Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Already Too Late, Abigail Logan

Honors College

Already Too Late (Dec. 2021), in its beginning stages, is a novel that explores the intricacies of trauma response within the context of creative writing that appeals to both older and younger readers alike. This thesis consists of a complete story outline, four well-established chapters, and a disquisition that examines my motivations, methodology, and the research related to the content of this project. The novel is a dual-perspective narrative that interweaves 17-year-old Avery Landon’s traumatic experiences with sexual assault with her father Marty’s overwhelming grief and his coming to terms with his failed parenting. When Avery is raped at a …

How Alumnae Of A Feminist Organization During Middle-High School Perceive Their Involvement As Related To Their Academic Self-Concept, Miranda R. Snyder

Honors College

Research has found that youth involvement in activism can benefit sense of self and belief in one’s abilities to make positive change for those involved through unique communication with people who are passionate about the same issue, a sense of personal empowerment, and a deepened sociopolitical consciousness to understand the complexities of social-justice issues.

This qualitative study provided greater understanding of how youth perceive their involvement in a feminist organization related to their academic self-concept in middle- high school. Six alumnae of the Girls Advisory Board (G.A.B.) of Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a Maine-based nonprofit that focuses on the empowerment …

Honors College_Honors 112 Class "Screw This Virus"_Essay, Patrick Fleming

Honors College

Essay by University of Maine student Patrick Fleming for HON 112, featuring COVID-19.

An Evolutionary Approach To Crowdsourcing Mathematics Education, Spencer Ward

Honors College

By combining ideas from evolutionary biology, epistemology, and philosophy of mind, this thesis attempts to derive a new kind of crowdsourcing that could better leverage people’s collective creativity. Following a theory of knowledge presented by David Deutsch, it is argued that knowledge develops through evolutionary competition that organically emerges from a creative dialogue of trial and error. It is also argued that this model of knowledge satisfies the properties of Douglas Hofstadter’s strange loops, implying that self-reflection is a core feature of knowledge evolution. This mix of theories then is used to analyze several existing strategies of crowdsourcing and knowledge …

Room For Opportunity: An Investigation Of Catholic Student Life At The University Of Maine, Jacob Buttarazzi

Honors College

Like most Honors graduates before me, the final work for this thesis became something much different than what I had originally intended. Originally, I wanted to make short videos and blog posts about the nature of religion at UMaine. However, the project evolved into a short documentary focused specifically on Catholic students. I produced, directed, shot, and edited the film. My primary goal was to investigate whether or not Catholic students felt like a minority and how that affected them. I was repeatedly forced to reevaluate my own experience with faith throughout the production process. As a practicing Catholic, I …

Honors College_Honors 112 Class "Screw This Virus"_Alternate Final Exam Prompt, Sharon S. Tisher, Melissa Landenheim

Honors College

Email thread featuring messages from Melissa Ladenheim, Associate Dean, Honors College, University of Maine to the Provost Office and from Dr. Ladenheim to Sharon S. Tisher, Lecturer, School of Economics and Honors College, University of Maine regarding one optional prompt for Tisher's take home exam in the two Honors 112 classes that incorporated COVID-19.

Honors College_Honors 112 Class "Screw This Virus"_Examination & Essay Responses, Katie Quirk, Melissa Ladenheim

Honors College

Honors 112 Final Essay Exam questions and excerpts from student's responses for a class taught by Katie Quirk, Lecturer, Honors College and College of Education, University of Maine.

Also, includes email thread featuring messages from Melissa Ladenheim, Associate Dean, Honors College, University of Maine to the Provost Office and from Dr. Ladenheim to Professor Quirk regarding the course material.

The Tower Of London Becoming A Tourist Attraction In The 19th Century, Catherine Mcdonald

Honors College

Underfunded and decaying, the Tower of London’s outlook at the beginning at the 19^th century was bleak. Then used as a military garrison, its former glory as a palace and prison was mostly forgotten. The Tower of London was transformed into a tourist attraction in the Victorian Age because of the rise of the middle class and the changing values that they had. The middle class valued education and wanted to use their leisure time to further their knowledge. History in particular interested them. Popular culture reflected this change in attitude about a subject previously not looked to for …

A Content Analysis Of Addition And Subtraction From The Math Teacher's Manuals For Orono, Maine And Santiago, Chile, Jordan Houdeshell

Honors College

The purpose of this study is to do a comparative content analysis of two second grade math teachers’ manuals; one from Santiago, Chile and the other from Orono, Maine. I will be looking at and comparing one unit of study in both math teacher’s manuals: a unit on addition and subtraction.

This thesis will explore how the words and language used in the math teacher’s manuals may affect the way teachers teach addition and subtraction content and what is expected from the second-grade learners. For the comparative content analysis I will focus on, sort, and count the verbs that appear …

A Study Of Arabic-Speaking English Language Learner’S Spoken Comprehensibility, Sophia G. A. Lataille

Honors College

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that affect the comprehensibility of oral language produced by English language learners whose first language is Arabic. This study will analyze four separate interviews with English language learners phonetically. Apart from the phonetic analysis, an analysis of supra-segmental errors, syntax, morphology, and semantics will be provided for each speaker. This study will also take into account the perceptions of a range of native speakers of the English language. Through each analysis the goal is to identify the factors that most affect comprehensibility in order to create an education plan for …

Teaching Literature In America: Demonstrating Relevance In The Early Cold War 1945-1963, Jennifer Chalmers

Honors College

This historical research focuses on how literature was taught in American high schools in the early Cold War period (1945-1963) and why it was taught that way. It aims to discover how the Cold War culture of conformity impacted secondary literature education. What were literature teachers’ concerns? What was the historical context of these concerns, and how did they affect methods in the classroom and rhetoric in academic journals? Finally, how did methodology and rhetoric change over time? Research involved gaining familiarity with Early Cold War culture, politics, and events through secondary sources; narrowing to U.S. education in the early …

Humanizing The Humanities: A Historical, Cultural, And Philosophical Examination Of The Disintegration Of Humanities Higher Education, Nicholas Moore

Honors College

This essay is an examination of the multifaceted reasons humanities education in American colleges is losing standing and funding. Historical, cultural, and philosophical perspectives are used to analyze the grounds that have justified the decreasing levels of support for humanities education. Historically, there is no longer any external justification provided, as there was when Sputnik was launched and the Cold War was endured. Culturally, the high culture model of ascension through the accrual of cultural signifiers is no longer the dominant form of raising one’s status, as it was when the humanities could be justified as cultural initiation. Philosophically, market-based …

The Case For Instrumental Music Education: The Academic, Physical, And Social Benefits For Students, Kayla M. Peard

Honors College

Music is an integral part of our lives. There are countless examples of how learning music affects intelligence in students, but that is not music’s only benefit. Music is an academic discipline available in schools in which students’ simultaneously develop cognitive abilities, physical abilities, and social skills. This is particularly evident in the instrumental music classroom.

Through the studying of instrumental music and playing in ensembles, students learn countless lifelong skills that help them develop into intelligent, creative leaders. The cognitive abilities of the students grow and expand the longer they study music. Furthermore, it has been proven that their …