The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Volume 2, Edition 5, May 2023, Bailey Feit, Tammy Mittelstet

CASNR L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter

The purpose of this L.I.N.K.S. newsletter is to provide a monthly update of opportunities and resources for K-12 schools to connect with the University of Nebraska's CASNR Food, Energy, Water, and Societal Systems (FEWS²) programs and partners.

Contents

K-12 Curriculum & Resources

Career Exploration pathways for students who like animals and insects

Teacher & Student Opportunities

East Campus Discovery Days and Farmers Market

ALEC Department

PGA Management Program

Environmental Studies Program

CandidCareer.com: Career Exploration

Community Leaders Careers Spotlight

Haskell Ag Lab

NCE Conference 2023

The Influence Of Mentorship On K-5 General Education Teachers: A Study Of Southeastern Schools In Virginia, Katherine Ryan Goldburg

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The current teacher shortage and the demand for high quality teachers presents a nationwide educational problem. Additionally, more than one-third of teachers leave the profession within the first five years of their careers (Callahan, 2015). The most vital and systemic change that is needed in our educational landscape is the attraction, retention, and professional development of quality teachers (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003). If school district administrators expect new teachers to succeed, they need to provide them with unprecedented levels of support. This qualitative research study examined new elementary education teachers' perceptions of the influence of their mentorship program and the …

An Autoethnography On Teaching Antiracism In The Current Sociopolitical Environment, Taylor M. Jacobson

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

In the course of American history, students from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities have been left out of the educational conversation. This has created an era of undereducated citizens who have historically used privilege to oppress students from these communities. Teachers must use their privilege to teach antiracist education that specifically encourages students to stand up for the justice needed to make a better world. Although this education is important, politicians, parents, and school board administrators are consistently putting teachers in an awkward position when they work towards implementing antiracist education by enacting policies that force them to stop or …

Using Formative Assessment And Linguistic Representation In Math Instruction, Emily Lorenzen, Saundra Shillingstad

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the instructional strategies and formative assessments implemented throughout an elementary mathematics unit. The capstone reports the benefits and effectiveness of two instructional strategies that promote student learning with the content of telling time, creating and analyzing graphs, and word problems. The unit included a pre-test, midpoint check, post-test, and 17 lessons taught over the course of five weeks. I collected and analyzed data from the pre-test, midpoint check, post-test, and various exit tickets throughout the unit.

Teaching Time And Graphs With Differentiated Instruction And Assessment Strategies, Catie Tangeman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone reports the effectiveness of using differentiated instructional and assessment strategies to improve student performance in math. Based on pretest data, instruction was planned and implemented to best meet the needs of each student to help them succeed. This unit started with a pretest, had ten days of lessons and instruction, and then concluded with a post-test. Based on student data, student performance and learning increased by using differentiated instruction and instructional strategies that were adapted to help each student. Using feedback, nonlinguistic representations (a big piece of assessment), think-pair-shares, and physical models/manipulatives, students successfully showed the increase in …

A Teaching Unit Plan For Introducing Engineering In 1st-2nd Grade Classrooms, Claudia Smith

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The field of engineering, and specifically chemical engineering, is projected to increase significantly over the next 10 years. Engineering programs require students to have a strong foundation of math and science. Students in the United States are often underprepared to enter these programs, and the majority of high school students are not interested in pursuing a career in the STEM field at all. For this project, a unit teaching plan was created to introduce students to the field of engineering, providing a foundation for their upper-level STEM classes, and encouraging them to consider engineering as a career in the future. …

Teaching Three-Digit Addition With Differentiated Instruction And Assessment Strategies, Regan Catterson, Saundra Shillingstad

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project includes a synopsis of the differentiated instructional and assessment strategies that were integrated throughout a second-grade math unit. The unit of instruction focused on three-digit addition with regrouping. The unit was taught over six days between the pre-test and post-test. Students were tested on their understanding of place value with three-digits, regrouping with addition, and solving three-digit addition from an equation. Following the analysis of student data, it was noted that students’ understanding, and performance increased throughout this unit by using a variety of instructional strategies and assessment methods. I collected and analyzed the pre- and post-assessment …

Just Press Play: Designing Video Lessons To Teach Creativity Curriculum In Childhood Education, Gregory A. Mcclure

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project aims to create a scripted lesson consisting of a video lesson and a supplemental activity to facilitate creativity training in primary students. A larger goal is to develop a K-12 curriculum for Creativity and Creative Problem Solving. The scripted lessons and guided activities aim to educate 1st-grade students on creativity characteristics and foster foundational creativity skills. The project aims to alleviate teachers' burden by providing ready-made scripted lessons and videos with explicit instructions, requiring no prior content knowledge. The video lessons feature puppet characters, engaging students through spoken lessons, music, and movement. The follow-up activities, called Mactivities, are …

Integrating Content, Culture, And Language For Portuguese Dual Language Immersion Learners, Aline Reis

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is the result of the approaches to teaching I have learned through coursework, readings, class observations, and reflections during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. It contains my teaching philosophy, developed from my experiences in the elementary Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program and the Utah State University (USU) MSLT program, as well as examples of work produced in the MSLT program, both theoretical and practical. First, the professional environment piece provides context and background for reflections on my teaching experience and pedagogy. Second, the teaching philosophy statement (TPS) describes the main theoretical frameworks and approaches that …

Teaching Story Problems To First-Grade Students Utilizing A Variety Of Differentiated Instructional Strategies And Assessment Methods, Shelby Decker

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies implemented throughout a math unit in a first-grade classroom. The capstone will report the effectiveness of two instructional strategies and two assessment methods that were integrated into a math unit that focused on students’ understanding of story problems with a missing addend or subtrahend. The math unit had 13 lessons taught over four weeks between the pre- and post-assessment. Based on student data, students’ understanding and performance increased throughout this unit by using a variety of differentiated instructional strategies and assessment methods. In this capstone, I will report what the instructional strategies …

Us Public School Demand For Locally Produced Meat And Poultry, Shara Akat

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective of the USDA Farm-to-School program is to promote the understanding and use of local food in school education and meals. The hope is that by reconnecting students with how food is raised and purchasing the product from local producers it will increase nutrition and reduce food insecurity and obesity among students while simultaneously increasing economic activity for local producers. Most studies evaluating the federal program have focused on how the economic outcomes for local producers or student related health outcomes and primarily using fresh fruits and vegetables. Fundamental to either of these outcomes is understanding the schools’ demand …

Developing Science Education For Early Elementary Students, Caty Rodriguez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Children in early elementary school lack science education. They lack science because it is not a subject that schools concentrate on. Schools are more concentrated on math, English, reading, and writing, while science is just put aside. Our students need science in order to create a better vocabulary, open their minds to new things, and to move on to the next grade.

Attending Excellence: Supporting Elite Athletes In Elementary School, Jazmin Arellano

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This Capstone Project aimed to investigate the school-related challenges and benefits of having a K-6th grade child who participates in travel or club level sports during the school year as an elite athlete. There was little to no relevant research literature on this topic, but I was able to navigate and build off of other formative research surrounding the main idea; excessive absences related to sports and extracurricular activities, and truancy. Based on the analysis of the data collected, I used what I had learned to formulate an action plan that responds to the challenges parents experience raising an elite …

Effective Resources For Online Learning A Study On Elementary Aged Children, Marlene Mora-Lopez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify which resources have been most effective by examining an elementary school site with 22 parent and teacher participants. The increase in online learning in the past 5 years across kindergarten through 6^th grade students required educators and students to know which are the most effective and relevant resources that supplement learning. Online Google surveys were used to gather data which was inputted into SPSS to examine a univariant analysis. The results determined Lexia Core 5 to be the best resource for academic improvement and Google Classroom to be the most effective …

Examining Teachers' Referral And Placement Decisions Of Hispanic Children For Gifted And Talented Programs, Guillermo I. Mendoza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative survey design study examined whether children’s ethnicity makes a difference in teachers’ referral and placement decisions in gifted and talented (G/T) programs. A total of 524 teachers from all over the United States who have taught or currently teach pre-kindergarten through 5th grade participated. The participants were randomly given one of six vignettes adapted from a previous similar study (Elhoweris et al., 2005). Participants answered whether the child described should be referred and placed into gifted and talented programs. All six vignettes described gifted and talented characteristics; the only differences were the children's ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Data …

Using Student Goal Setting And Individual Student Conferences To Increase Academic Achievement In Mathematics, Amanda R. Mcnamee

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on an elementary school in the Midwest region of the United States; this community serves as a regional center of education, commerce, and health care. Participants in this study are a classroom of 17 fifth grade students; 35% girls and 65% boys. The school district in this study recently adopted a new mathematics curriculum, Bridges. In using this new mathematics curriculum, the teachers have noticed that many of the fifth-grade students are consistently scoring in the red on the assessments. This research study will investigate whether implementing goal setting and individual student conference sessions will …

Meta-Analysis Of Therapeutic Interventions For The Treatment Of Test Anxiety., Thomas Reece

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This systematic review and meta-analysis was designed to be a practitioner-focused review of the current research into interventions for the treatment of test anxiety. As testing continues to be a large part of students’ academic experiences and the stakes of that testing grow for students, teachers, and schools, there is a need for a synthesis of the literature to provide teachers and schools with some guidance on how best to help their students succeed. In this review, I describe the phenomenon of test anxiety and the current theoretical questions concerning the relationship between test anxiety and test performance. I also …

A Qualitative Case Study On How The Transition To Remote Learning Affected Elementary Language Arts Instruction During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Matthew B. Bergman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emergency remote learning (or remote learning) altered K-12 instruction and occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. Mandatory lockdowns and social distancing efforts transformed face-to-face instruction into a new pedagogical model called emergency remote learning or remote learning. In this qualitative case study, I aimed to understand how third-grade language arts instruction was affected during the transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of general education teachers, learning support teachers, school administrators, and residential care providers. Additionally, the researcher used Moore’s (1997) transactional distance theory to investigate which strategies (methods, materials, and technologies) …

Special Education Teacher Attrition: K-12 Administrator Perspectives, Tia Alove Stevens-Hicks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Teacher attrition is a significant contributor to the teacher shortages, with preretirement attrition accounting for two thirds of all attrition. Special education teachers leave teaching at significantly higher rates than their general education peers. In addition, there is a greater demand for special education teachers due to the increase in public school students requiring special education services. As a result, many K–12 administrators and other educational leaders often fill vacant positions with unqualified or new teachers with less experience than their predecessors. Special education teachers have reported that teachers who remained in their positions reported high levels of administrative …

Preparing Teachers For Integrating Visual Arts For Academic Success Of Elementary School Students, Jennifer Roux

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The majority of people agree that students’ education should provide them with the essential skills to be successful in the 21st-century workforce. Although these same sets of skills are commonly practiced through the process of making art, art education continues to hold an inferior status in schools. This disconnection raises the question, what has led to the devaluation of art in academics? This senior capstone will explore how teachers are prepared to integrate visual arts into the classroom. Through the use of a literature review, interviews with three in-service teachers, and a survey of students majoring in Liberal Studies at …

The Currency Of Teacher Trust In Working Conditions For Teacher Retention, Jeanette White

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Virginia Public schools continue to face teacher shortages, and policymakers and school leaders are desperately seeking ways to influence teachers' decisions to stay at school. This multi-site case study of seven elementary schools offers a conceptual framework to examine how teachers' trusting relationships with students and parents relate to working conditions and retention. Teacher interview excerpts, an overall measure of teacher working conditions using the Virginia Climate and Working Conditions Survey (Virginia Department of Education, 2021), and school-level descriptive statistics were analyzed to examine the relationship between teachers' perceptions of trust and other working conditions within their schools. In this …

Using Ozobots To Learn Character Traits, Kimberly Dawn Eure

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Technology is utilized in everyday life. As such, teachers can employ educational robots and technology to assist in growing skills in collaboration, communication, computational thinking, and problem-solving. Educational robots also appear to increase engagement and motivation in students to participate in lessons. This study employed design-based research (DBR) to explore the use of Ozobots in teaching character traits in a fourth-grade classroom. Together with fourth-grade teachers, a set of lessons was created that employed Ozobots to engage students in learning character traits. Two technology integration frameworks, technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) and Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR), were …

Instructional Technology Implementation: Barriers Impacting Student Success, Roxanna Zendejas

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this comparative case study is to explore the benefits of effective technology integration in the classroom, as well as the best teaching practices related to instructional technology. It was designed to identify (a) educator beliefs, (b) digital divide, as well as other barriers, and (c) best practices and instructional strategies.

Methodology. This qualitative comparative case study research design explored the best practices of 10 middle school teachers by using a semi-structured interview protocol. A qualitative design was selected to focus on an individual, partnership, small group, and organization. Using comparative case study allowed the researcher to …

Development Of A Sustainable Social Emotional Learning Workshop Series For Kindergarten To Second Grade Teachers, Claire Reyes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

In this project, I propose a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) workshopseries for kindergarten through second-grade teachers. In the recent decade, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on mental health, SEL programs have gained attention, and many have recognized the need for these programs in the classroom (Katz,2020). Early integration of SEL (e.g., in early childhood and elementary school classrooms) is essential to lifelong social and emotional development and positive outcomes (Mondi et al., 2021). However, SEL may feel difficult for teachers to incorporate in the classroom; teachers may learn about SEL broadly and inconsistently; thus, they feel …

Words In Context: A Mixed Methods Description Of An Early Elementary Comprehensive Vocabulary Building Program, Cherrynn Kast Black

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Strong academic vocabulary is necessary for students’ success in school. Recent research has recommended studying integrated approaches for developing vocabulary, which is predictive of the long-term school success of all students. This dialectical concurrent mixed methods case study was designed to define and describe the early elementary vocabulary program of a fifteen-year-old southern Idaho public charter school recognized for high academic achievement of its high school students. In the tradition originally proposed for laboratory schools, this program was developed by innovative teachers with an idea for improving education and takes a classical approach to teaching. This includes an intentional culture …

Fourth-Grade Measurement Conversion Standards And Application, Allison Stauffer

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

System Support For Early Grade Teacher Mentors In Cambodia, Jana Scislowicz

Capstone Collection

The early primary education system in Cambodia is working to expand its teacher mentoring network. This quantitative and qualitative study examines the motivational factors of school-based early grade literacy mentors and master mentors who have played these roles in a pilot program implemented by a United States Agency for International Development-funded project during the 2021-2022 academic year in Cambodia. The study finds that mentors are motivated to perform the mentoring roles for intrinsic reasons such as improving student education and peer learning. It also finds that there are areas of improvement for mentor selection, workload assignment, financial remuneration, and recognition …

Effects Of Covid-19 On Elementary And Secondary Music Education, Colette Stefaniak

Student Theses

This paper will highlight several key effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on elementary and secondary music education. The 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic drastically changed music education for both elementary and secondary institutions. Changes made to music curriculums to adapt to an online teaching environment have had both positive and negative effects on post-pandemic music education. This paper will discuss how the 2020 pandemic has created a different learning environment for elementary music classrooms, music ensembles, and private lessons.

Engaging Drama: Does Drama Increase Student Engagement In A Second-Grade History Class?, Jasmine Villanueva

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This research investigated how drama integration benefitted students’ academic achievement and their engagement in history. This study integrated drama and history in a second-grade class, by allowing students to create tableaus to present and share information. The study used pre and post assessments, an attitudes survey to measure students’ attitudes towards history before and after integration, and the researcher also recorded student engagement at the beginning and end of drama integration. This study showed significant improvement in student content knowledge through the use of tableaus, and inconclusive results as far as engagement and student attitudes were concerned.

Stories In Motion: Integrating Creative Dance In A Language Arts Classroom, Amira Akam

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

As learning gaps have widened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased need for research-based strategies to improve student academic achievement and engagement. This study explored the integration of creative dance as a form of storytelling in a kindergarten language arts classroom. Students were introduced to an element of dance and used it to create short dance phrases in a unit on retelling. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected using pre/post tests and student interviews measuring students’ engagement and enjoyment. Students involved in this study showed significant growth in their ability to orally retell …