Texas A&M University-Kingsville: AKM Digital Repository
Not a member yet
1689 research outputs found
Sort by
Efficacy of an intervention program for the STAAR Biology exam
No full textPublic schools in the state of Texas are required by the Texas Education Agency to administer five state exams to high school students consisting of Algebra I, Biology, English I, English II, and U.S. History. These exams play a big role in school accountability and in high school graduation. For this reason, many schools develop intervention programs to increase student passing rates. This study focused on an intervention program known as Masters Camps that was created in an effort to increase STAAR biology scores. The problem was that the Masters Camps were never evaluated for their efficacy as an intervention to improve STAAR biology averages at an underperforming socio-economically disadvantaged high school in South Texas. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to evaluate the intervention by investigating if there were differences among students who participated in zero, one or two Masters Camps. Two conceptual frameworks guided this study. The outcome of learning was framed in the concept of functionalism. The construct of extracurricular activities framed the independent variable of the study which was the intervention of Masters Camps. All students who participated in one and two Masters Camps were counted. An average of these two groups was calculated and the same number of students was randomly selected from the control group so that all groups were roughly equivalent in number. One research question was investigated to determine differences in STAAR biology scores among students who participated in zero, one, or two master camps. A one-way ANCOVA statistical procedure was used to determine the effect of Masters Camps participation on STAAR biology scores. The results of the study which included 62 participants found that Masters Camps attendance had no statistically significant impact on student STAAR biology scores. The statistics indicated a small effect size with a partial η2 value of .006. Though students who attended two Masters Camps had higher average STAAR biology scores when compared to the other two groups of students who attended one Masters Camps and the control group, the results were not statistically significant. The results should encourage educational leaders to evaluate intervention programs being used in K-12. With the information from the study, educational leaders can allocate time, costs, and effort more efficiently as they make decisions about interventions expected to increase science and other state assessment scores
Ecological restoration of frac ponds with topsoil management and native plants
No full textSoil disturbances that accompany natural resource extraction activities can be damaging to local habitats. Prior to beginning oil and gas extraction, it is commonly recommended that topsoil stockpiles be created to aid in the re-establishment of plant communities at a site. Stockpiling is theorized to protect soil from compaction and contamination and to preserve a seed bank representative of the plant community present at the time of disturbance. Our study area, a retired fracking pond, was restored in 2017 with stockpiled topsoil collected prior to construction in 2012. We segregated the existing stockpile into 3 layers that were 1.5 to 2 m in thickness and distributed these layers, along with an unamended surface consisting of formerly subsurface soil that made up the bottom and perimeter of the fracking pond, in separate strips over the restoration area. Each of the 4 surfaces was divided and seeded with a mixture of (1) 13 native grasses, (2) 13 native grasses plus an annual warm-season grass cover crop, or (3) non-seeded. Plant density and species composition were determined annually from 2018 through 2021. Plant density and composition data revealed that the unamended surface had higher grass density, greater species richness, and a larger seed bank than the stockpiled surfaces. Stockpile depth was not a factor in plant community restoration success over time. Seeding enhanced density and richness initially, though density in the non-seeded treatment increased to levels present in treatments that provided supplemental seed in seeded grass density by the fourth sampling period. The addition of a warm season, annual grass cover crop did not enhance plant community density or affect species composition. Results indicate that stockpiling topsoil at this site was not necessary and seeding (without a cover crop) is recommended, though may not be necessary to reach long term restoration goals
The development of the charbray cross in cattle in South Texas
No full textThe cattle industry has had a very important part in the development of Texas and has grown to be one of the most important industries in the state. Texas is no longer thought of as the home of the Longhorn cattle and gun-carrying cowboys, the production of high-quality cattle being a source of both income and pride to Texas cattleman
Common stocks of public utilities as long term investments
No full textThere have been several studies made of the "common stock theory of investment," but little of this material has been written in the last ten years. There has been even less material written on public utility stocks as long term investments. Therefore, this study is an attempt to bring up-to-date as well as possible the "common stock theory" and in particular, common stocks of public utilites
The economy and foreign trade of Mexico
No full textLos Estados Unidos Mexicanos, The United States of Mexico, is the only Latin American country that has a common boundary with the United States. It stretches from the Rio Grande River 2000 miles southeast to Guatemala. It is roughly shaped like a cornucopia about 1,300 miles across at the northern end and about 140 miles wide at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In land area it is estimated to be about 758,258 square miles, or approximately one fourth the size of the United States
Problems of secondary education at Tuloso-Midway, a rural area, 1939-1949
No full textThe purpose if this thesis are: (1) to escribe the people and the environment of the Tuloso and the Midway School Districts; (2) to show how rapidly changing conditions affected the emphasis placed on secondary education; (3) to set fourth the various attempts to solve the secondary education problems confronting this rural area, contiguous to a growing city, through consolidation and other means; (4) to present the method used in the solution of the local problems of secondary education during the school year 1948-1949; and (5) to apply the Gilmer-Aiken re-organization plan to the Tuloso-Midway independent School District with recommendations for the decade following
The Bogota Conference
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to determine some of the outstanding accomplishments of the Bogota Conference, and to show to what extent the ninth conference solved the major issues confronting it. References used in the preparation of this paper consist of State Department material, Pan American union bulletins, daily newspapers, and periodicals
An appraisal of the Child Study Program in the Corpus Christi Public Schools
No full textThe purpose of this paper shall be to appraise the value of Child Study Program in Corpus Christi public schools. IN order to effectively evaluate the program, the history, purpose and organization of the program in Corpus Christi shall be given. In addition, this paper shall present a review of seven accounts of educational research that have come as a direct result of the Child Study Program. Two of the titles which shall be reviewed in this paper have been consultants and include the child study program without reference to any particular school; two others are reports on individual schools other than Corpus Christi, and three are masters these which have been written by Corpus Christi faculty members engaged in the program
Whittier as a religious poet
No full textWhen John Greenleaf Whittier's name is mentioned most people immediately think of "Snow-Bound." For this realistic picture of rural New England, the poet well deserves to be remembered. There is, nevertheless, another phase of his poetry to be found in his religious writings, both as distinct poems and as religious teachings woven into the fabric of other poems. Since Whitter's religious verse was an outpour of his essentially religious nature, in this study an attempt will be made to analyze his religious beliefs and to determine the place of the man and his poetic art in the general realm of the literature of religious inspiration
The neutrality policy of the United States as developed during the Italo-Ethiopian crisis
No full textThe ruling house of Abyssinia claims descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and officially sanctions the tradition by including among the titles of its king “The Conquering Lion of Judah.” The ancient books found in Ethiopia contain lists of their kings, tracing their descent even back to Adam, but the lists do not agree chronologically, and they are accepted only as legendary. However, a fairly satisfactory list of the kings has been compiled by students of the Ethiopic literature that carries the succession back from the present ruler to Alameda, who reigned at the end of the fifth century