Gifted Education Commons^™

The Use Of Simpson’S Diversity Index To Develop A Diverse Community For The Enrichment Of Experiential Learning, Quinn Nguyen

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Diversity is a buzz-word in our society, and within an academic institution, it plays the role as a tacit of what an institution is able to offer its students to better themselves and contribute to more knowledgeable citizens. While many programs and institutions promise diversity, some of these entities lack the requisite of diversity through their broad, loose definition. In this study, the Simpson’s Diversity Index (SDI) is introduced as a possible quantitative method for eradicating the loose definition of diversity. With that, 103 institutions were randomly sampled from a list of 1500 institutions to create a normal distribution curve. …

Connexin-43 And Traumatic Brain Injury: A Potential Target For Therapeutic Intervention, Lauren R. Moore

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a widespread, degenerative affliction with no current therapeutic interventions. The long-­‐term degradation caused by TBI results from secondary injury cascades that are initiated by primary injury. An early and important step in the damage process is reactive astrogliosis in astrocytes. Astrocytes communicate through gap junctions, which are composed of two connexon hemichannels from the two communicating cells and these connexons themselves are composed of six connexin protein subunits. Connexin 43 (Cx43) is a particularly important connexin to gap junctional communication and could act either to preserve the astrocytes from oxidative stress, or to propagate the …

Ureca, The Nchc Web Journal Of Undergraduate Research And Creative Activity, Kaycee Anderson, Mikayla Conway, Mackenzie Cope, Caleb Deane, Leah Koch, Ryan Schlom, Rebekah Assid, Olivia George, Josh Freeman, Grace Mcpherson, Kate Mobley, Zeke Starr, Russell Helms, Johnny Maclean, Brian White

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Our vision is an academic community without borders, a connected network of aspirational students committed to the advancement of knowledge and appreciation of the arts. UReCA fosters the exchange of intellectual and creative work between undergraduate students, providing a platform where students can engage with and contribute to the advancement of their individual fields.

UReCA was first conceived by Johnny MacLean (Southern Utah University) and Brian White (Graceland University) at an annual NCHC conference in Phoenix, Arizona. MacLean and White noticed that while several academic outlets existed for honors faculty and administrators, there was an absence of student-focused publications within …

Secret-Keeper, Cassandra Zimmerman

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Playing with the neighbor’s boy Sam wasn’t always Eliza’s favorite pastime. Each Saturday they’d sit in front of his house, searching for caterpillars between the slick, green blades and dried husks of weeds. The sun watched them as intently as they did the grass, or perhaps it was looking for caterpillars too. The real fun, however, didn’t start until Sam brought out the toys: a combat jeep, as small and shiny as a beetle; a plastic shooter that was always slick with bubble soap; fistfuls of dinosaurs, some forever frozen in a hungry roar, others in a panicked stare; and, …

Confronting Internalized Transphobia My Own And Society's, Kaci Sullivan

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This series emphatically insists on spectrums in a binary world. While I consciously know there isn’t anything wrong with being transgender—that there’s absolutely no shame in it, this knowledge hasn’t protected me from internalizing all the transphobic messages integrated into every aspect of our "progressive" society. Glittering glass slivers, they dig in deep, prepared to stay a lifetime. So I decided to sit with myself. Naked. In front of a mirror and canvas. I would paint my body until it became one grounded, plein-air-inspired stroke after another. Until I accepted that it’s a perfectly valid body. This journey isn’t mine …

Mixed Media Collection, Jacob Smith

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This body of work reflects on the two-dimensionality of visual art, specifically in the realm of illustration, painting, and digital art. The pieces address the increasingly strict guidelines imposed on the artistic community, what it means to be an artist, and how we define art. Furthermore, the body of work questions the temporality of visual art, specifically in a physical form. The work is very important to me as it illustrates much of my world view: people and places exist as different from one another, but have the ability and propensity to blend, interact, and harmonize.

Occupy Honors Education, Lisa L. Coleman, Jonathan D. Kotinek, Alan Y. Oda

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs

Preface by Jonathan D Kotinek

Introduction: Occupying Naive America: The Resistance to Resistance • Lisa L Coleman

Theory and Resistance in Honors Education • Aaron Stoller

From Good Intentions to Educational Equity in an Honors Program: Occupying Honors through Inclusive Excellence • David M Jones

A Privilege for the Privileged? Using Intersectionality to Reframe Honors and Promote Social Responsibility • Amberly Dziesinski, Phame Camarena, and Caitlin Homrich-Knieling

Cosmopolitan Courtesy: Preparing for Global Citizenry • Stephanie Brown and Virginia Cope

Cosmopolitanism and New Racial Formations in a Post-9/11 Honors Curriculum on Diversity • Lopamudra Basu

Family Issues of Diversity and Education …

Perceptions Of Eighth Grade State Writing Assessment At A Nationally Recognized Middle School, Jillian M. Quandt

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This study seeks to understand how one at-risk middle school in Nebraska is consistently beating eighth grade Nebraska State Writing Assessment (NESA-W) averages. The school has significant populations of Hispanic, special education, and low-income students. The study answers the following two research questions. What strategies does the at-risk school utilize to enable its students to exceed the Nebraska average on the NESA-W? What attitudes do the school’s writing teachers, administrators, students, and their parents hold about the NESA-W? Students and their parents answered a multiple-choice survey; teachers and administrators answered a longer, open-ended survey. The researcher used a combination of …

Weartec Students’ Preferences And Perceptions Of Formal Vs. Informal Education, Sarah Houston, Gwen Nugent

UCARE: Research Products

This research investigated students’ preferences and perceptions between in-class instruction and informal instruction through the NSF-funded WearTec study, whose goal was to increase interest in STEM fields within 4^th-6^th graders through the use of wearable technologies, primarily girls. Students who participated in both the formal and informal education programs in the WearTec study were the students who were selected to participate in this research. A mixed method analysis was used with quantitative data from student surveys and qualitative data from student interviews that asked questions related to the student survey responses. Results showed that many of the …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2016) [Complete Issue]

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In this issue:

Forum Articles

An Agenda for the Future of Research in Honors •George Mariz

Research on Honors Composition, 2004-2015 •Annmarie Guzy

A Tradition unlike Any Other: Research on the Value of an Honors Senior Thesis •H. Kay Banks

Research In, On, or About Honors •Marygold Walsh-Dilley

Portz-Prize-Winning Essay, 2015

“Flee from the Worship of Idols”: Becoming Christian in Roman Corinth •Dorvan Byler

National Research Studies

Demography of Honors: The National Landscape of Honors Education •Richard I. Scott and Patricia J. …

The Current State Of Youth Leadership Development Programming In Nebraska, Kathryn M. Brock, L. J. Mcelravy

UCARE: Research Products

Young leaders are an underutilized resource that can significantly impact a community’s human resource capital, and their development is essential for the transfer leadership through the generations. There is insufficient evidence to prove that youth leadership development programming truly increases young students’ influential capacity; additionally, there is no way to metrically determine programming success. To gain an understanding of the current status of youth leadership programs in Nebraska, fourteen youth programs claiming leadership as one of the top curriculum priorities were interviewed for the purpose of collecting quantitative data to be compiled to make general observations about programming strengths and …

Effects Of Peer Mentorship On Student Leadership, Giovanna Walters, Ashley Kanak

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Orienting and welcoming first-year students to campus and to honors programs are often key components of program development. At an institutional level, successful orientation programs can positively affect retention rates from the first to second year. The greater a student’s involvement and integration into the life of the university, the less likely the student is to leave (Tinto). Institutional retention often translates into retention within honors programs as well. The most important benefit of orientation, however, is that students feel welcomed at the university and within the honors program. Not only do they understand the requirements of the program, but …

A Global Endeavor: Honors Undergraduate Research, Mimi Killinger, Kate Spies, Daniella Runyambo

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Like many other universities of its kind, the University of Maine has a centralized body, the Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR), charged with engaging motivated students in independent learning and in the creation of new knowledge. UMaine furthermore has an honors college that is likewise committed to fostering undergraduate research, particularly research that is rooted in active learning under the guidance of a faculty mentor (University of Maine Honors College Mission Statement). Consistent with national trends, UMaine highly values the work that both CUGR and the honors college do in promoting undergraduate research. UMaine’s current strategic plan lists the advancement …

The Challenge Of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd) In Honors Programs, Susan Yager

Honors in Practice Online Archive

When Temple Grandin spoke to the College of Engineering’s advisors on my campus, I was working as associate director of the university’s faculty development center. Not long before, I had attended a conference in Tucson, the National Faculty Center Institute for Facilitating the Success of Diverse Learners, where I first realized what seems obvious now: that freedom from discrimination on the basis of disability, including social disability, is a matter of civil rights, on a par with freedom from racism or sexism. While at the faculty development center, I also learned about the concept of universal design, that is, the …

Garden Variety Experiential Education: The “Material Turn” And Environmental Ethics, Allison B. Wallace

Honors in Practice Online Archive

“Productive play in the dirt” may be the hook that gets honors students at the University of Central Arkansas to take my junior seminar called Philosophy, Principles, and Practices of Organic Horticulture. They often express considerable enthusiasm for a class that gets them outside and working with their hands for much of the term, but this is not my primary reason for offering the course. With this seminar, I hope students will begin to learn, literally first-hand, the ecological reasons for an ethical relationship to nature. Organic gardening is one of the best courses for conveying such a message, largely …

Founder’S Award Speech, Nchc 50th Anniversary Conference, Chicago, Illinois, November 14, 2015, Bernice Braid

Honors in Practice Online Archive

We have always concentrated on how it is that people transform space into place. We have always asked people to look at the surface, then look beneath the surface, to ask “What is it like to live here? For whom? What makes you think so?” If you have time, go to the Art Institute of Chicago, and visit the exhibit “Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye.” He uses a version of City as Text to read a culture and environment before he even begins to design a building, in his case because he hopes to reshape “place” by addressing …

“Where Words Fail, Music Speaks”: The Experience Of Adapting Literature To Music, Laney J. Fowle, Kyle Bishop, Matthew Nickerson

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Adaptation is a relatively new yet growing academic field consisting mainly of research on the modification of book into film. This study endeavors to expand the discourse on adaptation to the modal transformation of literary works to music. By using this specific adaptive type to examine the process and functionality of adapted works, I was able to address several key aspects of modern adaptation, including the hot-button issue of fidelity to an established source text, the role of adaptor as co-author, and the ability of solitary artistic modes to augment each other when combined. The resulting personal attempts at adaptation …

Movement(S) In Dialogue: Kaleidoscope And The Discourse Of Underground News, Jeb Ebben

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, underground newspapers such as Milwaukee’s Kaleidoscope documented, reported on, and informed the burgeoning American counterculture. These papers served many functions. They discussed drug experiences and reported on local news and events, from concerts to protests and police brutality. They reviewed the newest psychedelic rock albums, published poetry and artwork, and sought to challenge their readership (and, by extension, mainstream America) by introducing new and radical ideas. They reprinted communiques from leftist organizations such as the Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and, later, the Weather Underground. Most importantly, they gave the …

The "G" Word, Ariane Schaffer

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Engulfed in the ideals of being a "young-professional" in Washington, I created this piece eight months after moving to DC. I was inspired by the city colors of springtime to create work expressing my newcomer observations. The blossoms were bright, the people had goals and I couldn't image living in a more gorgeous metropolis. Initially, this painting consisted of four even district quadrants. But as I unpacked the history of DC, my privilege blindfold began to unravel. This wasn't urban pioneering I saw; it was gentrification.

Godspeed, Noah Rucker

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

March 18th, 1944

The sea is more restless of late, here overlooking the Pacific. It bashes against the bluffs with some prodigious strength of nature, milling away at the ancient rock outcroppings that have stood sturdy for so long. One can’t help but be impressed by the ocean’s fury, yet I feel loathe to liken such enigmatic capabilities to that of nature. More seems at work here than that.

A rather morbid note with which to begin this letter, and at the end I fear you’ll wish your eyes never to have met its contents. I’ll let you judge whether …

Dollhouse, Samantha Richardson

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Dolls have been used to reinforce gender roles way before Barbie became a household name. In 1879, Henrik Isben published A Doll’s House, a play in which a Norwegian housewife has a groundbreaking epiphany about how marriage has reduced her life to child’s play. There has been controversy about the critique of the domesticated housewife as a concern for women’s rights. Many women enjoy their role as homemakers, wives, and mothers. However this series, Doll House, was made as a very personal response to how growing up in poverty and a small, isolated community can really distort gender identity by …

Of Love And Other Ills, Enrique Quezada

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

All went as it had for fifteen years in the Rivera González household until the day Matilde saw José Juan coming home from school with vomit on his lips, his skin so pale she thought he was a ghost. Matilde hesitated, but decided to open the door after concluding that, if that pallid personage who resembled her aunt Catalina—God bless her soul—was a messenger of death, she wouldn’t put up resistance. She was ready to bid farewell.

No one had seen her so determined since she yelled at her husband in the consulting room of Dr. Guardado demanding that they …

"So Dead And Bald" Destroys The World: A Psychological Critique Of Object Metamorphosis In Infinite Jest's Game Of Eschaton, R. Christian Phillips

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

"Do not underestimate objects! . . . It is impossible to overstress this: do not underestimate objects" (Wallace 394). Even the most cursory reading of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest reveals the importance of objects to this work. Objects affect and vigorously direct all the characters throughout, from the tennis balls being continuously squeezed by students at the elite Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA) to the veil Joelle van Dyne wears to the plethora of drugs being consumed and, most importantly, to the cartridge of James O. Incandenza's final film, which is given the ultimate power of life and death over …

Genocide And Ethnic Cleansing: An Analysis On The Role Of The United Nations During The Bosnian War, Iman Zekri

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945 and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was subsequently founded in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly (Crisp 2001, 169). This investigation will evaluate the UN's structure and domestic limitations in Bosnia in the case of the Bosnian War (1992-1995) in order to determine the role of these factors in the outcome of the UN operation. This case of the UN peacekeeping mission will be considered a success if there was 1) strong leadership, 2) the situation was deescalated, and 3) the afflicted individuals' needs were satisfied. Similarly, this …

Palm Epiphyll Cover Shifts To Higher Elevations In Tropical Cloud Forest, Indicating Local Climate Change, Maya Spaur

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Intensifying patterns of weather and climate as caused by anthropogenic climate change have already caused extensive species extinctions, migrations, and range contractions in endemic species (Parmesan 2006), and pose the potential to induce substantial biodiversity loss on a global scale (IPCC 2014). Such trends have proven exceptionally apparent in tropical montane forests, where the disappearance of range-restricted species indicates a lifting cloud base as caused by rising sea surface temperature (SST) (Pounds et al.1999). Epiphylls serve as a bioindicator of local climate change due to their heightened sensitivity to water availability (Drake 2005). An altitudinal transect of percent epiphyll cover …

Movements In Dialogue: Kaleidoscope And The Discourse Of Underground News, Jeb Ebben

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

From 1967 to 1971, Kaleidoscope shared new and revolutionary ideas, challenged its readers, and created an important venue for intramovement dialogue. Beginning as an outlet for Milwaukee’s burgeoning counterculture and evolving into an important part of the mass movement, Kaleidoscope’s willingness to honestly interrogate the issues facing the community it served meant that it was an arena for tensions to be resolved. That Kaleidoscope, unlike many of the underground papers of the era, never transformed into an unofficial party organ for the New Left allowed it to be uniquely critical of the politics of the mass movement while at the …

Honors Program Induction: Fitting Into A Community That Is Born To Stand-Out, Jennifer Drew

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Overall, Southern Utah University’s Honors Program would greatly benefit from an induction program, a symbol of inclusion, and a mentorship program to foster a stronger sense of group cohesion. By understanding various theories of belonging, I have realized that members are only willing to put effort into a program if they have a place, purpose, and particular gains. From this information, I discovered that the Honors Program needs to create a community based on belonging, so members will become more committed to the program itself. My personal experiences within a study abroad fellowship and a local sorority have provided me …

The Mechanics Of Scientific Belief, Michael Cook

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

In "Science: Conjectures and Refutations," Karl Popper establishes a criterion for the scientific character or status of a theory: its falsifiability. And in one move, he turns a host of common scientific postulates—like the Ideal Gas Law, the Law of Conservation of Mass, Newton's First Law, and the Theory of Evolution—into "metaphysical research programs" whose nature renders them impossible to disprove though observable experiment ("Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind"). According to Popper, the nature of such postulates transcend the physical world; making them just as unfalsifiable as a spiritual power, or a god. In this way, they concern …

Educating The Outsiders: The Importance Of Social Support In The Success Of Latino Undocumented Students, Emily Adkins

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Immigrants of all types come to the United States hoping for some sort of a better life, but when they reach this country, they are faced with barriers. Language barriers, citizenship barriers, and financial barriers must all be overcome by the immigrant family. Undocumented students face particular challenges that seem insurmountable, but schools can offer these students success if they choose to do so. By going out of their way to involve the families of these students while making them feel comfortable in the safe place that the United States school system is and by encouraging teachers to reach out …

Moving Forward With Family Centered-Care: One Step At A Time, Adrianne Dunbar

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Family-centered care is an evolving process between patients, families, and health care providers. The family centered care model emphasizes the strength families bring to the healing process. The research project was a quasi-experimental pre-and post-test study with a communication intervention phase. The study was conducted in a Surgical-Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU) in a university affiliated hospital in the Southeast with restricted visitation hours. The purpose of this IRB-approved study was to measure the nurses’ perceptions of communication involvement with family members before and after the intervention phase. Approximately 50% of eligible participants responded. The communication intervention phase consisted of …