Education Commons^™

Continuing The Cultural Competence Conversation – Voting Results, Western Libraries Diversity Committee, Rebecca M. Marrall

Libraries and Learning Commons Diversity Committee Documents

These recommendations – which emerged from the September 2014 “Understanding the 21^st Century Library Patron” event – were voted upon by library professionals at Western Washington University Libraries during an internal event held on Friday, October 3^rd, 2014.

Understanding The 21st Century Library Patron – Event Recommendations, Western Libraries Diversity Committee, Rebecca M. Marrall

Libraries and Learning Commons Diversity Committee Documents

These recommendations are the synopsis of an internal workshop held on Thursday, September 4^th, 2014. Titled “Understanding the 21^st Century Library Patron,” this four-hour event, composed of both educational seminar and small group workshop portions, focused upon examining the 2012 ACRL Diversity Standards for Cultural Competency for library professionals in the United States.

The Gender Wage Gap And Child Poverty: A Statistical Analysis, Kristine Farwell

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Child poverty is an immense societal problem because of the unnecessary hardship it creates for the children who experience it, and the ways in which it negatively impacts others as well. Poor children experience malnutrition, lower academic performance, and higher death rates than children not in poverty. In addition, poverty continues to follow them throughout their life time. There are additional negative results for society as well. Higher healthcare costs and lower productivity can harm the economy. Communities with high child poverty levels also experience additional education and interaction challenges (Griggs and Walker 2008). Reducing child poverty would not only …

A Comparison Of Two Statistical Tests For Interaction In Genetic Data, Clair Smith

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper focuses on statistical methods that test for the effect of a single gene in a way that accounts for interaction with other genes. Such tests of association can be difficult since there may be many genetic and environmental factors that contribute to an effect. A gene is a hereditary DNA sequence that codes for a specific protein. A locus is a gene’s location in the DNA sequence of nucleotides (A, T, G, and C) and an allele is a specific version of a gene that has multiple forms. The existence of interactions between loci makes it difficult to …

Mechanical Testing Of Artificial Muscles, Maggie Walsh

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This document focuses on the design and fabrication of a low cost instrument to measure the strain of the artificial muscles being researched and developed by Dr. Amanda Murphy and her team at Western Washington University. The instrument utilizes a laser displacement meter to measure the movement of the artificial muscles during actuation. All project objectives and goals were successfully met, and all deliverables completed. Instrument quality and strain testing results are analyzed and recommendations for future work are suggested based on the results of the project.

The World As Seen Through Award-Winning Photos: How Photojournalism Contests Contribute To Geographical Stereotypes, Brooke Warren

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Literature confirms that most award-winning photojournalism contains violence, conflict, or suffering. This is a qualitative study of single-image first prize winners from Pictures of the Year International and World Press Photos from 2004-2014 to determine what themes were most common and how those themes relate to geographic location and the photographer's nationality.

Jodie Dallas Has Left The Closet: Television’S First Regularly Occurring Gay Male Character And What He Had To Say About His Time, Brittnie Bigelow

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An in-depth analysis of the show "Soap", and the first regularly occurring gay character on television, Jodie Dallas. The parody show has many political undertones, and Jodie says particular things about the gay rights movement in the 1970s.

Stuttering Therapy Via Telepractice In Kenya: An Overview, Michaela D. Stevenson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

For this project, I decided to look into the possibility of using telepractice as a method for providing speech and language services to people in remote areas of Kenya. For information and experience regarding working in Kenya with Kenyan people, I partnered with Dr. Debra Akre, the founder of Tembo Trading Education Project (TTEP). TTEP is a non-profit organization based in Bellingham, WA that has founded self-sustaining schools and businesses in Kenya. TTEP also promotes critical-thinking based education and actively works to improve critical- thinking skills in the children they interact with.

Toe Running: The Good, The Fad, And The Ugly, Molly Quinn-Shea

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Compared to most other animal on the planet, humans are pathetic runners. We are not graceful like the deer nor fast like the cheetah. In fact, many have wondered why the homo sapien evolved into an upright figure since that posture is less efficient for running. Christopher McDougall, in his National Bestseller Born to Run, hypothesized that early humans were distance runners that outran their prey. Born to Run, which has been linked to the rise of the popularity of barefoot running, describes how humans do not use their Achilles tendon efficiently by striking with the heel of …

A Political History Of The Kingdom Of Jerusalem 1099 To 1187 C.E., Tobias Osterhaug

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The first Crusade, a massive and unprecedented undertaking in the western world, differed from the majority of subsequent crusades into the Holy Land in an important way: it contained no royalty and was undertaken with very little direct support from the ruling families of Western Europe. This aspect of the crusade led to the development of sophisticated hierarchies and vassalages among the knights who led the crusade. These relationships culminated in the formation of the Crusader States, Latin outposts in the Levant surrounded by Muslim states, and populated primarily by non-Catholic or non-Christian peoples. Despite the difficulties engendered by this …

Promoting And Assessing Student Metacognition In Physics, Alistair Mcinerny, Andrew Boudreaux, Mila Kryjevskaia, Sara Julin

Physics & Astronomy

A scaffolded metacognition activity was incorporated into the laboratory component of the introductory physics course at Western Washington University (WWU) and Whatcom Community College (WCC). Each week, students wrote reflectively to contrast their initial and current understanding of a specific physics topic, and described the "trigger" events that led them to change their thinking. Goals were to enhance conceptual understanding as well as the depth and quality of student reflection. A coding scheme was developed to evaluate student reflections. We present the scaffolded activity and coding scheme, as well as preliminary findings about changes in student reflection over time and …

Mix And Match: Promoting Interdisciplinary Teaching, Learning, And Community Through Classroom-Level Partnerships, Natalie J.K. Baloy, Joanne A. Fox, Allen Sens

Staff Scholarship

Developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC), UBC Mix creates interdisciplinary learning experiences for students by developing partnerships between existing courses, and between existing courses and other learning opportunities. UBC Mix connects faculty members interested in making their courses more interdisciplinary, and facilitates the creation of shared learning activities that "mix” students together. The UBC Mix project provides a model for facilitating interdisciplinary teaching and learning within existing courses and programs at colleges and universities.

Postcolonial Critique: A Threshold Concept In Organizational Communication Studies, James Fortney

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

In 2014, I attended the Backwards By Design professional development retreat as a way to enhance my writing instruction in the field of communication studies. The retreat workshops provided an opportunity for me to create and transform one of my courses by envisioning where I wanted to end up and working backwards on how to get there. By giving attention to design, enactment, and result, I was able to re-consider the overall learning goals of the course, with particular attention to the core concepts that potentially hold the power to transform student perception of communication studies. Below, I provide a …

Writing Instruction Report Regarding Activities Stemming From Summer 2014 Backwards By Design Retreat, Catherine Riordan

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

In the retreat I sought assistance as I developed a new course, a senior seminar in industrial/ organizational (I/O) psychology, a writing intensive course. The field is an applied one with many practitioners working as consultants. During the workshop I decided to use the consultancy relationship as the foundation for the writing assignments.

Students selected one case of many I shared with them as their focus. After doing research and interviewing professionals with knowledge of this content area, students proceeded through a series of writing assignments (Table 1), focusing on ‘business writing’ and switching back and forth between two audiences, …

Improving Student Understanding Of Writing Assignment Guidelines And Expectations: Mini-Assessment, Cat Armstrong Soule

Backward by Design Mini-Studies

As a marketing instructor, it has been challenging to find effective techniques to help my students improve their written communication skills. I have found that many students are seriously lacking skill in this area and have little recognition of its importance. Many times students have told me that other instructors “don’t care about the writing” and only grade “on the content.” This oversight could almost be humorous, since a threshold concept in marketing is the importance of effective communication between a brand and its desired audience. My personal dedication to better teaching of these critical skills led me to participate …