Browsing by Subject "Science"
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Item According to a new study : when bad journalism meets questionable science(2013-05) Burnson, Forrest Matthew; Dahlby, Tracy; Gil de Zúñiga, HomeroAccurately reporting scientific studies remains a challenge for journalists. Often lacking any formal background in science, journalists are expected to communicate the complex findings of scientific research in such a way that average readers can understand. As a result, news coverage tends to exaggerate, misrepresent, or sensationalize the findings of scientific studies. This report examines the common errors that journalists make when reporting on scientific studies, as well as the issues in modern scientific research that contribute to this problem. While total scientific literacy in journalism remains a lofty ideal, the democratizing force of the Internet not only holds journalists more accountable in their reporting, but also provides platforms for skeptics and experts to weigh in on the news treatment that studies receive.Item Agricultural science students' perceptions and knowledge of hearing loss(2009-05-15) Slaydon, Sunny LeighThis study is designed to examine participants? view of hearing loss as a critical health issue, the attitudes of people toward a person with a hearing impairment, the knowledge level of OSHA regulations pertaining to hearing loss, the general knowledge level of hearing loss and hearing impairment, and its causes, and participants attitudes towards wearing hearing protection. The study design is descriptive and correlational with data collected using a written questionnaire with a controlled population. Results were computed using the means and standard deviation for each factor. The findings indicate that additional education and awareness is essential if changes are to occur in the areas of general knowledge of hearing impairment, the acceptance of hearing protective devices in the work place or school, and better interaction and communication with those who exhibit a hearing impairment. One area of specific improvement must be in how agricultural instructors are trained in the field of safety so that students involved in agricultural sciences are better prepared to protect his/her hearing while performing activities found in the agricultural business.Item An Empirical Evaluation of Developmental Networks and Mentoring Practices Effect on Doctoral Science TrainingAviles, Jorge L; Ynalvez, Marcus Antonius; Ynalvez, Marcus Antonius; Kilburn, John C.; Haruna, Peter FuseiniThis study aimed at examining the impact of doctoral mentoring practices (DMP) and of developmental networks (DN) on the doctoral training practices (DTP) of students enrolled in selected elite doctoral science programs in three East Asian countries. It focuses on these social aspects that potentially enhance and/or diversify training practices that develop scientific occupational competencies. The recognition that mentoring during career development may be available from a variety of individuals beyond the traditional dyadic mentor-mentee relationship led this study to examine the impact of students’ developmental networks. The approach taken is novel in that the developmental network typology has yet to be systematically and empirically examined. The population investigated comprised students in chemical science doctoral training programs at elite universities in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. A sample of n = 115 students, stratified by university and by country, participated in structured face-to-face interviews that collected information on DMP, DTP, and egocentric networks. Network information was utilized to identify respondents’ developmental network type based on diversity of alters' sector (e.g. academia, government, industry, etc.) and ego-alter tie strength. Two sets of principal component analysis, one for the 15 original DMP items and another for the 17 original DTP items, were performed to examine the effect of DN and of DMP on DTP. It was found that students who reported that their advisor engaged in mentoring activities that involved career and psychosocial support also reported enhanced engagement in leadership-driven training practices. Enhanced engagement with sources of training and learning outside of the lab was also found. There was no evidence that developmental network types influenced DTP. Hence, it is recommended that institutions of higher education formulate and monitor the outcomes of policies that foster the development of mentoring practices among faculty. This would aid in the preparation of doctoral students for work within and outside of academia. Further exploration and improvement of the empirical application of the developmental network typology in doctoral science training is also suggested.Item Bridging the "chasm of doubt" : fictive epistemological strategies in nineteenth-century children's Bibles(2014-05) Plourde, Aubrey Elizabeth; MacDuffie, Allen, 1975-The "conflict thesis" that science and religious are inherently incompatible was by no means taken for granted by nineteenth-century scientists, religious thinkers, or cultural commentators. In fact, scientific exploration and religion happily coexisted for years, partially through the efforts of science writers who framed their potentially incendiary claims with narrative acknowledgements of a Great Creator. This paper examines the late-nineteenth century tension between scientific and religious epistemologies through the lens of children's religious education, claiming that children's Bible adaptations can be read as a lexicon of coping strategies through which religious adults attempted to gain control of the scientific threat to their faith. In short, by employing the techniques of fiction, writers of children's Bibles encouraged their child readers to engage with fiction in an imaginative register, diverting cosmological questions by encouraging children to see themselves and their relationship with God as porous, open, and accessible to a fantastical hyperreality.Item Climate change framing in the New York Times : the media’s impact on a polarized public(2015-12) Goff, Paepin D.; Jensen, Robert, 1958-; Wilson, KristopherWhile the threat of climate change grows stronger along with the consensus of scientists about the certainty of anthropogenic causes, researchers observe an opposite effect in the public’s acceptance of climate science. While climate change is a salient topic in society, the media’s presentation of climate change has varied over time and the public remains politically divided on the issue. This content analysis of 134 New York Times’ climate change articles between 2001 and 2013 identified six different types of media frames associated with climate change coverage and investigated the presentation of scientific information within those frames. This study also investigated the congruence between scientific consensus regarding climate change, the public’s perception of current scientific knowledge and the way climate change is talked about in the media.Item The effects of problem-based learning scaffolds on cognitive load, problem-solving, and student performance within a multimedia-enhanced learning environment(2014-05) Horton, Lucas Robert; Liu, Min, Ed. D.Learners who are novice problem solvers often encounter difficulty when solving complex problems. One explanation for this difficulty is that the cognitive requirements of problem-solving are sufficiently high that learners easily become overwhelmed and frustrated, leading to a state known as cognitive overload in which learning is obstructed. Cognitive Load Theory is concerned with the design of instructional approaches intended to manage the cognitive load required for thinking and problem-solving tasks. Scaffolds are any kind of support that facilitates the accomplishment of a difficult task that a learner would not be able to accomplish on their own. They are potential mechanisms to support students in negotiating the potentially high cognitive load required by complex problem-solving. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of technology-based scaffolds within a problem-based learning environment known as Alien Rescue. The study investigated the impact of scaffolds on cognitive load, problem-solving behaviors, science knowledge, and student perceptions of the learning environment. Participants for this study included sixth grade students from a suburban middle school in the southwestern United States. Student classes were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (a) a problem constraint condition in which students were guided through a problem-solving process similar to that of an expert, (b) a prompt condition in which students were provided with guiding messages during problem-solving, and (c) a control condition with no scaffolding. All conditions participated in the use of Alien Rescue for three weeks. Measures including a self-report measure of mental effort, calculated instructional efficiency scores, problem solution scores, student activity logs, and science knowledge test performance were used to evaluate students' cognitive load, problem-solving performance, problem-solving strategies, and learning gains. An open-ended questionnaire and student interviews were used to gather data on students' perceptions of the program. Results of the study indicate statistically significant differences between treatment conditions with respect to problem-solving efficiency, student problem-solving behaviors, and scientific knowledge gain. Additionally, qualitative findings highlight problematic aspects of the highly structured condition as implemented within the classroom context while also identifying components of the learning environment that were perceived as helpful and useful to participants. Teacher interviews also provided insight into classroom implementation of the program and opportunities to further enhance scaffolds to support student learning. Implications of the study from research, instructional design, and technology perspectives are discussed along with a treatment of study limitations and opportunities for further research in this area.Item Engaging elementary students in active learning through engineering : methods, observations and outcomes(2014-08) Pearce, Logan Anthony; Petrosino, Anthony J. (Anthony Joseph), 1961-; Barufaldi, JamesEngineering as a pedagogical tool for teaching content and driving student intellectual development is often confined to secondary school grades – middle and high school students. The goal of this work is to explore the feasibility of incorporating engineering, in the form of engineering design challenges, into elementary grade levels. The hypothesis is that engineering design challenges can be made to be age appropriate for elementary students, specifically 1st grade students, without sacrificing elements which make them effective pedagogical tools. This hypothesis was tested through the designing of an engineering design challenge for 1st grade students, which was then taught to a group of elementary students, whose responses were analyzed for desired outcomes indicating effectiveness. The design challenge was demonstrated to be engaging, effective, and feasible for the group of elementary students participating in the research. Students were observed to display engineering habits of mind, an understanding of cause and effect, systems thinking, and a basic understanding of science content through participation in the design challenge. Aspects of the design challenge which were not effective or age appropriate are discussed in this work, and recommendations for further modification of the design challenge to better accommodate elementary students is given.Item Enhancement of faculty skills through mentoring(2012-08) Johnson, Levi; Dwyer, Jerry F.; Williams, Brock; Sherrod, SonyaDespite an extensive literature outlining the beneficial effects of faculty mentorship programs on undergraduate protégés, very little exists evaluating the impact of such activities on the faculty mentors themselves. This study employs grounded theory methods in a qualitative exploration of skills enhancement in faculty mentors involved in externally funded scholarship and mentorship programs for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors enrolled at Texas Tech University. The researcher collected data through in-person observations of mentoring sessions, open-ended surveys, and semi-guided interviews with faculty mentors. A relatively small participant pool somewhat restricted the breadth of conclusions; however, the depth and richness of the data collected indicate that participation resulted in varied levels of improvement in both pedagogical and interpersonal skills.Item Entangled knowledge, expanding nation : science and the United States empire in the southeast borderlands, 1783-1842(2013-08) Strang, Cameron Blair; Cañizares-Esguerra, Jorge; Sidbury, James; Hunt, Bruce; Olwell, Robert; Morris, ChristopherThis dissertation is about knowledge, power, and identities in North America. It practices and develops borderlands history of science as a method for exploring the interplay between these factors during the earliest period of the United States' territorial expansion, the 1780s to the early 1840s. Approaching science in the early United States from a borderlands perspective and decentering the thirteen original states on the nation's eastern periphery reveals a new picture of the knowledge, practices, individuals, and networks that comprised American culture on the whole during its formative years. Multinational individuals within borderland regions, entanglements with neighboring empires, and the imperial dimensions of the early republic were all constitutive of national science and culture. The southeast borderlands—the Gulf South territories that would become the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—is an ideal region for decentering the history of the United States: it was as much a part of the Caribbean, Spanish, and French worlds as it was of Anglo-North America and it was central to the worlds of Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and other Native groups. Scientific practitioners, ideas, and techniques in the southeast borderlands were integral to the development of both national identity and imperialism in the early United States. U.S. officials and men of science did not simply create the scientific perspectives and practices used to dominate the former Spanish, French, and British colonies of the Gulf South. Instead, they incorporated the region's multinational scientific experts, drew on the examples of other empires, and used the Gulf South as an experimental space in which they could perfect more advanced methods of exploiting the land and its peoples. Science and culture in the United States were multinational, multiethnic, and inextricable from the imperial context in which they developed.Item Enzyme instigator: a portable suitcase exhibit for ninth grade biology(2009-09-19) McArthur, Brenda Harrison; Calver, Lewis E.The goal of this project was to create a portable science suitcase exhibit that ninth grade biology teachers can utilize when teaching students the complex concepts of enzymes. I created a homework handout, animation, game, hands-on models, laboratory experiments and an easy to use instruction manual. This suitcase was created to bridge the gaps between required information for standardized testing and the details presented to them in current text books. The entire suitcase was evaluated by current ninth grade biology teachers for its ease and usefulness inside their classes. The suitcase's influence on students' interest, performance and retention will be tested by DISD, STARS, and APS once the suitcase has been incorporated into the curriculum.Item Government support for science in an era of resource constraint : exploring the role of religion(2010-08) Storch, Jennifer Elise; Ellison, Christopher G., 1960-; Musick, MarcIn recent years, much has been made in popular media of the purported conflict between religion and science. The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between multiple measures of religion and attitudes toward federal expenditures on science. This study uses data from the 2008 wave of the General Social Survey, a national probability sample of American adults. Using multinomial analysis, this study finds that biblical literalists are generally less likely to wish for the expansion of federal spending on science than others. This opposition to the expansion of federal spending on science was uninfluenced by more general attitudes toward science or distrust of either the government or social institutes. Denominational affiliation and frequency of church attendance were unrelated to views on federal scientific expenditures. Contrary to previous depictions, the relationship between religious belief and attitudes toward science is not inherently adversarial. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.Item Grassland frontiers:beef cattle agriculture in Queensland and Texas, 1870s - 1970s(Texas Tech University, 2008-05) Turner, Leland K.; Carlson, Paul H.Semi-arid, but apparently lush, grasslands attracted pastoral settlers in the late nineteenth century to the frontier fringes of the Australian interior and American Southwest. Pastoral settlers and beef growers, particularly in Queensland and Texas, occupied similar environmental landscapes and shared a value system that embraced European informed agricultural production. In response to international market demand, beef growers set about transforming their natural landscapes. Beef producers drilled for artesian water, diverted surface waters, introduced exotic grasses, and exterminated native wildlife in a drive to produce ever more beef. They petitioned government to provide and/or subsidize transport to market and to expand market limitations through chilling and eventually refrigeration technology. Nature was not so easily held hostage to the economic prerogatives of beef producers. Babesiosis, Texas Fever in the vernacular, an often fatal disease in cattle and crippling drought challenged beef production in both Queensland and Texas. Persistent environmentally-driven difficulties led cattlemen in their quest on both continents to take dominion over arid lands to once again pursue scientific answers to continuing economic dilemmas. In an era when agriculturalists were devoted to scientific inquiry, cattlemen began, principally in Texas, to develop breeds that could endure harsh environmental conditions and produce marketable beef. In time, particularly in Queensland, many Australians adapted their breeding practices to the realities of their environment. Economic difficulties caused many to embrace uniquely Texas-born solutions to shared problems—Texas Fever and challenging rangeland environs. It was a biological response to difficult environmental conditions and disease. Nonetheless, a certain comfort level with traditional agricultural practices, cultural mores, and identity constructs sustained an Australian resistance to “mongrel” cattle breeds of American origin. Australian cattle raisers, intent on maintaining their “Britishness,” clung to English cattle breeds despite heavy losses to disease and sparse rangeland. In time, the Texas-bred beef breeds slowly gained acceptance in Australia as imperial identity constructs gave way to economic and environmental determinism. The diffusion of agricultural knowledge in response to global markets is indeed representative of early and persistent globalization.Item Identification of Stem Concepts Associated with Junior Livestock Projects: A Delphi Study(2012-08-31) Wooten, Kate 1988-Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is intended to provide students with a cross-subject, contextual learning experience. In order to more fully prepare our nation's students for entering the globally competitive workforce, STEM integration allows students to make connections between the abstract concepts learned in core subject classrooms and real-world situations. FFA and 4-H programs, by nature, are intended to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities where abstract core subject principles can be applied and more fully understood. Junior livestock projects through FFA and 4-H can provide rich connections for students between what they learn in school and how it is applied in the real world through their livestock project. Using a modified Delphi technique, this study identified STEM concepts associated with junior livestock projects. The study also examined whether STEM concepts should be integrated into the supervision of junior livestock projects and identified barriers which would prevent the incorporation of STEM concepts into local 4-H and FFA programming and instruction. The experts identified several (13 of 19) STEM concepts associated with junior livestock projects, four reasons local 4-H and FFA leaders/advisors should incorporate STEM concepts into their programming and instruction, and no barriers which would prevent local 4-H and FFA leaders/advisors from incorporating STEM concepts into their programming and instruction. This paper explores rationale regarding why STEM integration is important and makes recommendations for the integration of STEM concepts into the supervision of junior livestock projects.Item Las mujeres in the STEM pipeline : how Latina college students who persist in STEM majors develop and sustain their science identities(2015-05) Rodriguez, Sarah Lynette; Saenz, Victor B.; Reddick, Richard; Somers, Patricia; Riegle-Crumb, Catherine; Ovando, MarthaOver the past decade, an extensive amount of scholarship and media attention have been devoted to understanding the unique educational experiences and challenges of STEM students, however, few studies have explored the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender, especially in terms of science identity development. Given the significant growth of the Latina/o community, understanding Latina STEM college experiences, specifically, will be critical to enhancing educational experiences for the Latina/o STEM community. Existing literature suggests that developing a strong science identity during college may improve persistence for women of color in STEM. This research study uses qualitative methods to gain an in-depth understanding of how Latina college students at a public tier-one, predominantly white, research university make develop and meaning of and develop their science identities. The study found that Latinas develop their STEM identities primarily around aspects of building competence, recognition from self and outside sources, and performance of STEM behaviors. Their STEM identity development was influenced in terms of intersectionality, primarily by their gender and racial identities. This study is uniquely positioned to advance new knowledge regarding Latina students’ persistence in STEM fields, which may inform local, state, and federal STEM policies.Item Mathematics intervention for high school students with learning disabilities in the area of mathematics in science inclusion classes(2013-08) Thomas, Jacob Lee; Bryant, Diane PedrottyThis study investigated the effects of teaching high school students with mathematics disabilities rates/ratios and proportions using explicit instruction with multiple attempts at guided and independent practice. Three students participated in the study and received carefully designed instruction over eight lessons. Results from the study indicated mean score improvements, positive trends, and a high percentage of non-overlapping data points. Analysis of the data indicated that each student improved overall in their understanding of rates/ratios and proportions and were able to maintain those results over time. Implications for the study and suggestions for further research are discussed.Item Measuring maternal worth : racial science in Mexican obstetrics, 1869-1936(2012-05) O'Brien, Elizabeth Aislinn; Butler, Matthew J.; McKiernan-Gonzalez, JohnThis thesis explores the connections between scientific politics and maternal healthcare in Mexico between 1869 and 1936. In sum, I propose that scientific and elite debate about female biology was related to broader national concerns about race, gender, modernity and national identity. I therefore look at the production of scientific knowledge as a social project, and one that is not easily separated from political endeavors and nation-state formation.Item Models of scientific explanation(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Sutton, Peter AndrewEver since Hempel and Oppenheim's development of the Deductive Nomological model of scientific explanation in 1948, a great deal of philosophical energy has been dedicated to constructing a viable model of explanation that concurs both with our intuitions and with the general project of science. Here I critically examine the developments in this field of study over the last half century, and conclude that Humphreys' aleatory model is superior to its competitors. There are, however, some problems with Humphreys' account of the relative quality of an explanation, so in the end I develop and defend a modified version of the aleatory account.Item My good puzzle pieces: The environmental effects of knowledge(2013-07) Hurt, Alisa M.; Farris, Don R.; Wallace, Mark C.; Crooks, Steven M.Everything is related to everything. We are all the result of a never ending thread of cause and effects. As we evolve and progress, the choices we make add up to define our path. As an individual this decision making can be the make or break of our personal future. As a specie our actions have an exponential impact on our surroundings, making our choices either long term sustainable or not. We can only make wise choices by knowing the effects that our past has had on the environment and making corrections to diminish negative impacts while exploring and developing new avenues that make our progress sustainable. Hence the important role that knowledge plays in our future and the difference between our story being one of survival or annihilation.Item Prediction methodology for the heat rejection from turbocharged or naturally aspired automobile engines(Texas Tech University, 2003-05) Parish, Overton L.The objective of this research is to accurately predict the heat rejection of naturally aspired spark ignition (SI) engines and turbocharged compression ignition (CI) engines. This prediction method will be added to TTU-Cool, a software package developed at Texas Tech University for Ford Motor Company. The objective of TTUCool is to give the aerodynamics division at Ford a tool to predict, with minimal up front data, the cooling performance of a proposed automotive cooling system. The minimal data includes the road load requirements as well as engine size and number of cylinders. Historically, Ford has used a least squares fit of the above data to approximate the heat rejection. The proposed methodology replaces the approximation with a physicsbased approach to determining the heat rejection. The thermal model significantly expands the capabilities of TTU-Cool. SI and CI engine data are analyzed and correlated into a usefiil tool for new automobile concepts.