Education Commons^™

A Study On Ethical Hacking In Cybersecurity Education Within The United States, Jordan Chew

Master's Theses

As the field of computer security continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to educate the next generation of security professionals. However, much of the current education landscape primarily focuses on teaching defensive skills. Teaching offensive security, otherwise known as ethical hacking, is an important component in the education of all students who hope to contribute to the field of cybersecurity. Doing so requires a careful consideration of what ethical, legal, and practical issues arise from teaching students skills that can be used to cause harm. In this thesis, we first examine the current state of cybersecurity education in the …

Increasing The Effectiveness Of K-12 Stem Worshops Through Targeted Context And Creative Technolgies, Melina Lopez

Master's Theses

Economic projections reveal a need for one million more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professionals over the next decade than the United States is producing at the current rate. As a result, STEM education is a major focus of recent legislation and funding in Congress as the number of STEM professionals is inadequate to support innovation and the ever-changing economy. In response to the urgent need for more competitive STEM professionals, there has been a widespread implementation of workshops, organizations, and school programs aimed at amplifying K-12 student STEM literacy and interest. Some programs are even created to specifically …

Evaluating And Improving Domain-Specific Programming Education: A Case Study With Cal Poly Chemistry Courses, Will Fuchs

Master's Theses

Programming is a key skill in many domains outside computer science. When used judiciously, programming can empower people to accomplish what might be impossible or difficult with traditional methods. Unfortunately, students, especially non-CS majors, frequently have trouble while learning to program. This work reports on the challenges and opportunities faced by Physical Chemistry (PChem) students at Cal Poly, SLO as they learn to program in MATLAB. We assessed the PChem students through a multiple-choice concept inventory, as well as through “think-aloud” interviews. Additionally, we examined the students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards programming. We found that PChem students are adept …

Impact Of Teaching Practices And Communication Climates On Participation In Computer Science Education, Jackie Krone

Master's Theses

One way to understand teaching is to view it as a people process rather than a presentation of knowledge. It follows that the role of an educator often extends beyond the primary subject matter and into the realm of classroom management. With this in mind, our research aimed to capture the various teaching practices, participation patterns, and communication climates that occur in virtual computer science classrooms. We sought to answer the following research questions related to virtual computer science classrooms at our institution: Who participates in virtual computer science classrooms, and is participation proportional to student demographics? Is there any …

Jited: A Framework For Jit Education In The Classroom, Caleb Watts

Master's Theses

The study of programming languages is a rich field within computer science, incorporating both the abstract theoretical portions of computer science and the platform specific details. Topics studied in programming languages, chiefly compilers or interpreters, are permanent fixtures in programming that students will interact with throughout their career. These systems are, however, considerably complicated, as they must cover a wide range of functionality in order to enable languages to be created and run. The process of educating students thus requires that the demanding workload of creating one of the systems be balanced against the time and resources present in a …

Assessing Bear: Tool Usability For Wireless Ctf, Donald S. Sanchez Jr.

Master's Theses

Capture the Flag (CTF) is a common and popular type of event in the cyber security space with audiences ranging from large security conference participants to even those in middle or high school. Event participants bring their favorite set of tools and any level of knowledge they have to compete against other teams in solving cyber security related challenges. These types of challenges can range anywhere from reverse engineering programs and hacking WiFi to utilizing interesting command line commands and messing with browser developer consoles. There are plenty of general CTF events that happen throughout every month, as well as …

Evaluating Creative Choice In K-12 Computer Science Curriculum, Kirsten L. Mork

Master's Theses

Computer Science is an increasingly important topic in K-12 education. Ever since the "computing crisis" of the early 2000s, where enrollment in CS dropped by over half in a five year span, increasing research has gone into improving and broadening enrollment in CS courses. Research shows the importance of introducing CS at a young age and the need for more exposure for younger children and young adults alike in order to work towards equity in the field. While there are many reasons for disinterest in CS courses, studies found one reason young adults do not want to study CS is …

Developing, Evaluating, And Demonstrating An Open Source Gateway And Mobile Application For The Smartfarm Decision Support System, Caleb D. Fink

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research is to design, develop, evaluate, and demonstrate an open source gateway and mobile application for the SmartFarm open source decision support system to improve agricultural stewardship, environmental conservation, and provide farmers with a system that they own. There are very limited options for an open source gateway for collecting data on the farm. The options available are: expensive, require professional maintenance, are not portable between systems, improvements are made only by the manufacturer, limited in customization options, difficult to operate, and data is owned by the company rather than the farmer. The gateway is designed …

Polycommit: Building Better Habits Through Gamification, Elliot Fiske

Master's Theses

Computer-assisted learning is older than Turing machines, and constantly evolves as technology improves. While some teachers are resistant to using technology in the classroom, “e-learning” techniques are becoming more common in almost every school, from K-12 to universities. As technology becomes more widespread, it becomes crucial to examine the various methodologies of computer-assisted learning and find the techniques that are most effective.

This paper explores the effectiveness of one such methodology, spaced repetition. This technique applies to homework assignments available to students online. We include an exploration of several existing apps that use this technique, and introduce our own novel …

Improving Introductory Computer Science Education With Draco, Mike Dongyub Ryu

Master's Theses

Today, many introductory computer science courses rely heavily on a specific programming language to convey fundamental programming concepts. For beginning students, the cognitive capacity required to operate with the syntactic forms of this language may overwhelm their ability to formulate a solution to a program.

We recognize that the introductory computer science courses can be more effective if they convey fundamental concepts without requiring the students to focus on the syntax of a programming language. To achieve this, we propose a new teaching method based on the Design Recipe and Code Outlining (DRaCO) processes. Our new pedagogy capitalizes on the …

Pink And Dude Chefs: Effectiveness Of An After-School Nutrition Knowledge And Culinary Skills Program For Middle School Students To Increase Fruit And Vegetable Consumption, Alyssa S. Vaziri

Master's Theses

The rate of overweight and obesity among adolescents aged 12-19 years has more than tripled since 1980, and disproportionately impacts low-income and marginalized populations. Reduction in adolescent obesity rates may result in decreased health risks, decrease healthcare costs, and increased quality of life. Effective intervention methods for adolescent participants have incorporated nutrition knowledge and culinary skill building into afterschool programs. This study examines whether building knowledge, skills, and confidence through a culinary intervention can improve adolescent participants’ choices of healthful foods through increased fruit and vegetable intake.

Pink and Dude Chefs (PDC) is an afterschool nutrition education and culinary skills …

A Comparison Of Solvent And Water-Borne Alkyd Coatings And The History Of Voc Regulations In The United States, Molly Elise Burns

Master's Theses

A Comparison of Solvent and Water-Borne Alkyd Coatings Abstract

Conventional solvent based alkyd coatings have gone out of favor due to concerns over volatile organic compound (VOC) content. However, due to recent focus on renewable raw materials, alkyds are making a comeback in waterborne form. Water based alkyd coatings are known to have poor shelf stability and corrosion resistance, as well as other problems during the formulation process. This project focused on comparing solvent borne to two types of water-borne alkyds, water reducible alkyds and alkyds emulsions. The purpose was to understand the differences between the three types of alkyds …

Parenting Nutrition Skills Workshop: An Evaluation Of Facilitated Group Discussions To Enhance Parenting Nutrition Self Efficacy, Lisa A. Dawes

Master's Theses

Abstract

Parenting Nutrition Skills Workshops: An Evaluation of Facilitated Group Discussions to Enhance Parenting Nutrition Self-Efficacy

By: Lisa Dawes, RD, CDE

This research study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using facilitated group discussion (FGD), a less traditional method of nutrition education, for increasing parents’ feelings of self-efficacy in their ability to make nutrition-related decisions, and to set and enforce nutrition-related boundaries with their children.

Childhood obesity is on the rise; poor food choices, portion control, and inactivity are identified as contributing causes. Parents play a major role in creating healthy habits and providing a well-balanced diet for their …

Controlling Nanoparticle Dispersion For Nanoscopic Self-Assembly, Nathan S. Starkweather

Master's Theses

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter and devices on the nanometer scale. Below the critical dimension length of 100nm, materials begin to display vastly different properties than their macro- or micro- scale counterparts. The exotic properties of nanomaterials may trigger the start of a new technological revolution, similar to the electronics revolution of the late 20^th century. Current applications of nanotechnology primarily make use of nanoparticles in bulk, often being made into composites or mixtures. While these materials have fantastic properties, organization of nano and microstructures of nanoparticles may allow the development of novel devices with many unique properties. …

Investigating The Instructor's Role In New Student Sense Of Classroom Community, Alix E. Davidson

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study is to determine whether an instructor’s intentional effort to build community in his/her classroom results in a higher sense of classroom community among students. This study also examined what types of community building activities were conducted by each instructor and measured the students’ responses to each different activity. This was intended to establish a preliminary set of best practices for creating classroom community. A two-part questionnaire, including an adapted version of the Classroom Community Scale, was administered to instructors (n=5) and students (n=113) enrolled in two or four unit courses at California Polytechnic State University. …

Teaching Introductory Programming Concepts: A Comparison Of Scratch And Arduino, Anne Beug

Master's Theses

Computing has become an integral part of modern America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between 2008 and 2018, the United States will have 1.4 million job openings in computing fields [1]. Since the early 2000's (just after the "dot com bust"), the number of students enrolled in computing majors (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, etc.) dropped precipitously by over 50%, only starting to rise again in 2009 [2]. One way to rectify to this gap between demand and supply is to start training students in computational thinking during high school. While the Computer Science Advanced Placement AB test has …

The Education Reform Of Tap And Value-Added Assessment: Teacher Merit Pay That Reinvigorates Standardized Testing And Detracts From 21st Century Learning Skills, Shawn Scharer Greenelsh

Master's Theses

In the last two decades, ignoring the bulk of educational research findings, policymakers shaped educational policy into a standardized testing movement that now dominates education. Now, to comply with No Child Left Behind, teachers and administrators shape curriculum in a way that maximizes student achievement measured by these tests. Recently, business and educational leaders initiated a reform movement to broaden curriculum, narrowed by this inadequate standardized testing movement, so that necessary 21st century learning skills can be practiced through project-based learning. The Federal Government’s enforcement of power over education created the climate that defined the current educational policy that gave …

Rfid Classroom Management System, Andrew W. Wright

Master's Theses

Professors who manage large classes are unrealistically expected to grade each student fairly and accurately. Even with all of the technological advancements that have occurred in the past thirty years, very little progress has been made in classroom management, and as a result, professors are not equipped with enough tools to successfully manage large class sizes. Because radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is making its way into student issued identification cards, there is an opportunity to use it as a tool to aid professors in the classroom. The focus of this paper is to discover the most effective system that …

Thermodynamic Based Model Eliciting Activities For Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Education, Paul Nicholas Van Bloemen Waanders

Master's Theses

Undergraduate engineering education is designed to prepare students for their careers. The rise of technology in modern engineering allows for a shift in the way undergraduates are prepared for the modern workplace. Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) allow students to think critically about their own work and allow instructors to analyze the students’ problem solving methods. To ensure that new MEAs are as effective as possible they are subject to six basic principles: model construction, reality, generalizability, self-assessment, model documentation, and effective prototype.

This document focuses on evaluating new MEAs for their adherence to the six principles from an instructor's and …

Supporting Introductory Test-Driven Labs With Webide, Thomas C. Dvornik

Master's Theses

WebIDE is a new web-based development environment for entry-level programmers with two primary goals: minimize tool barriers to writing computer programs and introduce software engineering best practices early in a student's educational career. Currently, WebIDE focuses on Test-Driven Learning (TDL) by using small iterative examples and introducing lock-step labs, which prevent the student from moving forward until they finish the current step. An initial set of labs and evaluators were created as examples of how to use WebIDE and were used in a pilot study in a CS0 course where students were split into two groups, one that used WebIDE …

A Pilot Study Examining High School Physical Education Teachers' Understanding And Use Of Mosston's Style(S) Of Teaching, Greg L. Pierce

Master's Theses

The purpose of this project was to develop a questionnaire that could lend insight to physical educations teachers’ perceptions and use of Mosston's Teaching Styles. The researcher designed a pilot study in which he distributed the questionnaire to six teachers from three Santa Barbara District High Schools. Results show that the six teachers were familiar with all Mosston’s Styles. However, citing circumstances such as class time and class sizes, the participants in this study did not use all of Mosston’s Styles. These results may be useful for physical education teacher educators to help them understand teachers’ knowledge of Mosston’s Styles, …

Influences Of Environmental Education Programs On The Participant's Affinity For Nature, Justin Alan Schmillen

Master's Theses

This study was conducted to determine the change, and the factors influencing the change, in the participant’s affinity for nature resulting from an environmental education experience. In addition, this study also examined the change and factors of change in aspects of the participant’s affinity for nature that directly relate to marine and coastal resources and environments. An adapted version of the Affinity for Nature scale, an outcome measuring instrument used by the American Camp Association was used to collect data from participants (n=529) at Rancho El Chorro Outdoor School and Camp Ocean Pines, whose experience included an overnight component and …

Software Internationalization: A Framework Validated Against Industry Requirements For Computer Science And Software Engineering Programs, John Huân Vũ

Master's Theses

View John Huân Vũ's thesis presentation at http://youtu.be/y3bzNmkTr-c.

In 2001, the ACM and IEEE Computing Curriculum stated that it was necessary to address "the need to develop implementation models that are international in scope and could be practiced in universities around the world." With increasing connectivity through the internet, the move towards a global economy and growing use of technology places software internationalization as a more important concern for developers. However, there has been a "clear shortage in terms of numbers of trained persons applying for entry-level positions" in this area. Eric Brechner, Director of Microsoft Development Training, suggested …

A Longitudinal Study Of The Outcomes From Participation In Wilderness Adventure Education Programs, Jason Phillip Cummings

Master's Theses

The results from this study suggest that participants of wilderness adventure education programs offered by Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School felt challenged by many of the experiences from their programs. Interactions with their group helped in dealing with the challenges presented by the experience. The development of hard skills gave participants a confidence in their abilities to survive and feel safe in these wilderness environments, which allowed them to relax and enjoy the experience, develop new perspectives, become motivated and inspired, and develop a sense of independence. Participants developed a sense of growth and maturity from their …

Automation In Cs1 With The Factoring Problem Generator, Joshua B. Parker

Master's Theses

As the field of computer science continues to grow, the number of students enrolled in related programs will grow as well. Though one-on-one tutoring is one of the more effective means of teaching, computer science instructors will have less and less time to devote to individual students. To address this growing concern, many tools that automate parts of an instructor’s job have been proposed. These tools can assist instructors in presenting concepts and grading student work, and they can help students learn to program more effectively. A growing group of intelligent tutoring systems attempts to tie all of this functionality …

Outcomes Associated With Outward Bound And Nols Programs: A Means-End Study, Daniel Thomas Pronsolino

Master's Theses

Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) are two of the United State’s largest providers of outdoor education and adventure recreation programs. While many studies have examined the outcomes of the different organizations individually, there is very little comparative research. This study compared the attributes, consequences, and values obtained by 510 participants of courses 14 days or longer in the Rocky Mountain region during the summer of 2006.

Means-end theory was used to analyze data obtained from participants through personal interviews. Means-end theory links the physical objects or services, the means, with the outcomes and the personal values …

The Development And Pilot Of A Culinary Intervention Designed Using The Social Cognitive Theory To Teach Nutrition To Adolescent Girls, Julie Anne Chessen

Master's Theses

In the past 20 years, the way in which food is prepared has rapidly changed. Convenience has become a way of life and Americans have replaced meals made from scratch with meals that are quick and easy. During that time, body mass index has risen steadily. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children has become common in the American population. “Pink Chefs,” a six-week culinary intervention for middle school girls 12 to 14-years-old, was developed and piloted to combat childhood obesity by teaching nutrition through basic cooking skills. The social cognitive theory was used as the theoretical framework. The …