Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

The Demand For Attention: Notification Technology And The Restructuring Of Communication, Sabrina Feld

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis argues that notifications are not merely features of digital devices but infrastructural forces that quietly reorganize the conditions under which communication is perceived, enacted, and understood. Drawing on Science, Technology, and Society (STS) frameworks, specifically Actor-Network Theory and Langdon Winner's concept of Forms of Life, the first chapter traces how notifications produce a Form of Life organized around continuous responsiveness, in which incoming information appears as a pending demand, silence carries new moral weight, and the capacity for self-determined availability is structurally foreclosed. Understood this way, notifications become a case study for a broader pattern in which technological …

High Potential, Uneven Uptake: Off-Grid Renewables In Agriculture Across The Global South, Muhamad Setyawan Bahari, Destia Mardhotillah

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

Reliable energy access is widely recognized as essential for agricultural development, yet adoption of off-grid renewable energy technologies (RETs) in the Global South remains uneven despite their high potential. While RETs are increasingly promoted as solutions to food insecurity and energy poverty, evidence on what enables or constrains their uptake across agricultural contexts remains fragmented. This study systematically reviews 18 peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2025 using the PRISMA framework and synthesizes findings through a PESTEL lens. The literature has expanded in recent years, reflecting growing policy attention to the energy–agriculture nexus, but remains concentrated in Asia and heavily …

Advancing The Iot4ag Agbridge Program Through Continuous Improvement Practices, Yury A. Kuleshov, Yaguang Zhang

Indiana STEM Education Conference

The authors are implementing improvements to the pilot AgBridge program. The AgBridge program is a mentorship program that brings together graduate students in engineering and/or engineering technology and education and matches them with educators in agriculture-related fields with support from faculty members and volunteers. Each team creates an educational product for use in a K-12 classroom, such as school curriculum focused on a research project. The program approach differs from a conventional post-secondary classroom, where students of different majors have minimal interaction with one another and have limited input from practitioners and/or industry professionals. The authors used feedback data to …

Proceedings Of The Eleventh Annual Indiana Stem Education Conference: Stem Journeys, William S. Walker Iii, S. Selcen Guzey

Indiana STEM Education Conference

The Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Indiana STEM Education Conference are edited by the Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM (CATALYST, https://www.education.purdue.edu/catalyst/) at Purdue University. The theme for the 2026 conference is STEM Journeys, celebrating the multiple pathways and experiences that advance student learning in STEM education.

Renewable Energy Innovation: A Mathematics-Driven Integrated Stem Approach For K-12 Classrooms, Humphrey Chinenye Ochulor, Dayat Hidayat

Indiana STEM Education Conference

This research brief presents Renewable Energy Innovation (REI) as a mathematics-driven Integrated STEM (iSTEM) approach for engaging upper elementary and middle school students to design, analyze, test, and refine solar cars and wind turbines through mathematical modeling (MM) and problem solving (PS). Research suggests that renewable energy activities support students’ abilities to design systems, quantify variables, construct multiple representations, and refine mathematical models to clarify relationships between energy output and design features. Positioning mathematics as the driver in REI iSTEM engineering design contexts aligns with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and foregrounds mathematics as a primary organizing discipline …

Stem Integration Through Environmental Data Analysis For Real-World Problem Solving, Abigail Erskine

Indiana STEM Education Conference

Integrating authentic, environmental-based data can make STEM instruction more meaningful. As part of a broader high school STEM curriculum, I designed a lesson that connects mathematical and statistical concepts, technology, and environmental data through environmental data analysis to develop real-world problem solving. Using local deer mortality data, I examined how descriptive statistics and data interpretation could reveal population and ecological patterns. Designing with real data highlighted how mathematics can serve as a lens for understanding environmental issues and promote connections across STEM disciplines. This research brief focuses on the instructional design and reflection as the lesson designer.

From Coursework To Research: A Scalable Model For Student-Industry Ai Collaboration, Hyeong Kyun Park, Andrew Joon Cha

Indiana STEM Education Conference

Preparing students for advanced technical careers requires more than foundational theory; it demands a shift to genuine research methodology. With the rising need for university-industry partnerships in AI innovation, this case study dissects a successful student-industry AI engineering collaboration project and transforms it into an essential preparation model easily adopted by technology personnel. The student participants include undergraduate and graduate engineering, data science, and computer science students working directly with practicing industry AI engineers. While universities publish most AI research and generate higher-novelty work, industry contributes state-of-the-art models, large datasets, and computational resources. Students gain research readiness, data literacy, and …

Document Analysis: Indiana Doe Stem School Certification Process Through A Liberatory Lens, Steve Heinold

Indiana STEM Education Conference

The Indiana Department of Education awards a STEM School Certification (IDOE, 2024) to schools that exhibit priorities for integrated STEM education. Currently over one hundred schools in Indiana have received this certification, including many that represent communities of color and under-resourced communities. While the STEM certification process has thus far been representational for low-income and Black students (Duarte, 2025), many disparities and deficits remain in closing opportunity gaps for students of color in STEM in the state of Indiana. This research brief, utilizing BlackCrit theory in education, analyzes Indiana’s STEM School Certification process for addressing the systemic barriers that under-represented …

The Influence Of Teachers And Career Counselors Of Middle School Students' Interest In Pursuing Stem Careers, Damilola Ayokanmi, Paul Asunda

Indiana STEM Education Conference

At the front of every STEM classroom, teachers hold more than just textbooks, they hold the potential to shape students’ aspirations, confidence, and perceptions of what is possible in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Beyond teaching content, they nurture problem-solving skills and position STEM careers as attainable (Dare et al., 2021). Career counselors complement this work by providing career-related information, exposing students to STEM professions, and guiding them through academic pathways (Rottinghaus et al., 2018). Together, these educators form an essential support system influencing students’ early career awareness (Murcia et al., 2020). This ongoing qualitative study examines how teachers …

Green Energy Innovation As A Theme For Integrated Stem Curriculum In K-8 Out-Of-School Learning, Humphrey Chinenye Ochulor, Paul Asunda, Swagata Sarkar, Comfort Temitope Aje, Deepanshu Gupta

Indiana STEM Education Conference

In this project, we developed a theme of Green Energy Innovation (GEI) for K-8 integrated STEM (iSTEM) out-of-school learning that includes scientific concepts, engineering design, mathematical measurement, and data collection. Anchored in engineering design (English, 2016), the researchers designed a curricular unit that included simple and complex solar car models. The researcher-designed solar car prototypes serve as STEM kits that support students’ iSTEM-based engineering design activities.

More Than A Design Task: How Questions Shape Student Attention And Learning, Isaiah Kent-Schneider

Indiana STEM Education Conference

Incorporating engineering design activities into education has the potential to transform learning and students' educational experiences. However, when teachers implement engineering design without asking purposeful questions to focus students' attention, students tend to focus on the task but miss out on the intended learning of underlying science and math concepts. This research brief provides practical examples of questions teachers can use to focus student attention during engineering design activities.

Identity And Ownership As Predictors Of Stem Career Interest, Jung Han, Hyeong Kyun Park

Indiana STEM Education Conference

This study examined how students’ sense of identity and ownership in STEM relates to their interest in pursuing STEM careers. Using data from 319 middle and high school students, we tested whether students who felt a stronger personal connection to STEM concepts showed higher levels of career interest. Multilevel modeling was employed to account for students nested within classrooms. Sense of identity and ownership of STEM in their place consistently predicted STEM career interest, while gender, class subject, and school location showed no meaningful effects in the final full model. The findings suggest that fostering students’ identity and ownership in …

Social Media Addiction And Its Influence On The Physical Social Interactions Among West Virginia University Students, Blessing Ochom Omaleko

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ABSTRACT

Social Media Addiction and its Influence on the Physical Social Interactions Among West Virginia University Students

Blessing O. Omaleko

This qualitative study investigated social media addiction and its perceived influence on face-to-face interactions among 14 West Virginia University students using an open-ended qualitative survey. Grounded in Griffiths' (2013) behavioral addiction components, salience, mood modification, conflict, and relapse, the data were analyzed using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings revealed that while students characterized their social media use as a habit rather than an addiction, their descriptions aligned with multiple addiction components. Students consistently valued in-person interactions over online …

Fifty Years Of Research In The Commonwealth Of The Bahamas: A Quantitative Thematic Analysis Of Scholarly Output, Amina Moss, Krista D. Sherman, Williamson Gustave, Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, Charlotte Dunn, Nicola Simone Smith, Lindy Knowles, Christy Gibson

Gulf and Caribbean Research

This study presents the first longitudinal bibliometric mapping of peer—reviewed research on The Bahamas, analyzing 12,113 Web of Science records (1975–2025) using CiteSpace v.6.4.R2. We identified 36 co—citation clusters (modularity Q = 0.7967; silhouette = 0.9231) and 28 keyword clusters (Q = 0.7523; silhouette = 0.8695), revealing 8 thematic trajectories over 5 decades. Early research (prior to 1990) focused on carbonate geology and sea—level dynamics across the northwestern Bahama Platform and Blake—Bahama Basin (Cluster#0, silhouette = 0.939). From the 1990s–mid—2000s, attention shifted to marine fisheries, Aliger gigas, coral reefs, and ecological resilience (Cluster #1, n = 203). In the …

Ai Ethics And Governance For Leaders In Higher Education: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology Of Faculty Early Adopters’ Sensemaking, Pedagogical Innovation, And Transformation, Freddie Seba

Doctoral Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially Generative AI (GenAI), is transforming how we work, learn, acquire, produce, and deliver knowledge, as higher education experiences existential pressures, including demographic changes that reduce enrollment and revenues, as well as shifting public and government perceptions of higher education's value.

This hermeneutic phenomenology dissertation study explores how faculty early adopters critically engage, innovate, and experiment with this nascent transformational technology in their pedagogies amid multilevel pressures: macro—market-driven (neoliberalism) logic, Big Tech, and demographic change; meso—institutional policy, broader faculty community, and pedagogical innovation; micro—widespread student adoption, pedagogical experimentation, and innovation.

This dissertation study centers on shifting AI …

Unseen Bias: How Ai Shapes Religious Narratives In Digital Spaces, Hilman Nurjaman, Achmed Faiz Yudha Siregar, Jasmine Rizky El Yasinta

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

This study explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping religious narratives in digital spaces, particularly on social media platforms and AI chatbots. Using sentiment analysis and qualitative content analysis, this research examines religious discourse in Indonesia, focusing on the impact of AI-driven content personalization, such as 'filter bubbles' and 'echo chambers'. The findings indicate that AI algorithms reinforce religious biases, intensifying polarization and discrimination, especially between majority and minority religious groups. The study also highlights the socio-political factors influencing these dynamics, including identity politics, historical religious tensions, and conservative social norms. This research emphasizes the need for a …

How Does Vertical Hydroponic Farming Compare To Traditional Soil Farming In Terms Of Crop Yield, Energy Efficiency, And Cost?, Grace Morgan, Grace Henry, Rebecca Meenach, Jeana Odom

Student Scholar Symposium

Vertical hydroponics (hydro “water;” ponics “labor”) is a method of year-round farming that uses water in place of soil and supplies vegetables’ nutrients in a space-efficient setting. It dates back to 500 BC when it was used in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a wonder of the ancient world. Thousands of years later, vertical hydroponics has expanded across the globe to supply leafy greens, herbs, and grains. It is typically implemented in dense urban environments where green space is hard to come by as a form of sustainable farming. Our research seeks to answer the question “How does vertical hydroponic …

The ‘For Youth’ Page: Analyzing Tiktok Content Feeds For College-Aged Users, Hadiyah Mohamed

Honors College Theses

This study analyzes the content college-aged users encounter on TikTok’s “For You” page to understand the ways platform design and user-generated content shape prolonged engagement. Existing research frames doomscrolling largely as a compulsive behavior driven by algorithmic design, often overlooking the role of content itself and why it resonates with young adults. Through qualitative content analysis, 150 videos were collected across three TikTok accounts: scrolling from a personal account, a neutral new account, and a new account under the #CollegeTok tag. Videos were rigorously coded in a spreadsheet for narrative descriptions, topics, captions, hashtags, and tone to capture the themes …

Adolescent Children’S Risk Of Long Covid-19 Syndrome Based On Diet And Demographic Factors From An Online Survey, Christopher Waskewich

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Limited information is available on how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has [JG1] affected adolescents regarding long-term health risks. This quantitative study focused on the effect of U.S. adolescents’ daily diet, race/ethnicity, levels of income, family level of education, access to health care, age, and comorbidities on the risks of long COVID-19 syndrome. I used the constructs of the health belief model to understand the impact of those variables. The online survey results (N = 298) found that adolescents whose daily vegetable consumption was more than daily recommendations (2–3 cups) had a lower odds ratio of having long COVID-19 syndrome …

The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Reducing Internet Crimes Against Children, Malyssa Shaw

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

When generative artificial intelligence (AI) first surfaced and broke into the public sphere, my immediate concern was in its development, implementation, and harmful applications. I was not surprised when deepfake technology rapidly advanced alongside these new developments and impacted women and children worldwide. Disproportionately, they have been made victims of intimate media forgery as early as the 1990s, with an unprecedented uptick in recent years as a direct result of these developments. In response, I wrote "Deepfake, Real Harm: Protecting Children in the Age of AI", analyzing data specifically regarding child sexual abuse material (CSAM) created with artificial intelligence while …