Digital Commons Network^™

Deep-State Constitutionalism, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this review, I explain how "Common Good Constitutionalism" taps into a deficiency of the conservative legal movement: namely, its exclusive focus on the law "as it is" at the expense of the underlying abstract normative principles that justify the positive law of our written Constitution. Due to this deficiency, the conservative legal movement gives short shrift to the Declaration of Independence and the Ninth Amendment and the natural rights to which both refer. This deficiency is in need of correction. But any such correction does not justify the jettisoning of originalism as Vermeule proposes. Nor does Vermeule defend his …

Murals & Mother Nature: Urban Environmental Art In Lisbon Reveals Great Concern And Appreciation For The Environment, Ana Gunther

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Urban art is a novel dimension of the environmental movement. Utilizing highly trafficked areas, urban art has the potential to spread environmental messages both because of the size of the audience and because of the contrast between nature-centered art and the urban context. The paper discusses 15 environmental urban artworks in Lisbon and conducts a visual and thematic analysis. The analysis revealed five themes present in Lisbon: the power and beauty of nature, connection with nature, environmental loss and degradation, waste management, and climate change. The most prevalent theme in Lisbon was the connection with nature, followed by a tie …

The Ethics Of Medical Voluntourism: The Conceptualization And Management Of ‘Doing Harm’ Within The Business, Katelyn Dohler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although medical voluntourism programs are rapidly growing in popularity, deep ethical controversies overly the industry. In particular, understanding how the field of medical voluntourism follows a business model sheds insight on the sources of tension and conflicts of interest that can arise within organizations and the sector as a whole. However, understanding the roles of individual motivations and societal pressures in the development of these ethical controversies is relatively unexplored.

Through an inductive thematic analysis of data gathered from literature review and expert interviews, this project investigates these driving factors behind the rapidly growing business, how these driving factors contribute …

Good Cop/Bad Cop: A Comparative Analysis Of Affiliative And Aggressive Behaviors By Adult Female And Male Olive Baboons With Infants At Randilen Wildlife Management Area, Tanzania, Jesse Elop

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigated the infant-directed behaviors of adult male and female olive baboons in Randilen Wildlife Management Area in April of 2022. The objectives were 1) To determine the difference between olive baboon males and females in frequency and duration of listed behaviors towards infants; 2) To classify the interactions of adult male and adult female olive baboons with infants as either primarily affiliative or primarily aggressive; 3) To determine the frequency of selected behaviors at different reproductive phases (lactation, estrus, neutral, indeterminant) amongst female olive baboons towards infants. A single baboon troop in Randilen Wildlife Management Area was observed …

How Gender Affects Writing: Jackson’S And Fitzgerald’S Portrayals Of Mental Illness, Cryslin A. Ledbetter

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Cryslin Ledbetter's essay, "How Gender Affects Writing: Jackson’s and Fitzgerald’s Portrayals of Mental Illness" examines the similarities and differences between Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. Through a careful comparison of male and female writers, the author analyzes defining factors that effect the final product of each novel.

Aligning Instructional Practices And Direct Instruction To Improve The Social-Emotional Competencies Of Students, Collin Boekhoff

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The action research conducted was brought about by the researcher identifying a need to develop social-emotional skills due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown of schools. Students in this research are in third grade in the researcher’s classroom. The research was conducted over two weeks. Students were given self-assessments to rate their scores. During the research, instructional practices were designed or utilized to match desired social-emotional competencies targeted through direct instruction. Findings from the research indicate that instructional practices aligned to social-emotional competencies grow the self-rated ability levels of students. The research conducted highlighted the need to provide opportunities …

Preschoolers' Engagement In Physical Activity And The Ability To Gauge Risks And Challenges, Teresa Beyer

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research project was to determine the relationship between a three-year-old preschooler’s physical activity engagement and their ability to navigate risks and challenges in the natural playscape play area compared with the traditional playground. The decline of children’s physical activity over the past decade has influenced the research on the attributes of the outdoor space where children can become fully engaged as they navigate the risks and challenges encountered in their environment (Haga, 2021). A mixed-method study was used to determine significant differences in the children's physical activity engagement in a specific play area. Data was …

The Effect Of Quaversel On Preschool Students, Kinsley Heckart

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has become a growing concern and topic in education as students have faced unprecedented times since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. COVID-19 increased several mental health conditions and decreased critical social-emotional skills. The school where this action research took place implemented a new SEL curriculum called QuaverSEL to better address student needs. The participants in this study included two preschool classrooms, with six students aged 3- to 5-years-old. The study took place over four weeks, and interventions took place in 10-15 minute sessions two times a week. Data was collected before and after the implementation of …

School Improvement Plan: Making School Accessible, Angela Duffy

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement project details the importance of disability acceptance, accessibility, and inclusion. The project details multiple types of disabilities including physical, learning, speech, and intellectual disabilities. Several studies covering topics such as knowledge and representation of disability, types of disabilities, acceptance and inclusion, and assistive technology were studied for this project. The purpose of this school improvement plan is to educate administration on how to make schools accessible and inclusive for students and staff with disabilities in the future. The project will define the term disability, explain some needs students may have due to those disabilities, and guide educators …

A Mentoring Program To Strengthen Teacher Efficacy: A School Improvement Plan, Sarah Devries

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research findings show that mentoring programs have lacked consistency and accountability in schools, leaving new teachers behind and unprepared for their first years of teaching. Past studies have also documented beginning teachers' practices, wellbeing, and retention; mentoring programs; school leadership and support; and pre-service and induction programs. With research findings in mind, a school improvement plan was created to revise an existing mentoring program toward greater teacher efficacy. This plan improved a current mentoring program to create a successful induction process for new teachers, along with more consistency and accountability for mentors.

Interventions For At-Risk Student Success, Keanon Lewis

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

At-risk students are a growing group in public education who, by definition, are not expected to meet school goals and need additional support to be successful. These students often have poor school attendance, low academic performance, high deviant behavior rates, and increased levels of substance abuse. Not only are public schools failing to prepare at-risk students for a successful future, but these students also bring their troubles to school and negatively impact other students, further hurting education and communities. This school improvement plan is designed to create a system of interventions to correct this downward trend for current at-risk students, …

Implementing Self-Selected Outdoor Play For Preschoolers, Shannon Jensen

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

As preschool-aged children spend more time using electronic devices and studying academic content, they are spending increasingly less time playing outdoors. Preschoolers spend a large portion of their days participating in sedentary activities. Outdoor play facilitates children' s development and learning in many areas including health, social and emotional skills, and motor skills. Outdoor play has also been shown to assist children with academic learning. Early childhood professionals spend significant amounts of time with young children and are largely responsible for providing outdoor play experiences for the children within their care. This school improvement plan documents the need for an …

Improving Preschoolers’ Number Sense Using Computer Math Games, Justine Hosch

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The purpose of this action research study was to determine whether a preschool child’s number sense skills could be improved by using the iPad application ABCya! Games. The research study was conducted in a preschool classroom of 19 students at an elementary school in central Iowa. A mixed methods approach was used to collect data as students were assessed prior to and after the intervention, and were observed playing the technology-based math games during the intervention period. Given the limitations of the study, the findings of this study determined that the technology did not significantly improve student learning outcomes in …

Project-Based Learning As A Tool For Improved Student Engagement, Benjamin M. Prohl

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Timberline School has found success within the rapidly growing school district of Waukee Community Schools. However, with the increase of students so is there an increase in student needs. Educators are being challenged daily with IEPs, ELPs, ELL, and numerous other student accommodations. Projected-Based Learning offers a methodology which will increases student engagement while maintaining academic rigor. Soft skills, also known as 21st-Century Skills, help prepare the students for a post-education life. Project-Based Learning is by nature a methodology of student-driven course work with built-in differentiation. This includes content integration such as STEM classrooms and Humanities. With the implementation of …

Implementing Nutrition Education During Advisory Periods To Decrease Obesity And Increase Students’ Social Emotional Well-Being, Matthew Niemeier

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Childhood obesity rates are at an all time high, and mental health issues are rising every day. Recently, Carl Sandburg High School has seen a steady increase of the number of students’ with high Body Mass Index (BMI) and mental health struggles. This school improvement plan addresses the impact and role the school environment can have in decreasing students’ BMI and increasing students’ quality of life. The plan contains information on developing a nutrition education intervention program, as well as making changes to the school breakfast and lunch program and the food choices it provides students.

The Effects Of A Flipped Classroom On Student Engagement And Motivation, Tarence Roby

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The Lone Star High School, which is part of the Frisco Independent School District located in Frisco, Texas is looking for ways to better engage and motivate students in the classroom especially since the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way teachers teach and students learn. The problem is that Lone Star High School students lack the motivation to learn and stay engaged in the classroom setting. The purpose of this school improvement plan was to research the flipped classroom teaching model and to educate teachers through professional development about the benefits of using the flipped teaching method of instruction as …

Schoolwide Behavioral Supports For Notre Dame Catholic School: A Pbis Initiative, Meghan Ringoen

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Notre Dame Catholic Elementary School in rural northeast Iowa currently has no framework or plan in place to support students in behavioral success. This school improvement plan outlines steps to be taken toward the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) as a framework for behavioral supports to meet the needs of all students. The plan outlines implementation for the first year of PBIS at Notre Dame focusing on Schoolwide Tier 1 supports. The unique needs of Notre Dame are accounted for in steps to address staff buy-in and misconceptions. Steps taken during implementation include the PBIS Self-Assessment Survey …

Endorsing After Death, Andrew Gilden

William & Mary Law Review

An endorsement is an act of giving one’s public support to a person, product, service, or cause; accordingly, it might seem impossible for someone to make an endorsement after they have died. Nevertheless, posthumous endorsements have become commonplace in social media marketing and have been increasingly embraced by trademark and unfair competition laws. Entities representing Marilyn Monroe, for example, have successfully brought trademark claims for the unauthorized use of Monroe’s name, have successfully brought false endorsement claims under section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, and regularly have promoted products through the Instagram-verified “@marilynmonroe” page. Marilyn Monroe survives today as a …

Abortion, Sterilization, And The Universe Of Reproductive Rights, Melissa Murray

William & Mary Law Review

In recent years, a new narrative associating reproductive rights with the eugenics movement of the 1920s has taken root. As this narrative maintains, in the 1920s, Margaret Sanger, a pioneer of the modern birth control movement, joined forces with the eugenics movement to market family planning measures to marginalized minority communities.

Although the history undergirding this narrative is incomplete and misleading, the narrative itself has flourished as the debate over the continued vitality of reproductive rights has unfolded in the United States. Indeed, in just the last three years, a member of the United States Supreme Court and a number …

Disclosure Of Private Climate Transition Risks, Michael P. Vandenbergh

William & Mary Law Review

This Article identifies a gap in the securities disclosure regime for climate change and demonstrates how filling the gap can improve financial disclosures and accelerate climate change mitigation. Private climate initiatives have proliferated in the last decade. Often led by advocacy groups, these private initiatives have used naming and shaming campaigns and other means to induce investors, lenders, insurers, retail customers, supply chain customers, and employees to pressure firms to engage in climate change mitigation. Based on an empirical assessment of the annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Fortune 100 firms and the largest firms …

Fourth Amendment Infringement Is Afoot: Revitalizing Particularized Reasonable Suspicion For Terry Stops Based On Vague Or Discrepant Suspect Descriptions, Caroline E. Lewis

William & Mary Law Review

In Terry v. Ohio, the Supreme Court granted law enforcement broad power to perform a limited stop and search of someone when an officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is engaged in criminal activity. The resulting “Terry stop” created a way for police officers to investigate a suspicious person without requiring full probable cause for an arrest. The officer need only have “reasonable suspicion supported by articulable facts” based on the circumstances and the officer’s policing “experience that criminal activity may be afoot.” Reasonable suspicion is—by design—a broad standard, deferential to police officers’ judgment. Law enforcement officers …

Abandoned And Derelict Vessels In The Commonwealth: How To Improve Virginia's Adv Program, Anthony Cusato

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Vessels abandoned or lost by their owners can get stuck on a shoreline or in a marsh, aimlessly float adrift, or sink in a waterway. As the number of ADVs [abandoned and derelict vessels] increases, efforts to address them similarly intensify. Typically, state government agencies handle most ADVs, and their approaches to ADV control and removal vary widely across jurisdictions. Virginia faces an increasing number of ADVs and can learn from other states to improve its approach. This paper examines the current Virginia ADV program and considers how it can be amended to make it more effective. It then identifies …

Tribal Resilience And Community Plans: A Primer For Tribal Communities Looking To Create Their Own, Karly Newcomb

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This paper serves as an overview of various Tribal resilience plans across the nation and community planning efforts in Virginia. Although each plan is particularly detailed to address one locality’s specified areas of concern, the plans are fully adaptable to meet any community’s particular needs. Additionally, the paper includes a synthesis of commonalities that these plans share with the goal of providing an overview of resilience plan options and strategies that can be used as a framework for Tribal communities looking to create their own plans.

This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.

Tribal Communities And State And Local Governments: Existing Relationships, Mikayla Mangle

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Tribal and state/local governments have maintained a unique and crucial relationship throughout the United States’ history. Today, state and federally recognized Tribes sometimes face obstacles when attempting to implement projects due to state or local government opposition and vice versa. Federally recognized Tribes are sovereign, self-governing entities on equal footing with state governments. State recognized tribes, on the other hand, may not be equal to state governments, depending on the state laws regarding tribal state recognition. State recognized tribes do not have the same benefits as federally recognized tribes in that the tribe’s status is recognized by the state but …

A Study Of Tribal Communication Frameworks: Some Approaches To Building Partnerships Between Tribal, State, And Local Governments In Virginia, Karly Newcomb, Abigail Sisti

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This paper discusses options the Commonwealth could consider when evaluating decision-making processes that affect tribes in Virginia, with the goal of improving communication and collaboration between tribal, state, and local governments; and will highlight key case studies from other states and localities that provide precedents. The following options are based on a framework of free, prior, and informed consent, which emphasizes self-determination and an individual right to pursue economic, social, and cultural development. This framework can be applied to decision making and projects for any topic. Moving forward, government-to-government communication will be key to developing solutions to pressing issues such …

Vocational Rehabilitation And Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From World War I Veterans, Ethan Schmick

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

This article uses a linked sample of World War I Army veterans from the state of Missouri to study the impact of vocational rehabilitation on labor market outcomes for men wounded and disabled during the war. Veterans’ military service abstracts are linked to the 1940 US Census and a subset are linked to rehabilitation records. This creates a new dataset that contains information on military service, rehabilitation, and labor market outcomes. I find that 70 percent of veterans that were both wounded in action and disabled when discharged from the army participated in the rehabilitation program. These same veterans had …

3, 2, 1: Novel Use Of Clonidine Patch To Treat Tizanidine Withdrawal, Aaron B Deutsch Do, Curtis Flaherty Md, Natalie E. Ebeling-Koning Do, Gillian A. Beauchamp Md, Kenneth D. Katz Md

Department of Emergency Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Future Of International Educational Exchange Is Bright, Allen E. Goodman, Mirka Martel

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

The future of international education and academic student and scholar exchange is bright. Though the term “virtual” transformed from an adverb to a noun since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, our belief is that international educational exchange in all its forms will continue. This essay outlines the importance and need for internationalization on U.S. higher education campuses throughout and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, learnings from the last two years from U.S. higher education institutions, and critical considerations regarding the future of international educational exchange.

Measuring The Intensity Of Mymotivators™ / Whole Brain® Communication In Print Advertising, Tanner Schulz

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Advertising’s purpose is to create a state of mind conducive to purchase (Colley, 1961).

This study seeks to identify, measure, and understand the intrinsic motivators communicated within print advertisements and quantify their intensities. The theory is that ads with more intense motivator content - distributed somewhat evenly across all four quadrants of the Whole Brain ® Model - will be more effective in influencing that state of mind.

This research is the first step in identifying, quantifying, and visualizing motivators communicated within print advertisements. The study analyzed 15 print ads found in contemporary magazines.

The framework for this work is …

The Relationships Between Resilience, Care Environment, And Social-Psychological Factors In Orphaned And Separated Adolescents In Western Kenya, Sarah C. Sutherland, Harry S. Shannon, David Ayuku, David L. Streiner, Olli Saarela, Lukoye Atwoli, Paula Braitstein

Internal Medicine, East Africa

The relationships between care environment, resilience, and social factors in orphaned and separated adolescents and youths (OSAY) in western Kenya are complex and under-studied.Survey responses from OSAY living in Charitable Children’s Institutes (CCI) and family-based care settings (FBS) in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya were used to examine the associations between 1) care environment and resilience; 2) care environment and factors thought to promote resilience (e.g. social, family, and peer support); and 3) resilience and these same resilience-promoting factors, using multivariable linear and logistic regressions. This cross-sectional study included 1202 OSAY (50.4% female) aged 10–26 (mean = 16; SD = 3.5). …