Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of One-On-One Support For English Language Learners Through Collaboration, Compassion, And Engagement, Jocelyn Chiquito

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

English language learners (ELLs) make up a huge student population in schools. As this trend continues, there is a need for educators to support these ELL students academically. Given this, one-on-one support for them is crucial for their academic success. The purpose of this capstone research project is to examine how one-on-one support for ELL students through teacher collaboration, compassion, and student engagement. Through the use of a literature review, a survey of four teachers, and an anonymous survey of sixty-two ELL fourth grade students in a fourth-grade class and two third-grade classes, the result findings revealed that one-on-one from …

Benefits Of Using The Montessori Method To Teach Literacy To Tk-2, Taylor Holter

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this senior capstone is to examine the benefits of using the Montessori method to teach literacy to TK-2 grade children. This encompasses children ranging from ages four to eight. Through the use of literature review on how the Montessori method developed, reviews of records, and interviews with Montessori professionals, the result findings indicate that the use of the Montessori method to teach literacy does indeed benefit TK-2 children. In addition, children educated in the Montessori method have a deeper understanding of literacy and possess the knowledge and skills of reading and writing when introducing the concepts of …

Police And Their Relationship With The Public, Kevin Hebri

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research essay aims to understand some of the social themes relevant to issues present between the public and the police institutions of the United States. Existing literature about this topic has noted the decentralized nature of law enforcement in the United States and the differences in policies and procedures used by different police departments and agencies. The existing literature has also cited the importance of police officer discretion and the situational factors that contribute to their decision-making. Occupational stress, and characteristics of a civilian involved in a police interaction, influence the decision-making process for police officers. This research is …

Impact Of Culture On Students’ Academic Achievement In The Classroom, Heidy Lizama Portillo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone research seeks to reflect how culture can impact student academic achievement. Understanding that culture has many meanings is critical to have an insight into how it can impact student, classroom, and teacher-student interactions. To carry this, four teachers/ Professors were interviewed, and student surveys were created. Understanding that culture is part of students' identity is essential, also how family finances influence them, a welcoming environment, and creating relationships of care and trust impact students' academic achievement. Finding a way to bring everyone together for cultural understanding is essential, and understanding how culturally sustainable pedagogies can help students. Culture …

Importance Of Guidance Counselors On High School Student Success In College And Career Readiness, Mia Miller

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

High school guidance counselors are a valuable asset in the education system, and support their students in a variety of ways. An important aspect of high school is the emphasis on college and career readiness for students’ post-secondary career goals where guidance counselors are the main resource for. Guidance counselors are the least understood within the education system and are not given enough credit for the types of services they provide to ensure student success. The purpose of this senior capstone research is to highlight and examine the role of high school guidance counselors and their impact on student success …

The Decline In African-American Players In Major League Baseball, Marissa Ibarra Dorr

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

After Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, Major League Baseball saw an increase in African-American participation. Despite numerous Black superstars who have played the game, participation has declined over time. The decline became evident to many during the 2022 World Series; zero active African-American players were on either team's roster.

This project aims to uncover the various factors contributing to the decline in African-American participation in baseball. It also serves as a way to highlight the stories of specific Black players. Statistical evidence and articles highlight the decline in participation and Black players' stories. The final product was …

High School Student Athletes: If Stress Is The “Lock” Is Communication The “Key”, Bailey Julian

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project was meant to analyze the possible issues high school student-athletes may face academically as well as mentally while in school. This issue is important to note because there is an increase in students participating in sports and the offered school support should reflect the growing population. An argument that was found was the possible overlook of the mental well-being of the student-athletes if they are academically succeeding or are accomplished athletes. The primary stakeholder's perspectives chosen were current high school student-athletes because they can provide insight into the current issues that student-athletes face. Three …

Effects Of Covid-19 On Classroom Behavior Of Elementary School Students, Emma Ballesteros

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of this capstone project is to inform parents, current and future educators about the harms that COVID-19 has brought into the classroom after the period of isolation. During this period, families were forced to stay indoors for their safety. Parents had to juggle between their jobs, their children, and themselves. All of these were going on while a child should be focusing on learning in the classroom. Through extensive literature review and interviews with elementary school teachers, the result finding indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic is the cause of student behaviors in the classroom that have affected many …

Parental Involvement: Breaking Barriers For Immigrants In (K-12) Education, Noe Tinajero

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on parent involvement for non-English speaking parents and the roadblocks they face. This is an important issue because parental involvement is important in fostering academic success for students. The primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were non-English speaking parents, teachers, and former students. These stakeholder perspectives were chosen given the demographic location of the schools and population. A predominantly immigrant and Hispanic population paved the way for collecting data and understanding the issue. Three themes/action options emerged from an analysis of the interview data.: Cultural Linguistic Services, Teachers Becoming Digital Citizens, and Increasing Resources for …

What’S The Goal: Increasing Sports Opportunities For Youth From Low Socioeconomic Communities, Nayeli Sandoval Gallo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is researching and learning about accessibility, availability, and affordability for low-income families to enroll their children in sports. This is an important issue for families and children because sports impact youth’s lives in a positive way. An argument is made that children at an early age have significant outcomes for general health and physical well-being. The primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were coaches, students, parents, and educators because they are all part of a child’s educational journey and childhood experiences. After interviewing administrators, teachers, and students three different action options were thoroughly discussed to enhance …

Academy-Based Learning: The High School Education You Wish You Had, Desiree Gomez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on the impact of high school academies on student success. This is important because high school academies provide students with cross-curricular experiences related to a specific pathway or field they are interested. An evidence-based argument is offered that high school academies provide specialized programs catering to students' interests and career aspirations. These academies provide students with a comprehensive and challenging curriculum that enhances their academic performance and prepares them for college and career readiness. By focusing on a particular subject or field, students receive a high-quality education that fosters their skills and knowledge in a specific …

Growing Leaders: Empowering Youth Through Enhanced Ffa Programs, Kristen Measell

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on the benefits of an FFA program and how it could be improved. This is an important issue for current and future FFA students because the program is a basis for future leaders in the industry. An argument is made that students who join their high school FFA program will gain tools and experiences they will use throughout the rest of their lives. The primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were previous and current FFA students because they have not only been through the program but are reaping its benefits in their current lives. Three …

High School Student Athletes: If Stress Is The Lock Is Communication The Key?, Danielle Carter

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project was meant to analyze the possible issues high school student-athletes may face academically as well as mentally while in school. This issue is important to note because there is an increase in students participating in sports and the offered school support should reflect the growing population. An argument that was found was the possible overlook of the mental well-being of the student-athletes if they are academically succeeding or are accomplished athletes. The primary stakeholder's perspectives chosen were current high school student-athletes because they are able to provide insight into the current issues that student-athletes …

The Social Dilemma: The Effects Of Social Media On Learning In High School Classrooms, Bailey Goswick

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This Capstone Project focuses on How Social Media Affects Learning in High School Classrooms. This is an important issue because Social Media is ubiquitous in the lives of students, and this flows into their classroom learning as well. Social Media has been found to affect students grades, attention span classroom behavior, and so much more. The primary stakeholder perspectives for this project are hearing from current high school students, high school teachers, and high school alumni who have graduated from high school within the last five years. Based on the stakeholders perspectives and data analysis, there has been a consensus …

Seat Of Choice: The Advantages Of Flexible Seating, Maddison Dematteo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is the advantages of Flexible Seating. This is important because students thrive off of choice in the classroom and Flexible Seating offers many ways for a student’s success. It is argued that teachers should implement Flexible Seating because of the increase in collaboration, student engagement, and overall success. The primary stakeholder perspective chosen was a veteran teacher who has implemented Flexible Seating and their fifth grade class, this is because of their experiences with this classroom design. Three themes emerged from an analysis of the data and were explored as ways to address the …

If Stress Is The Lock Is Communication The Key, Riley Romero, Bailey Julian, Danielle Carter

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project was meant to analyze the possible issues high school student-athletes may face academically as well as mentally while in school. This issue is important to note because there is an increase in students participating in sports and the offered school support should reflect the growing population. An argument that was found was the possible overlook of the mental well-being of the student-athletes if they are academically succeeding or are accomplished athletes. The primary stakeholders perspectives chosen were current high school student-athletes because they are able to provide insight into the current issues that student-athletes …

Hispanic Human Capital And Financial Aid Application In The West Census Region, Benjamin Lundy-Paine

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

As of 2021, very few Hispanic residents in the United States held a college degree in comparison to non-Hispanic residents. Research has shown that, particularly for Hispanic students, financial aid increases college persistence. Hispanic Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submission rates rank among the lowest, preventing many Hispanic students from receiving financial assistance. This issue is most prevalent West Census Region (WCR), where there is the highest concentration of Hispanic residents. To understand what barriers may be preventing Hispanic submission in the WCR this Capstone used logistic regression models to analyze student-level data from the National Center for …

Classroom Management In Our Brave New World, Raquel Spaulding

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of my Capstone Project is Classroom Management in the K-8 classroom. It is an important issue because classroom management is a fundamental part of providing a safe and enriched learning experience for students. An argument can be made that without consistent and effective classroom management strategies, a student’s learning experience can be challenging. The primary stakeholders for this project are the leadership team, teachers, and students of the school. Three teachers and one student were interviewed, and three emerging themes were established. After careful consideration, the plan of action combined all of the themes that may inspire educators …

Identification Of Lacking Support Systems Relevant To The Job Performance Of School Counselors, Claire Patricia Selna

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone report displays a comprehensive report about the struggles and demands of school counselors and how various factors such as: the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) code of ethics and standards, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and school counselor advocacy and support, all play a part in school counselors daily lives. This report also describes the use of intersectionality theory with all of the previously stated factors, allowing researchers to better understand the complexity of the role of school counselor. Knowing these factors, this report asks: What support systems most impact the job performance of school counselors? In order to …

Academy Based Learning: The High School Education You Wish You Had, Derek Gomez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This Capstone Project focuses on the impact of high school academies on student success. This is important because high school academies provide students with cross-curricular experiences related to a specific pathway or field they are interested in. An evidence-based argument is offered that high school academies provide specialized programs catering to students' interests and career aspirations. These academies provide students with a comprehensive and challenging curriculum that enhances their academic performance and prepares them for college and career readiness. By focusing on a particular subject or field, students receive a high-quality education that fosters their skills and knowledge in a …

Raising Cyberbullying Awareness Among Middle School Students, Beshoy Bebawi

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Cyberbullying can significantly impact students, including those in 7th grade; some ways that cyber bullying can affect 7th-grade students include emotional distress, academic problems, and self-esteem issues (Campbell, 2016). Because of the adverse effects of cyberbullying on young adolescents, there is a need for services that teach young people about the dangers and consequences of cyberbullying and how to recognize and respond to it. Therefore, I have created a one-day lesson addressing cyberbullying with 7th grade at Los Arboles middle school in Marina, California.

A Cultural Analysis Of Ethnic Identity, Socialization, And Familism From The Perspective Of Latino Csumb Students, Angelica Gutierrez Del Toro

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone aims to study the gender differences within Latino communities from the perspective of California State University, Monterey Bay students and whether these gender differences affect their ethnic identity/pride. This research intends on exploring two questions 1) Are there gender differences among college-going students and the way they are socialized to understand their ethnic identity? 2) If so, Are the respondents' ethnic identity index score and Familism index scores influenced based on their gender? These research questions will be tested by a convenience sample survey by two replicated survey scales. The first replicated study involved surveying 127 Latino adults …

Roboretrieve--In A Dual Role As A Hand-Held Surgical Robot And A Collaborative Robot End-Effector To Perform Spillage-Free Specimen Retrieval In Laparoscopy, Siqin Dong

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Recent advances in surgical robotics attempt to overcome limitations of manual surgery by augmenting the surgeon’s capabilities while performing suturing, incision, retraction, and retrieval tasks. This dissertation presents novel approaches for spillage-free specimen retrieval in confined spaces, targeted toward the surgical domain of minimally invasive robotic surgery. The retrieval task involves extraction of a resected specimen, residing in the abdominal cavity, completely outside of the patient’s body. A major challenge in this context is the spillage of content being retrieved, which may cause dissemination of malignancy. To address this challenge, this dissertation develops RoboRetrieve, a portable hand-held robot that …

Influences Of Chronic Stress On Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Anxiety, Depression, And The Microbiome, Julia A. Semaan

Masters Theses

IBS effects approximately 5% of the world’s population with symptoms ranging from unexplainable constipation to daily abdominal pain. Though treatment options are available and have been proven beneficial for certain individuals, discovering the root cause of IBS has been difficult to accomplish due to the variety of symptoms that differ from case to case. This study aims to increase understanding of the influence that chronic stress has on irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, and the microbiome in the college-age population since this group is likely to experience daily stressors, anxiety- and depressive-like thoughts, as well as IBS symptoms. Current research …

The Civil War Conflict Between Anglophones/Francophones In The Northwest And Southwest Regions Of Cameroon, Myriam Jeter

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The Civil War conflict between Anglophones and Francophones, also known as the Ambazonia war, is a long-standing issue that continues to plague the people living in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. This paper explores the colonial history of the nation, the cause of the ongoing conflict, the reasons for its escalation, and how it gave rise to the Ambazonian separatists who want to have a separate nation called the Ambazonia Republic.

This study contributes to conflict understanding in two ways. First, it sheds light on the cultural and economic impacts of internally generated crises in a country. Second, …

A Leftist Political Surge: How An Authoritarian Past Helped Spawn A Modern Political Movement In Spain And Portugal, Jared Sykes

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Since the 2008 financial crisis ravaged the EU, Spain and Portugal struggled economically to recover, especially as forces in the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) enforced bailout packages conditional on the implementation of austerity. Additionally, Spanish and Portuguese society have continuously struggled with a history of authoritarian legacies, of the Franco and Salazar dictatorships that ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 50 years. As outrage continued, protest movements, most notably the Spanish 15-M Movement, fueled voter dissatisfaction. Eventually, many prominent figures from the protest movement founded or brough momentum to left-wing political forces, …

A Magneto-Rheological Platform To Dynamically Control Afterload In Engineered Micro Heart Muscles, David Schuftan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death is the United States, accounting for nearly 1 in 5 deaths. Many types of cardiovascular disease are linked to the mechanical forces placed on the heart. However, how these mechanical forces exactly affect the cellular biology of the heart is not well defined. In vitro models using cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells enable researchers to develop medium throughput systems to study cardiac mechanobiology at the cellular level. Previous models have been developed to enable the study of mechanical forces such as cardiac afterload. However, most of these models require …

Understanding Societal Values Of Chatgpt, Yidan Tang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

As Large language models (LLMs) become increasingly pervasive in various domains, it is crucial to ensure that their outputs adhere to societal values and ethical considerations. In this thesis, we investigate the alignment of ChatGPT, a recent state-of-the-art large language model developed by OpenAI, with societal values. Specifically, we define the problem of societal values of LLMs and assemble a representative collection of 7 datasets covering 4 topics related to societal values. In-context learning techniques are applied and appropriate prompts are designed. The performance of each dataset is measured using a standardized evaluation system focused on accuracy. We then display …

Evaluating The Problem Solving Abilities Of Chatgpt, Fankun Zeng

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This thesis addresses the need for a fair evaluation of language models' problem solving abilities by presenting a unified evaluation framework for ChatGPT on 16 problem solving datasets (e.g., NaturalQA, HellaSwag, MMLU, etc.). We evaluate the model's performance using F1, exact match, and quasi-exact match metrics and find that ChatGPT is highly accurate in solving tasks that require commonsense and knowledge. However, we also identify truncated text bias and few-shot scenarios as challenges that may impact ChatGPT's performance. Our research highlights the importance of standardizing datasets and developing a unified evaluation system for the fair evaluation of language models. Overall, …

Iot Health Devices: Exploring Security Risks In The Connected Landscape, Abasi-Amefon Obot Affia, Hilary Finch, Woosub Jung, Issah Abubakari Samori, Lucas Potter, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) spans decades, and the same can be said for its inclusion in healthcare. The IoT is an attractive target in medicine; it offers considerable potential in expanding care. However, the application of the IoT in healthcare is fraught with an array of challenges, and also, through it, numerous vulnerabilities that translate to wider attack surfaces and deeper degrees of damage possible to both consumers and their confidence within health systems, as a result of patient-specific data being available to access. Further, when IoT health devices (IoTHDs) are developed, a diverse range of …