This thesis investigates an interpenetrating network of polyacrylamide and poly acrylic acid for use in a dynamic tactile display, which presents traditionally two-dimensional electronic screens as three-dimensional topographical models that can be experienced through touch. This kind of display would allow for greater access to traditionally visual information for the visually impaired. This hydrogel demonstrates Upper Critical Solution Temperature (UCST) near room temperature which facilitates a swelling transition, characterized by a sharp increase in swelling as this temperature is surpassed. Through the utilization of light responsive additives, light can trigger this shift, as the additives harness visible light, convert it into heat to raise the gel’s temperature, and increase the volume of the gel. Light-responsive additives explored include chlorophyllin, gold nanoparticles, and carbon black. Each of these additives required unique synthesis planning and strategies in order to optimize the performance of the gels. Synthesized gels were characterized using thermal swelling tests, light response tests and compression tests to determine the material strength. The best performing additive was chlorophyllin and allowed for a 20.8%±4.5% percent weight increase upon exposure to light for 10 minutes. In addition to investigating light-responsive additives, modifications were pursued to alter the overall UCST behavior, such as the addition of sodium chloride. By adding sodium chloride into the hydrogel, the gel was found to have a wider transition. Overall, light-responsive behavior was developed, and further work can be done in improving the response time and degree of swelling in order to make this material more viable for use in a dynamic tactile display.

This is a two-part thesis, completed in conjunction with my Materials Science and Engineering Capstone Project. The first part involves the design and testing of cold-extruded high-density polyethylene for student oboe reeds. The goal of this section was to create a longer-lasting reed that produces a similar sound to a cane reed, has less variation in quality, and costs less per year than cane reeds. For low-income students in particular, the cost of purchasing cane oboe reeds ($500-$2,000 per year) is simply not feasible. This project was designed to allow oboe to be a more affordable option for all students. Money should not be a factor that limits whether or a not a child is able to explore their interests. The process used to create the synthetic reed prototype involves cold-extrusion of high-density polyethylene in order to induce orientation in the polymer to replicate the uniaxial orientation of fibrous cane. After successful cold-extrusion of a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) cylinder, the sample was made into a reed by following standard reedmaking procedures. Then, the HDPE reed and a cane reed were quantitatively tested for various qualities, including flexural modulus, hardness, and free vibration frequency. The results from the design project are promising and show a successful proof of concept. The first prototype of an oriented HDPE reed demonstrates characteristics of a cane reed. The areas that need the most improvement are the flexural modulus and the stability of the higher overtones, but these areas can be improved with further development of the cold-extrusion process. The second part of this thesis is a survey and analysis focusing on the qualitative comparison of synthetic and cane oboe reeds. The study can be used in the future to refine the design of synthetic reeds, more specifically the cold-extruded high-density polyethylene student oboe reed I designed, to best replicate a cane reed. Rather than approaching this study from a purely engineering mindset, I brought in my own experience as an oboist. Therefore, the opinions of oboists who have a wide range of experience are considered in the survey. A panel of five oboists participated in the survey. They provided their opinion on various aspects of the five reeds, including vibrancy, response, stability, resistance, tone, and overall quality. Each of these metrics are rated on a scale from one to five, from unacceptable to performance quality. According to the survey, a participant's personal, hand-made cane reed is overall the most preferred option. My prototype HDPE student reed must be improved in many areas in order to rank near the other four reeds. However, its vibrancy and resistance already rival that of a Jones student reed. As this is just the first prototype, that is a significant accomplishment. With further refinement of the cold-extrusion and reedmaking method, the other areas of the HDPE reed may be improved, and the reed may eventually compete with the existing synthetic and cane reeds on the market.

The activities of drum corps and high school marching band are similar in many ways, and yet drum corps is styled as the "major league" of the marching arts. What makes the learning environment different between drum corps and high school marching band? While drum corps has a denser rehearsal schedule, and involved an audition process where high school marching band does not, the biggest difference between the two activities lies in the instructional practices utilized. Drum corps does not have to adhere to state or national arts education standards, and so the instructors must create their own standards and forms of assessment for the students, which directly affects student motivation. This student motivation can be understood through the Self-Determination Theory pioneered by Deci & Ryan, in which the conditions of autonomy, competency, and relatedness must be supported for students to reach the highest levels of motivation. By interviewing the directors of the Academy Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Casa Grande Union High School marching band, and surveying students of each organization, a comparison can be made in the instructional practices of each organization and the subsequent effect on student motivation. Through the interviews with the directors, it was gathered that instructors in drum corps had more chances to work with the students one on one, and assess their personal growth in a subjective manner than the instructors in the high school marching band. This affected the way in which the drum corps instructors structured their rehearsals and set their goals. High school instructors were able to assess technical skill more often with graded assessments such as playing tests or scale checks, though this did not always take into account the students' personal growth or experience. From the anonymous surveys of the students of both organizations, a desire for relatedness was communicated from the high school students more than the drum corps students, and a greater lack of comfort with asking questions was displayed from the high school students. Interpreting these results with SDT, it could be said that these high school students were feeling less motivated than the drum corps students due to a lack of fulfillment in the areas of relatedness and competence. In the end, it would seem that the differentiated instruction that is possible in drum corps sets the activity apart from high school marching band, as the instructors are able to work with students on setting personal goals and may subjectively assess their growth within the activity. Self- and peer-evaluation in drum corps is also facilitated through video assignments in which other students may give comments to their peers, which builds the area of relatedness more within drum corps students than in high school students.

The meanings and values that people assign to music and the material culture that music creation offers make excellent data sources for uncovering new and transformative aspects of culture. Gospel music is a subculture that emphasizes a unique performance style, and is based upon culturally specific religious, social, musical, and historical contexts. Students in the ensemble who musically developed through a Western classical-based connective strand may experience some adjustment from what they know and develop new skills to navigate across cultural difference. The purpose of this study was to document how participants in a specific university gospel choir setting navigated across cultural differences for gospel choir study and performance. Participants were recruited and interviewed a total of three times about their experience in the ensemble. Questions that guided the study focused on three areas: religious difference, social difference, and musical difference. An in-case analysis of each participant showed that overall, experiences in the choir were positive. Participants from a variety of diverse backgrounds approached new cultural learning differences such as physical movement, aural music learning, religious text, and performance context with an open mind and an individualized way of navigating through difference. In order for participants to reach a point where they felt that they had cultural competency in a new musical area, in this case, the establishment of a strong community was especially essential because of the assumptions attached to this ensemble and because of many of the participants' initial limited understanding of cultural markers for learning music that draw on improvisatory and aural means. This study implies that there are connections between each cultural difference that are related. For the educator intending to introduce new cultural competencies in their classrooms, considering the dynamics in which cultural differences might interact with each other is essential.

This study tracks specific earworm tendencies amongst a sample of university students in an effort to support previous theories and to offer fresh perspectives about what causes earworms and why some people may experience more earworms than others. Every participant was placed in one of four categories: Female Music Major (FMM), Female, Non-Music Major (FNM), Male Music Major (MMM), and Male, Non-Music Major (MNN). This study determined that females experienced more earworms than males, and music majors experienced less earworms than other majors. The study also found that most earworms occurred while participants were in an environment that they did not find particularly engaging, ranging from doing homework to commuting on the bus. Data collected from this research provides potential platforms for future research in the topic of a deep analysis of earworm tendencies amongst a wider population.

The idea that everything occurs linearly, over the course of time, is evident in the way we construct our sentences and track our understanding of our own lives. It is within this understanding we perform, compose, and listen to music. Since language occurs over time, there is the understanding that words and ideas are uttered like marks on a continuous line, some closer together, others with large gaps in-between. It has been the work of linguists and philosophers to understand the patterns, or the rhythm, of speech and language in this way, and while there is no definitive or consistent model for how language is rhythmically produced in any language, it has been determined that rhythm is considered and perceived when language is spoken or heard. It is this perception of rhythm in speech that defines how language comprehension is acquired before phonetic skills. This paper will explore the effects of rhythm in language during infant's prelexical period, the correlations of rhythm and developing reading skills, and finally, explore how the intervals between vocalic utterances become normalized and consistent in poetic readings.

This thesis explores the various reasons that Broadway musicals fail, or "flop". It goes into detail on several musicals of different genres, and explains what their shortcomings were, whether it be a less-than-perfect book, a weak score, or a production team that was not experienced in the skills that it takes to put together a musical. It discusses how long the shows ran for, or if they ever made it into a Broadway house. It looks at what the audience reception was like for each show, and whether the shows were a success with the tough critics of Broadway. In addition to this, I have recorded several of my peers performing songs from the musicals I have discussed in the written portion of this thesis. This helps to educate an audience on what it would have been like for one of the flop's real performances. The videos also do a wonderful job of communicating what the show sounds like, and how it can make an audience feel or react. Lastly, it gives more insight into why the musicals they are from failed to thrive in front of a Broadway audience. Through my research, I have discovered that creating a musical is possibly one of the most difficult feats a team of creative people can accomplish. There are countless reasons for failure in these shows, but overall, I feel that every failure had something to offer, and because of that, are surely worth celebrating.

This project examines the relationship between individuals' musical preferences and the amount of musical education they have received, as well as some other supporting variables. Data was collected from 43 participants regarding general and musical background information. Participants then listened to eight musical samples and answered a series of related questions. These sets of data were compared to investigate how musical preference varies with changes in background information, principally the level of musical education received. Musical preference was gauged in part according to a system which relied more on discrete musical features than common genre categorizations. The population studied was made up of honors students from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. The research questions addressed are: is musical preference dependent on level of musical education; if so, how; and what are some possible explanations for any relationships? This study was conducted in order to obtain a clearer understanding of the nature of musical preference which may be of use to musicologists and modern musicians alike. Results indicated that musical education does have an effect on musical preferences and listening habits, but that this effect is not correlated in any straightforward relationship, and there are likely more diverse issues at play.

According to the National Center on Family Homelessness (2017), Homelessness affects 2.5 million children annually (n.p). Children who are exposed to homelessness many times also suffer from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) which can hinder a younger person's development cognitively, socially, and can cause health problems such as heart disease later on in life. Examples of an ACE are death of a family member, witnessing or experiencing violence, economic hardship, or having a parent with a alcohol or drug addiction. About 70,000 of children in Arizona suffer from five or more ACEs. In this project music therapy interventions such as songwriting, lyric analysis, and recreative instrument play were used to address psychosocial needs for teens at a homeless shelter. The areas of psychosocial needs addressed in the music therapy group were: group cohesion, communication, and self regulation. Objectives were set each session in an eight week program to track progress of the above goals that were created based on the needs of the clients in this setting.

This entire project looks at color guard from the perspective of a music educator and is meant to be a resource for other music educators, specifically, color guard instructors. Within the thesis project “A Guide to Coaching Color Guard” there are four sub-components.

The first is a historical research paper titled “The History and Evolution of Color Guard within Marching Band”. This paper defines what color guard is, identifies its origins, and outlines the major events that contributed to its development over time, leading up to what the sport and art of color guard has evolved into today.

The second component is a paper titled “Coaching Color Guard: My Experiences with Planning, Teaching, and Building a High School Color Guard Program”, which is a summarization of how a season of coaching color guard can be organized and examples of various learning opportunities a color guard coach could take advantage of during a season. Many education-specific teaching strategies are explained, such as the use of modeling, I do - we do - you do, whole-part-whole, scaffolding, sequencing from simple to complex, direct instruction vs. small groups, teaching to various learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic), instructor/peer/group feedback, assessment, and opportunities for student contribution and creativity.

The third component is paper titled “Color Guard Coaching Resources”, which is made up of ten different documents that are examples or resources for color guard instructors. These resources are referenced in the second component of this project and include samples of flyers, audition scoring sheets, a student handbook, participation sheet, and written choreography as well as providing a list of other outside resources as well as a list of the video tutorials.

These video tutorials are the final component of this project. There are 44 tutorial videos broken up into five categories. Each video is a step-by-step teaching video demonstrating and articulating how to spin a color guard flag. The first category consists of 10 introductory videos, which discuss terms and concepts that are overarching in all of the tutorial videos. Then, there are 23 tutorials within the category titled ‘Basic Moves’. The next category of ‘Intermediate Moves’ consists of 5 teaching videos for moves that are more difficult to execute than the basic moves. The fourth category has 5 video tutorials for ‘Tosses’. The last category is called ‘Move Sequences’ and only has 1 video. This tutorial shows how some moves have similar rotation patterns and can easily be strung together to create a choreography sequence.