Outdoor Education Commons^™

Empowering Refugees Through Self-Education, Ayanna Osborne

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project focuses on how to create easier access to education in refugee camps. This is discussed through the ideas of self-directed learning and cooperative learning. As well, the current need for education is explored. Several case studies are provided demonstrating that people without a formal education have successfully been able to seek information and teach themselves. As well, studies are discussed in which individuals have been shown to efficiently seek information and teach one another.

My website provided is still under construction as of 01/2018. It will be completed by the end of the year. Anyone is welcome to …

Biomimicry A “Natural Lesson” In Steam, Steve Pauls

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The introduction of biomimicry as a theme in the classroom has some significant advantages when developing a STEAM curriculum. This growing field has many natural overlaps between the different disciplines within STEAM. There are many fascinating stories surrounding biomimicry connecting nature to simple solutions for many of our most difficult problems, especially related to the sustainability of our planet. Biomimicry cannot but help capture the imagination of our students.

Play It Forward: Cooperative Learning & Structured Play During Recess, Tyler Elwin, Mary Rossi

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Cooperative learning and structured play (CLASP) are two things that have gone unappreciated in the modern educational setting. This is an important issue for many local low-income schools as the dropout rate is so high. CLASP ideals come with a wide array of positive outcomes that look to brighten the futures of affected youth. CLASP provides an incredible number of scholarly benefits: increased school involvement, higher GPA, improved interpersonal relationships, increased ability to work as a team, etc. This capstone identifies these critical benefits and addresses the best way to properly utilize CLASP within the school setting. The three primary …

Interns Matter: Maximizing Integration Of Interns Into Community Agencies, Valerie Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Hope Services is a non-profit agency serving individuals with developmental disabilities in six counties. Over the years, there have been many agencies that have formed connections with Hope Services. One of these collaborative partnerships has been with CSU Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) integration of interns through their field placement program. However, recently former Hope Services South District Manager, Greg Dinsmore, witnessed a lack of utilization and integration of interns across all Hope Services agencies. Through firsthand experience as a mentor, he witnessed the benefits of utilizing interns and saw the need for further advocacy and support for the integration of interns …

Diné Bina'nitin Dóó O'Hoo'aah/Education For Us, By Us: A Collective Journey In Diné Education Liberation, Lyla June Johnston

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study is an educational memoir of my experience working for education liberation with hundreds of Diné (Navajo) people written in the style of auto-ethnography. We are indigenous to what is now known as the southwestern United States and organize in the wake of attempted genocide and destructive assimilation policies. Our collective set out to answer the following question: If we could teach and learn anything we wanted, in any way we wanted, what would we do? Based on our ancestral Nitsáhakees-Nahat’á-Iiná-Sii Hasin strategic framework, this Diné collective organized a summer school that reflected their hearts’ true pedagogical desires. What …

Nebline, November/December 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: 4-H’ers Grow Into True Leaders through Service

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Experiential Learning Opportunity (Elo) And Utilization Of Field-And-Data- Based Information Obtained Through The Infusion Of Technology: Highlights On Nasa Stem And Earth Science Curricula, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Matthew Khargie, Shuayb Siddiqu, Sol De Leon, Katina Singh, Newrence Wills, Krishna Mahibar

Publications and Research

There is a greater emphasis on hands-on involvement and critical thinking skills in the geosciences and other STEM fields to inspire and engage K- 16 students to value scientific content and enable them to discover the well-documented nature of the fundamental scientific principles needed to explain various earth science and other STEM-related core phenomena. NASA MAA curricula are ideal for engaging K1-16 students in this context, since grade-specific lesson plans open-up a plethora of pedagogically sound and relevant earth science activities. These include earth’s materials and properties, meteorites, robotics, hot air balloon, flight simulation, star gazing, material science, crystal growth, …

Philosophy Bakes No Bread, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Philosophy Bakes No Bread

Far from baking bread, far from practical applicability, philosophy traditionally sought to explain the world, ideally so. Thus, when Marx argued that it was high time philosophy “change the world,” his was a revolutionary challenge. Today, philosophy is an analytic affair and analytic philosophers seek less to explain the world than to squirrel out arguments or, more descriptively, to resolve the minutiae of this or that name problem. Faced with diminishing student demand, analytic philosophers have taken to urging that everyone from primary school students to scientists be required to study (analytic) philosophy. Just so, applied …

Nebline, October 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Floodwater and Stormwater Can Contaminate Water Wells

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Nebline, September 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Early Childhood Educators Benefit from Mindfulness Reflection

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Factors Of Beginning Teachers' Development Within A Mentor-Based Induction Program, James Davis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was a quantitative, correlational study that examined the impact of the mentor component of a mentor-based induction program on three factors of new teacher development and support. The focus of this study was on beginning teachers participating in a district-supported mentoring program designed to support and acclimate teachers to the role of professional teacher as well as to support and acclimate teachers to the policies, procedures, and culture of the district. A convenience sample totaling 130 teachers at a large urban school district in southeast Georgia participated in this study. The participants represented varied levels of degree completion, …

Student Knowledge Of Environmental Factors In The Dominican Republic, Nicole Sandretto

The Exposition

No abstract provided.

Nebline, August 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Back-to-School Nutrition

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Special pullout section: Lancaster County Super Fair 2017 Schedule & Map

Cultural Self-Identification Among Extension Educators' And Cultural Competence In Cooperative Extension, Ruddy Y. Benavides

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As immigration and globalization are increasing, the number of people in our country who speak more than one language is also increasing (Center for Public Education, 2012). These trends are creating needs for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students and families in schools, specifically, the need for culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally competent teachers. In addition to formal educational contexts, non-formal educational contexts such as Cooperative Extension need to adapt to cultural changes as well. The purpose of this study was to explore the personal beliefs and professional experiences of present Extension Educators (EEs), and the techniques they practice in …

Strategies For Environmental Education For Youths And Adults, Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar, Samantha Pfeffer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Chumbe Island Coral Park (CHICOP) is a privately-owned business that strives to follow the best principles of ecotourism, conservation, and environmental education. Their environmental education initiative is award-winning and has affected thousands of students and community members in Zanzibar. This study looked at the environmental education techniques that CHICOP already has in place by observing two pre-visits, three island-visits and one-post visit, and determined where there was a need for enhanced and new techniques for teaching about the environment. Evidence of climate change on Chumbe Island was also recorded to aid in the educational tools and to create a database …

Nebline, July 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: The Road to Great (and Safe!) Grilling

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

New Design Principles For Mobile History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Presentations and other scholarship

This study draws on design-based research on an ARIS–based mobile augmented reality game for teaching early 20th century history. New design principles derived from the study include the use of supra-reveals, and bias mirroring. Supra-reveals are a kind of foreshadowing event in order to ground historical happenings in the wider enduring historical understanding. Bias mirroring refers to a nonplayer character echoing back a player’s biased behavior, in order to open the player to listening to alternative perspectives. Supra-reveals engendered discussion of historical themes early in the game experience. The results showed that use of a cluster of NPC bias mirroring …

Nebline, June 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: What's Biting You?

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Through The Phoropter: A Reflective Analysis Of One Practitioner’S Attempt To Sequence Social And Emotional Learning Competencies Into An Experiential Learning Program, Stephanie A. Globus-Hoenich

Capstone Collection

This capstone is a reflective analysis of social and emotional learning programming and its implementation in traditional Western schools. It approaches the question of sequencing social and emotional competencies for instruction through experiential learning. Initially I sought a linear rationale in order to better understand my work in implementing a social and emotional learning program in nearby Keene, New Hampshire through High 5 Adventure Learning Center’s Edge of Leadership program. However, my inquiry shifted in light of several ethical implications that arise from the prospect of constraining social and emotional learning into a pre-set curriculum.

As a Course-Linked Capstone, this …

Transformational Leadership For Growth In Changing Times, David Kooharian

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

“Transformational Leadership for Growth in Changing Times” is a personal exploration into a leadership style that is both humanizing and effective. As a parent, artist, teacher, and counselor I have developed a personal form of leading without understanding what I was doing. After researching leadership styles I discovered that what I had been doing was backed by a recognized theory of leadership called Transformational Leadership.

The keys to Transformational Leadership include: Idealized Influence. Leaders behave as role models demonstrating high ethical standards and moral conduct. They are consistent and provide a feeling of confidence that obstacles can be overcome. The …

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

Does Touch Have A Place In Interpretation? Researching The Role Of Appropriate Interpersonal Touch (Ait) In Interpretive Programs, Mickey Shortt Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of interpersonal touch has been studied in communication fields, demonstrating a handshake or other form of appropriate interpersonal touch (AIT) has rendered favorable results in rapport building with an audience as well as developing audience comfort and receptivity to messaging. This study aimed to determine if the use of a handshake prior to interpretive programming would increase the positivity of perception of a visitor toward interpreters and/or the message shared by interpreters. Researchers also sought the viewpoints of professionals in the field of interpretation about the current use and perception of touch. Finally, a post-survey interview was conducted …

The Sky's The Limit: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum On Sustainable Architecture Within Urban Communities, Sierra Van Ryck Degroot

Graduate Student Independent Studies

As trees continue to fall and buildings rise in our expanding internationally-linked cities, the future of technology, design and the health of the environment rests on instilling the importance of sustainable practices in future generations. In this interdisciplinary curriculum unit designed for grades 3-5 in the New York City metropolitan area, students are studying and then developing their own models of multi-purpose skyscrapers, utilizing sustainable technologies to reduce environmental impact.

Urban Gardening Grows Relationships: The Importance Of Urban Gardening To The Self And The Earth, Ashley King

Graduate Student Independent Studies

There are many texts for young readers that focus on gardening and the pleasant experiences it can bring. However, there is a distinct lack of texts that address urban gardening specifically as well as the reasons why gardening, in and outside of cities, is so important. This independent study had a purpose of providing a book for young readers that will engage them in a celebration of gardening and the environment around them. The text of the book follows a young girl who gardens not only to build relationships with her peers, but also to take care of and appreciate …

Experiences Among U.S. Students Of Color, Travel Background, And Cultural Attunement To Intersectionalities In Study Abroad Programs., Jessica Norman

Dissertations

This cohort and event-based case study sought to evaluate the cultural experiences and development of cross cultural intersectionalities in U.S. students of culture participating in a study abroad program to Argentina. Current study abroad outcomes consistently show travel abroad experiences lead to improved cultural awareness, knowledge, understanding and competency. Study abroad programming appears to be an overlooked opportunity for creating positive, long-lasting, transformative change, particularly for under-represented students (Milsen, 2005; Mondard-Weissman, 2003; Hadis, 2005; Van Hoff & Verbee, 2005). Over the last 30 years, international educators have reported positive changes in students after learning abroad; improved in self-awareness, respect for …

Nebline, May 2017

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Biosolids Land Application Program Celebrating 25 Years of Benefiting the Community

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

A Retro Development In Education: Evaluating The Feasibility Of Integrating Place-Based Education Into Mississippi Curriculum Standards, Colby K. Mcclain

Honors Theses

This thesis evaluates the feasibility of integrating place-based environmental education activities from Think Green, Take Action: Books and Activities for Kids into the Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE) Frameworks for Science and Social Studies for K-5. As children develop and experience the world, their ability to understand and interpret the surrounding environments expand; however, Mississippi schools are not focused on experiential environmental education, even though experiencing and understanding the surrounding environment is vital in fostering eagerness to learn. Due to a growing disconnect between humans and the natural world, this thesis examined 37 place- and environment-based activities for children, sixteen …

How Service Learning Opportunities Impact Transformational Learning Experiences For Grades 6-12 School Students: A Case Study, Sherry Ballew

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this single instrumental case study was to explore how service learning (SL) opportunities are perceived by participants to impact transformational learning (TL) experiences for students in Grades 6-12. The model used to support this concept was the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model (WSCC), which views community involvement to be as important in the development of the child as traditional classroom instruction (Rooney, Videto, & Birch, 2015). The theory guiding this study is transformational learning (Mezirow, 2000). TL theory is a lens through which to view the learning experiences associated with SL. For this single instrumental …

An Investigation Into The Experiences Of Homeschooled Individuals With Autism That Led To Success In The On-Campus College Environment: A Case Study, Carol Dolan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Rates of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are rising, and more individuals with ASD are continuing to college. At the same time, homeschooling is becoming more prevalent, and more students with ASD are being homeschooled. These increases lead to the inference that colleges will see more homeschooled students with ASD applying for admission. The purpose of this case study was to understand experiences of individuals with ASD who were homeschooled that fostered success in the on-campus college environment. The central question guiding this research was: What are the experiences of individuals with ASD who were homeschooled that lead to success in …