LifeSaver's Lane: Personal Hygiene Kits

Description
Life on a college campus can get incredibly busy between classes, work, and a social life. Because of this, it can be easy to completely forget to grab those essential items on the way out the door that you might…

Life on a college campus can get incredibly busy between classes, work, and a social life. Because of this, it can be easy to completely forget to grab those essential items on the way out the door that you might need for your day. The goal of LifeSaver’s Lane is to remedy the need to remember to grab those items by creating a small, easily accessible kit of essential items that can be thrown in a backpack or purse to keep at all times. Through this project we collected information on what would best work within our bags, as well as gathering expressed interest in regard to purchasing the product after we began to produce it. This project showed a large need for a product like these personal hygiene kits to deal with the chaos of daily life.
Date Created
2024-05
Agent

A Wordless World: Creating Stories of Autistic Children

Description

This project is a wordless children's book about an excluded child with autism who, with the help of a cat, learns to make friends and be happy with who she is. The book is illustrated with water color and acrylic…

This project is a wordless children's book about an excluded child with autism who, with the help of a cat, learns to make friends and be happy with who she is. The book is illustrated with water color and acrylic paints and is based on my experiences with autism. The goals for this project were to create representation for autistic people and to give something to younger autistic children to practice their communication. The essay portion of the project details the creation of the project, my inspirations, the research that has been done on how autistic children interact with storytelling and other non written communication, and a reflection on how the project went.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Do Arizona Charter Schools Rely on Exclusionary Discipline Practices?

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Description

Families of students with disabilities and those who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), are looking for better educational opportunities. Charter schools offer promise as they were designed to promote student learning with limited control from the state. Charter schools…

Families of students with disabilities and those who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), are looking for better educational opportunities. Charter schools offer promise as they were designed to promote student learning with limited control from the state. Charter schools though, have been criticized for relying on exclusionary discipline policies that affect CLD students and students with disabilities disproportionately. This study was designed to understand how Arizona charter schools use exclusionary discipline practices, with a focus on students with disabilities and CLD students. Two participants, a fourth grade and fifth grade teacher from a Phoenix metropolis charter school completed surveys and interviews where they answered questions about their classroom and their school’s discipline policies. Teachers were asked how they have adapted and administered classroom discipline policies and to what extent have positive behavioral strategies been implemented in an online setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic when schools transitioned to virtual learning. The results showed that in a virtual setting, teachers retained the practice of removing students from the “classroom”, expectations had to be modified to meet the needs of the new environment, and the school counselor served in conflicting roles. The findings suggested that charter schools and teachers may be transferring and adapting their reliance on exclusionary discipline practices even for an online setting with classrooms that have students with disabilities and those who are CLD.

Date Created
2021-05
Agent

The Read Aloud Revolution: An Examination of the Read Aloud Practice and the Roles Fathers Play

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Description
Reading aloud is an experience that provides children with cognitive and social emotional
benefits. Fathers are often not a part of this experience due to outdated gender roles that have led
to the classification of reading as a feminized activity. This review…

Reading aloud is an experience that provides children with cognitive and social emotional
benefits. Fathers are often not a part of this experience due to outdated gender roles that have led
to the classification of reading as a feminized activity. This review discusses the literature
surrounding the cognitive and social-emotional benefits of reading aloud to children. In addition
to academic literature, this paper takes into account the experiences of educators and parents
shared through social media and literacy organizations external to academia due to their presence
on the front lines of the reading aloud. This paper is divided into five sections, each of which
addresses a different domain of the read aloud practice. The first section is a personal narrative in
which the author shares a story surrounding her experience with read alouds to provide context
on why this topic was chosen for her undergraduate thesis. Section two addresses the importance
of read alouds in a child’s literacy journey and serves as a framework for the remainder of the
review. Section three discusses the vitality of the participation of fathers in the practice and
includes the explanation of the feminization of reading and the implications of the lack of fathers
within the read aloud experience. Section four discusses the implications of fathers taking an
active role in reading aloud. Lastly, section five serves as a resource pool for fathers, including
tips, a guide to community resources, and sample book lists.
Keywords: read aloud, gender roles, educator, literacy, parents, fathers
Date Created
2020-12
Agent

The Christology of Ephrem the Syrian in the First Hymn on the Pearl

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Description
Ephrem the Syrian was a prominent Syriac theologian and poet of the fourth century. He was born in modern day Turkey where he was likely raised a Christian. In Ephrem’s time, the subordinationist heresy was prevalent. Ephrem’s…

Ephrem the Syrian was a prominent Syriac theologian and poet of the fourth century. He was born in modern day Turkey where he was likely raised a Christian. In Ephrem’s time, the subordinationist heresy was prevalent. Ephrem’s historical and cultural background are important to understand Ephrem’s theology presented in his work. Ephrem wrote many theological works, being most known for his hymns. Ephrem used many symbols in his hymns including the one and the many, the divinity as fire, and the pearl. The pearl has Scriptural and historical significance to Ephrem. Ephrem uses the pearl as a polyvalent symbol that symbolizes, among other things, Mary, the kingdom of God, and Christ. In this paper, I explore how Ephrem’s Christology in his five hymns on the pearl contrast with that of the subordinationists by highlighting the mystery that is Christ’s nature, the incomprehensibility of Christ’s nature by the human mind, and the attempt to fully understand Christ’s nature as a manifestation of pride.
Date Created
2020-05
Agent

Peer Mentorship in Higher Education

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Description
It is widely accepted that mentorship between people of similar backgrounds and slightly different ages is a mutually beneficial partnership (e.g., Angelique, Kyle, & Taylor, 2002; Yomtov, 2017). Mentoring relationships exist in many forms across the education spectrum, from middle…

It is widely accepted that mentorship between people of similar backgrounds and slightly different ages is a mutually beneficial partnership (e.g., Angelique, Kyle, & Taylor, 2002; Yomtov, 2017). Mentoring relationships exist in many forms across the education spectrum, from middle school students interacting with their younger peers to the popular “Big-Little system” adopted by fraternity and sorority groups in U.S. colleges and universities, and beyond educational settings throughout the working world. However, one place where mentoring has received relatively less attention, from researchers as well as from practitioners, is in undergraduate student leadership-focused organizations at the college level.
Date Created
2020-05
Agent

The Arts in Education: Teacher Perception and Classroom Integration

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Description
The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the arts (visual arts, music, dance, and theater) in educational settings. It also sought to identify current teachers’ perceptions of the arts as a teaching methodology. Arts in education…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the arts (visual arts, music, dance, and theater) in educational settings. It also sought to identify current teachers’ perceptions of the arts as a teaching methodology. Arts in education is an expanding field of research and practice distinguished from arts education due to its investigation of learning through arts experiences. Arts experiences in classrooms can occur through a variety of mediums such as visual arts, music, dance, theater, and more. Specifically, this study examined how teachers perceive using various art forms and activities in the classroom to help students learn and communicate what they know, how frequently on average teachers use various art forms and activities in their classrooms, teacher attitudes and potential concerns about the arts in education, and why teachers would use the arts and what would make them use them more.
Date Created
2020-05
Agent

Language Policies in America, With an Emphasis on the State of Arizona

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Description
This thesis investigates the policy surrounding English Language Learners (ELL) on both a federal and state level, with an emphasis on the state of Arizona. Arizona ELL policy and pedagogy have been the subjects of research nationwide; many studies demonstrate…

This thesis investigates the policy surrounding English Language Learners (ELL) on both a federal and state level, with an emphasis on the state of Arizona. Arizona ELL policy and pedagogy have been the subjects of research nationwide; many studies demonstrate that ELLs struggle before, during and after participating in Arizona ELL programs (Lillie et al. 2012; Roa 2012; Office of Civil Rights 2012). Despite this previous research there were limited comprehensive overviews of the data that had been collected as well as recommendations that could be created utilizing the data. This thesis addresses that void of information through 1) A comprehensive literature review of the framework of policies used on the federal and state level, and 2) recommendations provided that are based on the findings of the literature included in the review. Study findings present that there is limited literature to support the English-Only policies currently enforced in the state of Arizona and that students would be better served to utilize other language acquisition approaches that view their primary language as a resource rather than a problem. Additionally, the literature suggests that there needs to be greater oversight in what language is being used to define certain groups so that all students receive proper resources and that there needs to be more communication about federal and state guidelines currently in place. It was recommended that extended research be conducted given recent policy shifts in the state of Arizona that occurred while the thesis was written, that future policy should account for greater inclusivity as well as continuous support, and that the state of Arizona reframe most of its current policies to be more fully aligned with research-based strategies.
Date Created
2019-12
Agent

The Effect of Infant Locomotor Devices on Muscle Development and Locomotion in Infants: A Review

Description
Infants partake in a developmental process between birth and 18 months which takes them from small movement while lying on their anterior side, through to walking, running, and jumping. In order to properly progress through this process, infants must…

Infants partake in a developmental process between birth and 18 months which takes them from small movement while lying on their anterior side, through to walking, running, and jumping. In order to properly progress through this process, infants must learn to crawl before they learn to walk; though this process can be altered by the influence of infant locomotor devices.

The use of infant locomotor devices such as walkers, jumpers, and exersaucers are widely controversial amongst parents and pediatricians. Parents often cite benefits to the child with device exposure, whereas pediatricians often warn against the use of them. The concern of the pediatricians lay within the risk that comes along with increased mobility, as well as the upright position the device puts the child in. The child is often unable to place themselves in this position outside of the device due to not being ready in their developmental pathway. The device places the child upright with their legs hanging below with their feet not flat on the ground supporting weight. This position can place strain on the infants’ hips, lower back, and trunk.

Research shows that infants with prolonged device exposure tend to reach their locomotor milestones later than infants with average to ideal exposure. Infants with prolonged device exposure have also been found to score lower on developmental assessments. To reduce the risk of injury and developmental delay, the American Academy of Pediatrics ban the production and sale of infant walkers, and advised parents allow their children to play in more natural positions, rather than the position the locomotor devices place the child in.
In order to bridge the gap of education provided to parents and caregivers, and the knowledge of the pediatricians, further research should be done to collect up to date data of the impact of these devices and the long-term impact of these devices past the age of three. Working to expand the educational outreach to parents, particularly in the medical setting, would also be beneficial in working to reduce the exposure infants have to these devices and in turn, the number of injuries and developmental delays associated with use.
Date Created
2019-12
Agent
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