Education Commons^™

An Intersection Of Science & Art: Vitrification Approaches And Open-Fabricated Tools For The Biomedical Model Sea Hare, Aplysia Californica, Allyssa M. Oune

LSU Master's Theses

The California sea hare (Aplysia californica) is an important biomedical model for molecular neurobiology, electrophysiology, learning, and memory due to their well-mapped and large neurons and well-characterized learning capabilities. The National Resource for Aplysia (NRA, University of Miami) maintains large stocks of live animals and relies on regular shipments of wild-caught individuals to maintain genetic diversity. This is labor and cost-intensive, and environmental changes could alter the availability of wild animals increasing the need to preserve this genetic resource. One solution is vitrification, ultra-fast cooling which produces an amorphous glass that minimizes damage to cells. Aplysia californica presents …

Do Fishery Meeting Attendees Represent The Fishing Industries?, Dominique Seibert

LSU Master's Theses

Public meetings are a highly utilized tool for disseminating important or useful information. Many agencies rely on them to reach various stakeholders and community representation at these meetings is important. A substantial amount of research has been conducted on various aspects of public meetings including different techniques, factors impacting attendance, and representativeness, that is attendees’ opinions representing the opinions at-large. A noticeable gap in the research includes information on public fishery meetings, commercial fishing industries, and their members’ participation. With the U.S. commercial fishing industries supporting more than a million jobs and providing more than a 200-billion-dollar economic impact annually, …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

The One – Way (Agri)Cultural Mirror: A Case Study Of How Young Agriculturalists Understand And Experience Culture, Janiece M. Pigg

LSU Master's Theses

As the global economy continues to transform how society operates, cultural competence has become a buzzword in education, professional development, research, government, and healthcare (Gay, 1994; Gallus et al., 2014). Cross et al. (1989) developed the most accepted definition of cultural competence: “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (p. 13).

Despite this, little to no research has been devoted to understanding cultural competence in agriculture. Thus, a need emerged to describe the cultural competence …

Agricultural Education Teachers' Perceptions And Use Of Environmental Education In Louisiana Schools, Olivia M. Soler

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to describe the status of environmental education (EE) in Louisiana high school agriculture classrooms. A census of Louisiana Agriscience Teacher Association (LATA) members was conducted to understand their perceptions, attitudes, and barriers regarding EE implementation. Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior was utilized as the theoretical framework. Data were collected through an online survey research method and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results suggest that most LATA members incorporate EE into their curriculum relatively sparingly, perceive EE to be beneficial for students, and are in need of funding to incorporate EE into their curriculum as …

Investigating The Effects Of Cognitive Diversity On The Small Gasoline Engines Problem Solving Ability Of Undergraduate Students Enrolled In A Team-Based Learning Formatted Agricultural Mechanics Course, Whitney L. Figland

LSU Master's Theses

Perhaps the most challenging factor in teaching is being able to foster a learning environment that meets the needs of all learners, which is often achieved by utilizing a plethora of instructional methods that develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. These 21st century skills have been recurrently identified as a critical component of today’s workplace and employers are hiring individuals who can solve complex problems, especially within agriculture. However, students in todays educational classrooms are often not receiving the hands-on instruction that is needed in order to foster the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Further, problem …