Digital Commons Network^™

Computer Science For Middle School (Cs4ms), Melani Loney, Lisa Steffian, Tancy J. Vandecar-Burdin

Center for Educational Partnerships Publications

This session will discuss the project Computer Science for Middle School and the associated findings. This Virginia Department of Education funded project provides computer science Professional Development opportunities for in-service teachers, located in Southeastern Virginia, who instruct students in middle school grades 6- 8. Participating teachers learn to integrate computer science standards into core and elective content through online, asynchronous microcredentials and in-person Summer Workshops. The presentation will include project findings and next steps including teacher efficacy for implementing the computer science standards before and after completing the microcredentials and their students’ attitudes about computer science.

Editorial: Invention Education And Stem: Perspectives And Possibilities, Joanna K. Garner, Shiri D. Gandhi, Adam V. Maltese

Center for Educational Partnerships Publications

[Introduction] Generating solutions for society's complex problems requires a diverse workforce dedicated to technological and social innovation, and sustained efforts toward invention: the process of creating new, novel, and useful products to overcome challenges that affect quality of life and productivity (Couch et al. 2019). Historically, opportunities for K-12 students to develop inventive acumen have been rare and inequitably distributed, partly because educators were expected to provide such experiences without the support of professional development, curricular materials, and instructional examples. These issues have become the focus of an emergent field called Invention Education (IvE). IvE uses trans-disciplinary, equity-oriented …

Clarification Of Public Health Pathways Toward Clinical Careers: A Pilot Study Describing A Benchmark Analysis Project, Elizabeth A. Brown, Melissa Feliciano, Daniel Martinez

Health Behavior, Policy & Management Faculty Publications

Introduction: Undergraduate public health programs have adapted the required basic sciences based on medical and technological advances and the needs of the public health workforce. We aim to demonstrate how a benchmark analysis project was used to improve curriculum and develop a model where basic sciences in public health can be used to build pathways to clinical graduate programs like medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant, etc.

Methods: Authors conducted a benchmark analysis of Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) Degrees (or public health-related degrees) in the southern region of the United States (US) to explore required basic sciences. Authors searched …

Error In The Loop: How Human Mistakes Can Improve Algorithmic Learning, Ryan W. Copus, Cait Spackman, Hannah Laqueur

Faculty Works

Algorithms often outperform humans in making decisions, in large part because they are more consistent. Despite this, there remains widespread demand to keep a “human in the loop” to address concerns about fairness and transparency. Although evidence suggests that most human overrides are errors, we argue these errors can provide value: they generate new data from which algorithms can learn. To remain accurate, algorithms must be updated over time, but data generated solely from algorithmic decisions is biased, including only cases selected by the algorithm (e.g., individuals released on parole). Training on this algorithmically selected data can significantly reduce predictive …

Using A Token Economy In A First-Grade Classroom To Increase On-Task Behavior, Ana Kesler, Emma Preston, Milad Najafichaghabouri, Kristen R. Rolf

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

Token economies are an adaptable intervention used effectively in many settings to improve behavior, including schools. When used in schools, students are often given a board or chart on which to collect tokens (i.e., small items or marks) for desired behavior(s). Tokens are then exchanged for students’ preferred rewards. This chapter presents a case study of token economies implemented with five students who were unresponsive to class-wide (Tier 1) strategies in a general education first-grade classroom. The intervention was designed and implemented by a paraeducator who worked collaboratively with the classroom teacher to select students, develop intervention procedures, collect and …

Implementing Reading Mastery As A Component Of Tiered Literacy Instruction, Kristen R. Rolf, Peter Ehlen, Teresa Buttars

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

Despite attempts at reform over the decades, many students with and without disabilities in the United States struggle to learn to read. Bear River Charter School is a K-6 public charter school in Utah that has effectively used Reading Mastery Signature Edition to teach most students to read at grade-level by the end of third grade. Data from the 2022-2023 school year show that over 80% of students in kindergarten, over 70% of students in Grades 1 and 2, and over 90% of students in Grade 3 met grade-level reading benchmarks by the end of the year. This chapter describes …

Between Prompt And Page: Writing, Reflection, And The Rise Of A.I. Collaboration, Mallory Bowen

Master's Projects

This Capstone examines how generative AI reshapes the act of writing by treating co-writing itself as a site of inquiry. Using an autoethnographic method, I document my collaboration with ChatGPT across months of drafting, tracing how the model’s predictions influence tone, syntax, and rhetorical choice. The project argues that large language models are not neutral tools but participants in a shared writing process shaped by the linguistic hierarchies embedded in their training data. Through examples of prompting, revision, and negotiation, I show how AI leans toward standardized English, simplifies sentence structure, and reproduces dominant linguistic norms, often in ways that …

Influence Of Multi-Species Data On Gene-Disease Associations In Substance Use Disorder Using Random Walk With Restart Models, Erich J. Baker, Everest U. Castaneda, Sharon Moore, Jason A. Bubier, Stephen K. Grady, Michael A. Langston, Elissa J. Chessler

Funded Scholarship

A major challenge lies in discovering, emphasizing, and characterizing human gene-disease and gene-gene associations. The limitations of data on the role of human gene products in substance use disorder (SUD) makes it challenging to transition from genetic associations to actionable insights. The integration of data from multiple diverse sources, including information-dense studies in model organisms, has the potential to address this gap. We demonstrate a modified performance of the Random Walk with Restart algorithm when multi-species data is integrated in the heterogeneous network within the context of SUD. Additionally, our approach distinguishes among disparate pathways derived from the Kyoto Encyclopedia …

Variation In Maternal Alkaloid Provisioning And Its Effects On Antimicrobial Defense In Tadpoles Of The Poison Frog Oophaga Pumilio, Erica Berent

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Pain Neuroscience Knowledge And Attitudes Among Students: A Cross-Sectional Study, Sue F. Curfman, William J. Best, Molly T. Williams, Kathryn Schmidt, Amy Rasmussen, Gary P. Austin

Funded Scholarship

Purpose: Healthcare education programs often provide limited training in contemporary pain neuroscience, leaving future professionals ill-prepared to address the pervasive and biopsychosocial problem of chronic pain. Exploration of the level of understanding of contemporary pain neuroscience and the attitudes toward people in pain among university students may help educators identify appropriate roles for students in pain-related interprofessional education. This study assessed and compared knowledge of contemporary pain neuroscience and attitudes and beliefs toward individuals experiencing pain among university students.  

Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Methods: 284 undergraduate and graduate, healthcare and non-healthcare students completed the revised Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire and …

Genetic Influences On Individual Variability In Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla) Social Behavior, Hadley Mueller-Hill

Master's Theses

While primates are considered highly social animals, the evolutionary origins and mechanisms underlying their social behaviors remain unclear. Not only do they exhibit an extensive range of behaviors, but individuals within the same species can also vary widely in their social interactions. Genetics play a significant role in shaping these individual variations in behavior; multiple genetic variants have been associated with differences in social behavior in mammals. Examples of these include MAOA and OXTR genes, which influence the expression of behaviors associated with antisocial and prosocial temperaments. Genetic polymorphisms affect primate interactions, impacting an individual’s ability to maintain its status …

Vanishing Of Local Cohomology With Applications To Hodge Theory, Scott Hiatt

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Let H = ((H, F •), L) be a polarized variation of Hodge structure on a smooth quasi-projective variety U . By M. Saito’s theory of mixed Hodge modules, the variation of Hodge structure H can be viewed as a polarized Hodge module M ∈ HM (U ). Let X be a compactification of U , and j : U ↪→ X is the natural map. In this paper, we use local cohomology with mixed Hodge module theory to study j+M ∈ DbM HM (X). In particular, we study the graded pieces of the de Rham complex GrF p DR(j+M) …

Consequences Of Fire And Grazing To Conservation Of Arthropod Functional Diversity In A Protected Afrotropical Savanna, Ludzula Mukwevho, Tatenda Dalu, Mduduzi Ndlovu, Frank Chidawanyika

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Fires and grazing disrupt the diversity and composition of biological organisms and their functions in the savannas. In the current study, we assessed the impact of fire and grazing intensities on the abundance, species richness and assemblages of eight functional groups of arthropods in Kruger National Park. Pitfalls and active searches were used to collect arthropods at the experimental burnt plots (EBPs) and grazed plots that were undisturbed, minimally or heavily disturbed in Mopane and Skukuza regions. Omnivores constituted the highest proportion (40 %) of individuals, whilst detritivores, granivores, hematophagous, herbivores, nectarivores, predators and scavengers constituted between 0.5 % and …

How Artificial Intelligence Will Shape Securities Regulation, Gabriel Rauterberg

Other Publications

How will the increasing prevalence and sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI) change the doctrine and practice of securities law? My main thesis is that it will push securities regulation toward a more systems-oriented approach. This approach will replace securities law's emphasis, in areas like manipulation, on forms of enforcement targeted at specific individuals and accompanied by punitive sanctions with a greater focus on ex ante rules designed to shape an ecology of actors and information.

Chironomids Shed Light On Organic Matter Dynamics In Macroinvertebrate Communities In Prairie Pothole Lakes In West-Central Minnesota, Usa, Tracey M. Anderson, Sarah G. Winikoff, Michael L. Sorensen, Melissa L. Rudeen

Biology Publications

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) in North America is characterized by a high density of wetlands that can range from temporary habitats to small lakes. Much of the PPR has been converted to agriculture resulting in outright habitat loss, eutrophication, sedimentation, introduction of agrochemicals, and the introduction of invasive plants and animals. We compared two prairie pothole lakes, Cottonwood Lake and Page Lake, to assess the functional roles and trophic structure of the macroinvertebrate communities in this highly altered landscape. We collected macroinvertebrate samples from littoral and profundal regions of each lake with an Ekman grab sampler in winters of …

Transformative Impact Of Ai And Digital Technologies On The Fintech Industry: A Comprehensive Review, Soudeh Pazouki, Behdad Jamshidi, Armia Jalali, Arya Tafreshi

Finance Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies on the financial technology (FinTech) industry and demonstrates how AI- enabled strategies are increasing the ability of businesses not only to grow, but also to better serve their customers through operational efficiencies. But as immersive as the technological advancements may be, they present challenges in connection with increasingly complicated licensing regulations and a constantly evolving technological landscape. We examine the way AI and algorithms are streamlining workflows, enhancing productivity and expanding access to financial resources for traditionally under – served populations. The paper also discusses the macroeconomic implications …

Middle School Teachers’ Integration Of Artificial Intelligence Tools And Its Impact On Learning Outcomes In A Suburban School District, Donica Thompson-Chan

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study examined middle school teachers’ adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, emphasizing how perceptions, instructional support, and integration strategies shape classroom use. The sample comprised 56 teachers across grades 6–8, representing multiple subject areas. Quantitative analyses revealed notable trends by teaching experience and subject specialization. Teachers with 0–5 years of experience reported the highest mean AI use scores, while those with more than 16 years of experience reported the lowest. Subject-specific differences were also observed, with mathematics teachers demonstrating the most favorable perceptions of AI tools and English teachers reporting the least …

Navigating Wastewater: Minnesota Mining Wastewater Permit Challenges And Evolving Compliance Standards, Madelaine Adamich

Journal of Earth and Life Science

February of 2021 marked the beginning of Minnesota clearly establishing that groundwater qualifies as a Class 1 water in a legal battle involving United States Steel, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, WaterLegacy, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and eventually the Minnesota Supreme Court (MNSC). Minnesota has a water classification system, as required by the federal Clean Water Act, with 7 classes of use. Class 1 waters are waters used for domestic consumption (MPCA 4, n.d.). According to Minnesota Statute § 7050.0220, the acceptable level for sulfate is 250 mg/L in Class 1 …

Aquatic Invertebrate Populations In Roadside Wetlands In Relation To Water Characteristics, Ellen P. Isakson

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The continual habitat destruction and draining of wetland systems makes the need to understand the ecology of roadside wetlands all the more necessary. Roadside wetlands provide valuable habitat to countless aquatic invertebrates, which can provide insight into the health of the wetland system due to their diversity. The objective of this study was to analyze the populations of aquatic invertebrates in roadside wetlands in relation to water characteristics such as pH, salinity, conductivity, water depth and temperature, and dissolved oxygen. This was done by collecting samples of invertebrate populations from roadside wetlands, in addition to data on water quality characteristics …

Don’T Trust The Vibes: A Better Test For Pop Music Copyright Infringement, Lauryn M. Sparger

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Introductory Biology Ii Lab Manual, Melissa A. Storm

OER Collection

Explore the diversity of life on the planet Earth with a focus on organisms found in the Southeast of the United States, examine the evolutionary relationships between organisms and the ways in which scientists are currently expanding their understanding of those relationships every day through this BIO 102 Lab Manual

How to use this book: 

Each unit of this book represents the information you will learn during a week of lab class. Within each unit you will find types of information to help you learn the content.

At the beginning of each unit, you will find lists of reinforced skills …

Capturing High-Impact Weather In A Fine-Scale Climate Simulation Using The Model For Prediction Across Scales - Atmosphere (Mpas-A) V 7.0, James George Digilio Jr.

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The research a long-term, high-resolution (15-km) global simulation using the Model for Prediction Across Scales – Atmosphere (MPAS-A) version 7.0, a community atmospheric modeling platform with unique capabilities for weather and climate research. This simulation spans 30 continuous years, covering water years 1990 through 2019 (i.e., 1 October 1989–30 September 2019) and is initialized with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v5 (ERA5). Sea surface temperatures and sea ice are prescribed and updated daily using the fine-scale (0.05°) Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Ice Analysis (OSTIA). To date, this is one of the few high-resolution MPAS-A simulations at …

2024-2025 Graduate Catalog, Sacred Heart University

Graduate & Undergraduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Usu Extension Sustainability Permaculture Initiative: 2025 Impact Report, Natalia Bustos, Roslynn Brain Mccann, Jake Powell

Extension Research

• Permaculture Statistics
• Harvest Donations (Organic)
• Participant Response
• 2025 Monthly Educational Events
• Publications
• USU Extension Workshops & Events

Water, Sanitation, And Hygiene (Wash) Services Among Households, Healthcare Facilities And Schools In Rural Ghana, Samantha Gillis

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections affect more than 1 billion people globally, particularly in low-income areas with poor sanitation. While mass drug administration is a common control strategy, long-term elimination requires a broader, integrated approach with an emphasis on sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices, community-led initiatives, and economic development. Currently, there are critical gaps in understanding the impacts of WASH infrastructure in households, healthcare facilities, and schools on hookworm prevalence, specifically in rural Ghana. Methods: Using qualitative surveys, we characterized the current WASH landscape among households, healthcare facilities and schools in the Bono East region of Ghana. Hookworm …

2025 Alumni Survey, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Assessment Center Reports

Alumni Survey reports produced by the SWOSU Assessment Center.

Examining Short Term Drainage Impacts To Soil Health In Hydric And Non-Hydric Soils Of Waseca County, Minnesota, Ely Hartl

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Subsurface drainage is implemented throughout the Midwest United States to remove excess moisture from soil to enhance crop growth. Hydric soils are ubiquitous throughout Minnesota and are commonly drained due to their historically saturated conditions. Changing a soil's hydrology can impact its formation and properties. The alteration of physical, biological, and chemical soil properties can occur to both hydric and non-hydric soils, impacting overall soil health. The purpose of this study is to examine the short-term effects of tile drainage on the soil health of hydric and non-hydric soils in southern Minnesota. Research methods include: 1) collect soil-sediment cores to …

Hydrogen Peroxide Production From Light-Driven Water Oxidation Via Nickel Oxide-Titanium Dioxide Heteronanocrystals, Mahfuz Ahammed Swadhen

Dissertations and Theses

High dependence on fossil fuels for energy carries risks for the environment, health, energy, and geopolitical stability. One of the solutions to address this is solar energy utilization, and the use of semiconductors for photocatalytic water splitting is a tantalizing prospect. An n-type semiconductor TiO2 combined with p-type NiO producing a heteronanojunction shows effective light-driven oxidation of H2O into H2O2. We developed a synthetic method to attach NiO nanoparticles on the surface of anatase TiO2 nanorods. We characterized the materials with UV-visible spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy. We immobilized the HNCs on fumed silica and removed organic surfactants …

"The Teaching Might Actually Take Some Root:" Insights From Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Civic Learning Experiences, Laura H. Darolia, Daniela K. Digiacomo, Carly Muetterties

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None

Intersecting Faith And History: How Religion Is Portrayed In The Great Lakes States' Educational Standards, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Anna M. Yonas

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None