As we count down the years remaining before a global climate catastrophe, ever increases the importance of teaching environmental history and fostering environmental stewardship from a young age. In the age of globalization, nothing exists in a vacuum, yet our traditional education system often fails to reflect the abundant connections between content areas that are prevalent outside of schools. In fact, many of the flaws of the field of education have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a forced transition to online schooling, with many educators reverting to outdated practices in a desperate attempt to get students through the year. The aim of this project was to design a unit curriculum with these issues in mind. This month-long environmental history unit engages students through the use of hands-on activities and promotes interdisciplinary connections. The unit can be taught in a physical, online, or hybrid American history class, and will hopefully inspire and motivate students to become environmental stewards as they look toward their futures on this planet.

Effective online learning strategies have become a much-debated topic with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological innovation has constantly been used to improve the education of students since its first use in the 1980s. Although online learning has been available to students in every single state in the US, along with a significant increase in online enrollment in virtual schools, teachers were simply not prepared for this sudden, immense transition. At the beginning of the pandemic, regardless of the preparedness and effectiveness of teachers across the country, time was not spent creating unique lessons to guide the education of our students, but it was instead spent rushing through quick and easy lesson plans. In order to better prepare for the future, this thesis will use a literature review of pedagogical practices and online learning, a survey of 52 ASU students, and the creation of the Online Learning Resource Hub (OLRH) in order to find the best approach to online learning for students in the 21st century.

Over the last twenty years, comic books and graphic novels have slowly found their way into the field of education. Scholars have used this time to study the opportunities afforded by these “Graphic Novel Classrooms” and have found a plethora of strategies and theories to support students and teachers alike. However, history and social studies classrooms are largely left out of this discourse. This absence is perplexing, as these classrooms spend an enormous amount of time analyzing texts and images while building essential literacy skills. Through primary and secondary sources, these history classrooms discuss author intent and ruminate on imagery and themes in much the same way as classrooms that assign graphic novels. Despite this, few scholars advocate for the use of graphic novels in the history classroom. By combining modern theories of literacy education, historical education, and developmental psychology, this thesis concludes that the use of graphic novels in secondary history classrooms creates unique and powerful opportunities in education that have gone largely ignored. This relationship is inherently benefitted by theories of historical thinking and historical empathy, both of which work together to teach history as a process of humanistic understanding and discovery rather than a memorization of names and dates. This thesis accomplishes this by analyzing multiple historically-based graphic novels, deconstructing their contents alongside Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. This comparison is used to explore what makes the graphic novel inherently beneficial to the history classroom. Many supposed challenges of the graphic novel in the history classroom, such as inherently subjective representations of history, actually add to the process of historical discovery. Through subjective imagery, students are allowed to think critically and compare accounts to determine the “how” and “why” of these representations. This thesis concludes with a classroom guide, taking the graphic novels discussed throughout and designing lesson outlines to be used in any history classroom. Additionally, this thesis highlights the need for change within historical education. Many historical educators find themselves lacking in time to take on assigned readings, resisting the need for exploration and discovery, or failing to recognize the accessibility of the graphic novel in their classroom.

In this thesis, I intend to articulate four main arguments: (1) that the current state of public K-12
education in America is dire and in critical need of reform, (2) this dire state is evidenced by
statistics reporting that both student test scores and mental health are declining, (3) these issues
are perpetuated by recent efforts to implement extreme amounts of digital technology into
classrooms, rigid standardization and assessment-based learning, and the lack of attention paid to
philosophy and religion in public K-12 curricula, and (4) that many of these issues could be
resolved through the implementation of a curriculum teaching “mindfulness”. “Mindfulness” has
many different interpretations, but for this thesis will refer to an umbrella of skills that can be
taught and honed through critically reading and discussing philosophical and religious texts, as
well as engaging in different types of meditative practices. Skills such as logical and deductive
reasoning, ethics, emotional regulation, debate, public speaking, goal-setting, organization, and
planning. Practices and exercises found in philosophy, but many students may not necessarily be
accustomed to (meditation, yoga, silent prayer, stoic contemplation), would be read about,
practiced, and/or discussed, likely before class discussions on the day’s text. Implementing such
a curriculum can occur at varying degrees of intensity, with increasing levels of effectiveness
with each increase in the intensity of implementation.

This paper analyzes modern day Cuba and draws conclusions about the most likely future political and economic events that will take place. Because of Cuba's troubled economy, leadership change and the world's continued shift towards democratization, Cuba is in a position where drastic changes in its government and economic structure may occur. This paper investigates Cuba's history, politics, economy, and the general quality of life of its citizens, which are used to help predict what may happen to the Cuban government in the near future. The paper also analyzes options for foreign nations' policy towards Cuba and summarizes what actions they may take to increase the likelihood of an economic and political transition. Cuba's economic structure needs drastic reform, the reluctant privatization only increases wealth disparity, trust in the government continues to get weaker as more information and its human rights violations are causes of huge concern. There are four possible outcomes for Cuba's future: stagnation, adopting the mixed economic model, a peaceful transition to a democratic model, and rebellion. There is evidence that Cuba will not make drastic policy changes in favor of liberalization in the immediate future, however, if the economic conditions are not improved and an economic crisis ensues, this paper asserts that another revolution or coup will likely occur. The resulting government may be a new autocratic leader that fills the vacuum of leadership, or a democratic regime depending on the nature of the rebellion. The exact future of Cuba is uncertain, but one thing is clear, change is on the horizon.