also provide insight into how to approach persistent recruitment problems within departments, such as student enrollment and the lack of diversity within the geosciences. This work involves developing a geoscience interest scale, integrating geospatial and educational data sets related to hazard risk and interest, and an exploring career motivations as related to natural hazard …

Effects Of Lossy Compression Data On Machine Learning Models, Max H. Faykus Iii

All Dissertations

Machine learning is a fundamental tool that is incorporated in every field across academia and other industries. Due to the large amount of data needed for training machine learning models, lossy compression plays a crucial role in storing data. Machine learning involves the use of algorithms and models to learn patterns in data. This allows the AI to make decisions without specific programming. On the other hand, compression utilizes encoding and decoding techniques to reduce the size of files. Compression is either lossy or lossless, lossy causes a loss of data while lossless preserves the data. This dissertation will explore …

More Than Numbers: Interrogating The Instructional Capacity Of Middle School Mathematics Teachers, Yashica R. Latimer

All Dissertations

This study examines how middle school mathematics teachers conceptualize and enact culturally responsive mathematics teaching (CRMT) within a district-supported professional learning initiative. Guided by the CRMT framework developed by Aguirre and Zavala (2013), the research explores how instructional decision-making intersects with equity-focused pedagogy.

Two central questions inform the study: (1) How do middle school mathematics teachers interpret and apply CRMT principles in their classroom practice? (2) What specific instructional strategies do teachers use to integrate cultural responsiveness into their instruction?

Using a qualitative multiple-case study design, data were collected from three teachers participating in a professional learning group called MORE …

Exploring The Effects Of Remote Work On Leadership Pipelines: With A Focus On Professional Women And Minorities, Mark S. Andrekovich

All Dissertations

I analyzed data from five U.S.-based companies to understand how remote work models affect leadership advancement. Using Role Congruity, Status Characteristics, and Intersectionality theories, I analyzed five hypotheses about the impact of remote work on leadership pipelines. Two of the five hypotheses were supported, revealing bias patterns rather than issues related to remote work. For instance, white employees had greater access to remote work opportunities than non-white employees, who had fewer promotions despite similar performance scores. Contrary to expectations, I found that remote work does not inherently affect promotional advancements. Via a post hoc analysis, I found that hybrid professionals …

Increasing Student Enrollment In The Dual-Language Mandarin Immersion Program: Leveraging Marketing And Outreach Within A Strategic Enrollment Management Framework, Na Zhang

All Dissertations

This study examines the impact of marketing and outreach strategies on enhancing family awareness and increasing enrollment in a Dual-Language Mandarin Immersion (DLMI) program in South Carolina. The history of bilingual education has shown an increased interest in recent decades. At the same time, Mandarin immersion programs continue to face challenges and under-enrollment. This study employs a mixed-methods design to collect data from surveys and interviews with parents of children entering kindergarten. The data collection also includes interviews with Mandarin Immersion teachers and attending community events. The purpose is to identify effective practices and ongoing barriers to enrollment. Informed by …

Transforming Childhood Adversity Into Executive Excellence: Impact On Firm Performance, Kimberly Byars

All Dissertations

Many successful business leaders have overcome difficult childhoods, yet little research has examined how early hardships might actually contribute to leadership effectiveness. This study investigated whether CEOs who experienced childhood adversity can transform these difficult experiences into strengths that improve their companies' performance.

The research surveyed 165 business owners across two groups: general business owners and automotive dealership owners. Participants answered questions about their childhood experiences, their ability to grow from trauma, and various psychological traits like grit, mental toughness, resilience, and growth mindset. Company performance data was also collected.

The findings challenge conventional wisdom that difficult childhoods necessarily harm …

Melts To Solutions: Structure, Dynamics, And Response Of Polyelectrolytes, Shalika Meedin

All Dissertations

The current research elucidates the changes in the structure and motion of polyelectrolytes as they are perturbed by solvents and shear flows. Polyelectrolytes are macromolecules whose backbone consists of long, predominantly hydrocarbon chains, substituted by ionizable groups, which tend to dissociate into ions in polar solvents. Their properties result from a delicate balance of elastic energy that arises from the polymeric backbone and electrostatic forces, which stem from the ionizable groups. Though polyelectrolytes have an immense potential to propel numerous technologies, from clean energy to drug delivery systems, understanding the delicate balance between the properties of the polymer backbone and …

Bringing To Life Our Mission And Vision: The Role Of Professional Development In Instructional Technology, Katherine I. Britton

All Dissertations

Despite improved access to digital tools and increased demand to prepare students for the 21st-century workforce, K-12 educators still have difficulty balancing technology, pedagogy, and content in the classroom. In the rural school district of Pleasant County, there is variation in the utilization of instructional technology to engage students as content creators, collaborators, critical thinkers, and communicators. This problem was substantiated as evidenced by the study of the Effective Learning Observation Tool, which identified the domain of engaging, learning-centered instruction as an area of opportunity for the district, with the lowest score in digital learning (Cognia, 2023). In this study, …

Evaluating Covid-19, Influenza, And Rsv Vaccine Effectiveness, Iromi N. Jayawardena

All Dissertations

Respiratory infectious diseases, including COVID-19, influenza, and RSV, pose significant public health challenges, especially during the respiratory virus season. Vaccination remains the primary intervention to mitigate morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) can vary between seasons and populations, necessitating continuous evaluation. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2024-2025 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, 2024-2025 seasonal influenza vaccine, and single-dose RSV vaccine over two seasons.

Utilizing electronic health records (EHRs) from the Prisma Health healthcare system, this dissertation emulated target trials to assess the vaccine effectiveness of each vaccine. Risk set propensity matching was used to …

Exploring The Impact Of Co-Teaching On High School Math Achievement For Students With Disabilities, Josh T. Oxendine

All Dissertations

This Dissertation in Practice explores the implementation of a co-teaching model in Algebra 1 classrooms at Green High School, part of the Excellent School District. The study was conducted due to the persistent underperformance among students with disabilities (SWD) on the Algebra 1 End of Course test, which led to the school’s designation as an Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) site by the South Carolina Department of Education. Developed using the principles of improvement science, the study utilized the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle as a framework to guide and evaluate change.

The change idea centered on embedding co-teaching in two …

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Undergraduate General Chemistry, Destinee J. Cooper

All Dissertations

General chemistry is a foundational course for advancement in most undergraduate STEM programs, but unfortunately, many students do not continue in STEM after their experiences in their general chemistry course. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) has the potential to increase students’ positive experiences in general chemistry by centering their needs, identities, and backgrounds. However, this pedagogical approach has not been widely studied in the college general chemistry context. As such, my four-paper dissertation broadly aimed to explore both the implementation and outcomes of CRP in undergraduate general chemistry.

The first paper reviewed the literature on culture-based pedagogies across the full undergraduate …

Exploring Teacher Decision-Making Based On 4k Children’S Emotional Observations And Narratives: A Multiple Case Study, Keith Johnston

All Dissertations

The benefits of quality social-emotional instruction in early childhood programs are well established. The crux of delivering these benefits lies in teacher social-emotional decision-making in early childhood classrooms. While there is scant research on the topic, there is evidence that decentralizing social-emotional decision-making can help teachers achieve better outcomes by including families and other early childhood professionals, using data to inform decisions, and reviewing research. The current study is a multi-case qualitative analysis of two 4K teachers from a child development center in the South Carolina Upstate. It describes how the two subjects use social-emotional decision-making to support their students’ …

Constructing Code-Based Zero-Knowledge Proofs Leveraging Generic Errors And Bounded Vectors, Freeman Slaughter

All Dissertations

Quantum computing is developing at an expeditious rate, and once fully scalable quantum computers become realized, classical cryptographic systems face obsolescence. This approaching peril has prompted a paradigm shift away from pre-quantum cryptography and towards post-quantum primitives, such as those that arise from the field of coding theory. Among these, zero-knowledge proofs have emerged as a dynamic tool instrumental in constructing quantum-resilient digital signature schemes.

We being by introducing HammR, a pre-quantum zero-knowledge proof protocol designed to verify Hamming weight and entry constraints of error vectors, and comprehensively establish its security. Subsequently, we extend HammR to the multi-party computation setting, …

Emotional Safety In Pediatrics: The Impact Of Child Life Services On Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions Of Their Own, Patients’, And Families’ Outpatient Experiences, Jenni Davis

All Dissertations

Medical visits, regardless of setting, are stressful for children and their families. Care that focuses on the emotional safety of children and families can help reduce this stress. However, not all staff feel prepared to provide emotionally safe care. Child life specialists (CLSs) are specifically trained to support emotional needs during healthcare encounters. Their presence may help staff stress as well, not just stress for children and families.

This study used three surveys to understand stress among healthcare staff working in pediatric outpatient clinics and surgery settings, and how support from a CLS affects staff, children, and families. All staff …

Teacher Efficacy In Reading Intervention: The Role Of Coaching And Professional Development In Foundational Literacy, Susan S. Chapman

All Dissertations

This Dissertation in Practice utilized improvement science methods to increase teacher self-efficacy in foundational reading practices and to address the oral reading fluency (ORF) challenges of elementary students who consistently score below proficiency. Rooted in Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy and the Active View of Reading, the study aimed to build teacher confidence in delivering foundational reading instruction while improving student ORF rates. A Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle was implemented with second-grade teachers and targeted the following aim: increase ORF by 12 words correct per minute (wcpm) for students receiving Tier 3 intervention over an eight-week cycle. Coaching, using the student-centered coaching …

Exploring The Socio-Cultural Dynamics Of Nocturnal Urban Landscapes: A Case Study, Jie Kong

All Dissertations

This dissertation explores nighttime social leisure activities in public parks within urban working- and middle-class communities. As cities confront climate change, shifting work schedules, and post-pandemic lifestyles, neighborhood parks have gained renewed importance after dark, especially in areas where households have limited private space. These non-commercial nighttime uses are often overlooked in planning, design, and built environment studies, yet they play a vital role in fostering cultural identity, social connection, and community well-being.

Focusing on Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, New York, this research investigates how public parks are used at night, by whom, and for what purposes. New York …

Nature Playscape: Investigating Children’S Play Behavior And Environmental Affordances In A School Playground, Sara E. Billie

All Dissertations

Existing research demonstrates that the physical environment can either hinder or enhance children’s play behavior. Diverse outdoor settings are especially effective in fostering motivation to play, contributing to children’s physical, social, and cognitive development. In response to the growing belief that outdoor play is both a necessity and a right for young children, particularly amidst concerns about nature deficit disorder and the rise of urban living among children, this study investigates the concept of nature playscapes, or naturalized playgrounds, as a vehicle for reconnecting children with the natural world. While contemporary playground design often struggles to balance structure with creativity, …

Flipping The Script?: The Development And Validation Of A Qualitative Framework For Identifying Key Cognitive And Attitudinal Components Of Conflict-Based Problem Representations, Kyle Christenson

All Dissertations

When people work together, disagreements are inevitable. How someone understands a given conflict, specifically whether they see it as a shared problem or not, can shape how they respond and whether they look to resolve it collaboratively. Researchers have studied many aspects of conflict, like what causes it and the strategies people use to manage it. But we know much less about how people think about conflict in the first place and how those thoughts affect efforts to manage conflict. This research developed a tool to study how people describe conflicts in writing. It identifies key ideas and attitudes that …

Ecomorphological Diversification Of Tooth Complexity In The Oral Jaws Of Marine Teleostean Fishes, Keiffer L. Williams

All Dissertations

Teeth are essential biological tools that function as a direct interface between predator and prey, thus providing essential insights into the evolutionary history and ecological diversity of vertebrates. Historically, studies on vertebrate dentitions have been qualitative and focused on mammals. More recently, quantitative methods have been developed that can reliably measure tooth surface complexity. These methods have been applied across both mammals and saurian reptiles to test for correlations with diet, leading to the conclusion that herbivorous species generally possess higher overall tooth complexity than any other dietary group. Surprisingly, the relationship between tooth complexity and diet in the most …

From Cities To Ranches: Assessing Public Support For Jaguar (Panthera Onca) Conservation And Livestock Predation In Colombia, Luz Angelica Solano

All Dissertations

Jaguars are among the most emblematic large carnivores worldwide. Nonetheless, the species has declined by 25% in less than 25 years and their range has been reduced by 55%, approximately, primarily due to habitat loss from increasing agricultural development, retaliatory killings from human-jaguar conflict, and overhunting of their natural prey. Given the anthropogenic nature of these threats, developing effective coexistence strategies and public support for jaguar conservation are increasingly urgent for the continued persistence of this species. I conducted a scoping review to assess trends and gaps in the existing peer-reviewed literature, grey literature, and news articles related to human-jaguar …

Studies On The Effects Of Operator Fatigue On Performance, Trust, And Workload Demand In Human-In-The-Loop Ai-Enabled Drone Systems, Snowil Lopes

All Dissertations

Civil infrastructure must be regularly inspected to ensure its safety and reliability. Traditionally, risk engineers performed these inspections manually and in person. However, with the introduction of drones equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), inspections of civil infrastructure can now be conducted remotely. These AI-enabled drones capture and analyze images, helping engineers monitor large and complex structures from a distance. However, working with integrated systems consisting of multiple drones, especially those with varying levels of reliability, can be challenging. Operators must divide their attention, determine how much to trust each drone, and manage mental workload, which can affect their performance. Another …

Empowering Employability: Voices Of Black Women Leveraging Community Cultural Wealth In An Undergraduate Agricultural Program, Rose Marie Somers

All Dissertations

Across the nation, agricultural industry professionals have bemoaned the shortage of qualified professionals, expressing an expanding need for graduates with a blend of discipline-specific and employability skills to advance the sector. Research indicates that the future of the US agriculture sector hinges on a diverse and skilled workforce. Yet, a paucity of literature exists on Black women's enduring legacy, experiences, and how they understand and develop 21st-century critical transferable professional competencies needed to address complex challenges in modern agriculture. Black women have a long tradition in agriculture and a wealth of cultural knowledge, skills and innovations that are untapped. This …

Issues In Contrasting Conservative And Considered Estimation: A Reply To Bobko Et Al. (2024), Paul R. Sackett, Christopher M. Berry, Filip Lievens, Charlene Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Bobko et al. (2024) responded to Sackett et al.'s (2022) compilation of meta-analytic evidence for the validity of a wide variety of measures used as predictors of overall job performance, offering a set of alternative methodological choices which they term “considered estimation” to counter the Sackett et al. approach of “conservative estimation.” Here we offer a rebuttal to Bobko et al. A primary concern is that Bobko et al. apply the label “conservative estimation” to the full range of methodological choices made by Sackett et al. Yet, we clarify the narrow and specific meaning of “conservative estimation,” and note that …

From Classroom To Workplace: Evaluating Communication Curriculum In Physician Assistant Education, Camryn G. Evett

Honors Thesis

Effective communication is a critical competency for physician assistants (PAs), impacting patient outcomes, interprofessional collaboration, and clinical decision-making. This paper explores the many communication challenges faced by PAs, including navigating supervisory relationships, clarifying scope of practice, building patient trust, and managing clinical interactions. It also examines how the national accrediting and certifying bodies such as the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA), and professional organizations such as the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) shape communication training through formal standards. These frameworks influence curricular design, assessment methods, …

Student Supports For Achieving College And Career Readiness, Edward C. Fletcher Jr., Turhan K. Carroll, Bo Hyun Lee, Carrie Burggraf

Journal of College Access

School community members help to foster students’ college-going mindsets by creating and facilitating a college-going culture within the school. Based on our findings of a school district composed of a majority ethnically and racially diverse student body, we found the district to be successful in promoting social capital by way of a school stakeholder community. The school stakeholders leveraged social capital to promote a college and career going culture within the context of career pathway programs. This culture promoted a sense of belonging where students felt supported in achieving their goals of being college and career ready. Most notably, the …

A Case Study Of The Perceived Support Needs Of Community College Faculty, Ramona C. Shelton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored the perceptions of community college faculty members in Tennessee regarding the supports they feel they need to be successful academicians both inside and outside of the classroom. Thirteen faculty members participated in the study, representing the 4 faculty ranking categories at the institution: adjunct/part-time, new full-time, junior/untenured, and senior/tenured. Interviews were semi-structured to allow the participants the opportunity to share their honest experiences on what support needs they have, how those needs have been met, and what support areas they expect to emerge in the future. Four academic administrators also participated in the study in …

Give Me A Break: Exploring The Use Of A Reset Room On Secondary School Students And Resilient Practices In Tennessee, Alex White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The culmination of toxic stress and social-emotional instability can result in significant challenges for students. Incorporating an appropriate response to address the social-emotional needs of students must be a priority if schools seek to see improvements in attendance, discipline, and ultimately academic success. Resilient middle and high schools recognized the need to create innovative spaces for students to learn how to self-regulate challenging emotions during the school day. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to investigate the relationship between chronic absenteeism, office disciplinary referrals, and the use of Resilient Schools Reset Rooms in middle and high schools from …

The Impact Of Estrogen Loss On Caveolin Expression And Cardiac Myocyte Remodeling In Ovariectomized Mice Following Chronic Sympathetic Stimulation, Juliana Barnie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVDs) remains the top cause of death globally, with postmenopausal women at higher risk due to estrogen decline. Beta-Adrenergic (β-AR) signaling is a major regulator of heart function. Caveolins, structural proteins of caveolae, coordinate cell signaling activities in the heart by co-localizing with estrogen receptors and β-AR and contribute to maintaining healthy cardiac function. The caveolin scaffolding domain (CSD), a binding component of caveolin, has shown therapeutic potential in animal models of heart disease. However, most studies on CSD have been completed in male mice. This thesis evaluates the therapeutic potential of CSD in female mouse models and …