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Elevating Geography’s Relevance: A Collaboration with Secondary Teachers and Students in Southeast Texas
Get PDFIn the 2020-21 academic year, 324,000 Texas high school students enrolled in World Geography and 63,500 students enrolled in AP Human Geography. While AP Human Geography has grown exponentially since 2001, little of this growth has translated to sustained geographic interest in college. Moreover, many Texas high school graduates struggle to understand the breadth of geography when arriving on college campuses. This may be partially attributed to a lack of place-based learning that is key for engaging underrepresented minority students. The goals of this project were to: 1) equip high school teachers in the Houston metropolitan area with content and technological tools to aid in the development of place-based lessons and activities to engage students, while also meeting required Texas Essential Knowledge and Skill (TEKS) standards; and 2) cultivate place-based geographic awareness among primarily low-income and minority high school students to foster a greater understanding of southeast Texas’s distinctive environment and culture in daily life, higher education, and the workforce
Safe and Secure Addressing Workplace Violence
Get PDFWorkplace violence entails any act or threat of violence, verbal abuse, or physical assaults towards individuals at work. This could arise from criminal intent, customer/client interactions, worker-on-worker disputes, or personal relationships. Industries dealing with the public, money handling, lone work, or operating in high-crime areas face elevated risk. It is critical for organizations to have preventive policies for workplace violence that include risk assessments, enhanced security measures, and employee training for recognizing and addressing potential violence. A culture of open communication, respect, and confidential incident reporting should be promoted. Workplace violence response plans must be comprehensive, encompassing support for affected employees, incident investigations, law enforcement engagement, and suitable disciplinary actions. Regular training should focus on prevention, recognition of warning signs, situation deescalation, and incident reporting. Special training should be provided for management and HR to handle sensitive situations and support affected staff. Post-incident support, including counseling, flexible work arrangements, and trauma coping resources, is crucial. Regular policy review and update are necessary for legal compliance and interdepartmental collaboration. Thorough background checks for potential hires are recommended. Early detection of warning signs, such as aggressive behavior, verbal threats, weapon possession, substance abuse, or sudden behavioral changes, can prevent violence and promote a safer workplace. Prevention and response strategies involve fostering a safe environment through conflict resolution, employee assistance programs, and active employee participation. Emphasis should be on zero-tolerance for violence, regular training, and policy communication to all staff. Emergency preparedness requires response plans for violent incidents, regular drills, physical security assessments, and updates. Constant evaluation of implemented strategies, promotion of diversity and inclusivity, collaboration with external agencies, and ongoing communication with employees are key. It's beneficial to recognize and reward employees for maintaining safety, promoting overall wellbeing, adapting measures for remote employees, monitoring social media, and conducting post incident analysis. Benchmarking, implementing visible security measures, promoting open communication, involving employees in strategy development, providing whistleblower protection, and offering customized training are also necessary. 5 The strategy should encompass mental health support, clear behavior expectations, policy reviews, awareness campaigns, and exit interviews. Cross-functional teams should be established, external consultants engaged, incidents tracked, a crisis management plan developed, communication channels established, educational materials provided, safety drills conducted, and partnerships with community organizations formed. Organizational leadership must promote a safety culture and be accountable for implementing initiatives. A proactive approach to workplace violence prevention can enhance organizational performance, reputation, employee satisfaction, and retention rates, while building trust and credibility, reducing legal risks, fostering engagement, and boosting overall resilience
Concept2Rower Physical Fitness Test
Get PDFIn today’s 21st century policing, officer wellness and safety is a major role in the structure of the model. Most law enforcement officers walk into risky situations on day-to-day policing and can come into risky situations that may end in some sort of tragedy. Physical, mental, and emotional injuries to officers apply to all law enforcement agencies. However, a large number of police officer injuries and deaths are not the result of interaction with criminal offenders but the outcome of poor physical health due to a poor diet and lack of exercise. These poor qualities in one’s health result in other major health related issues that can tremendously affect the way an officer performs his duties. This paper will explain why law enforcement agencies should implement the Concept2 (2017) rower as part of their physical fitness test. This paper will focus on providing information to law enforcement agencies of the benefits the Concept2 rower has to provide. This paper will also show how an agency should implement the Concept2 rower test in order to cover all liability issues during testing. Police officers should always wear the uniform proud and strive to be the best in showing command presence. Law enforcement has always been a professional career and being a physically fit officer plays a major role in public image.LEMI
Trinity River Authority Project: Bill Tatum
Get PDFAn oral history of Bill Tatum and his experiences in a wastewater treatment plant in the Trinity River Authority of TexasOne of the primary functions of the Trinity River Authority of Texas (TRA) is the treatment of wastewater and the safe discharge of treated water back into the Trinity River. Bill Tatum is the manager for the TRA’s Central Region Wastewater Treatment System (CRWS) plant in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Tatum started working for the Trinity River Authority in 1972. During the 50 years that he has worked at the plant, CRWS has undergone tremendous growth and expansion. When the plant opened in 1959, it treated wastewater from four customer cities. That has grown to 21 customer cities today. The average daily flow has increased from 20 million gallons per day (mgd) to a rated capacity of 189 mgd, making it the second-highest rated capacity wastewater treatment plant in the State of Texas. As plant manager, Mr. Tatum oversaw the expansion and the onboarding of evolving technological solutions that enabled this level of growth.
Historically, the Trinity River struggled with high levels of pollution. The rapidly expanding population of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex outpaced efforts to mitigate pollution. The quality of the water discharged into the river was so poor that fish could not survive. Fish kills continued to occur until the mid-1980s. Passage of the Clean Water Act and subsequent State and Federal regulations required water agencies to find treatment solutions to clean up the water. Since that time, CRWS has received numerous awards from National Association of Clean Water Associations for the quality of the water it discharges into the Trinity River. The plant has not received a permit violation in the past 28 years.
The challenge of continued population growth has meant an ongoing investment by TRA in plant expansion and treatment technologies. One of the more recent additions to the treatment process Mr. Tatum has overseen at CRWS is the Thermal Hydrolysis Process, which has significantly reduced the amount of treated solid material that the plant disposes of. That addition alone took almost 6 years to complete. Mr. Tatum is most proud of the fact that CRWS has treated over 1 trillion, 500 billion gallons of wastewater with no permit violations or fish kills in the past 28 years. He credits technology, strong leadership, transparency, and cooperative customer cities with TRA’s continued success in this area
Inequities in the Number of Days Assigned to Girls to an Exclusionary Discipline Consequence as a Function of Ethnicity/Race, Economic Status, and At-Risk Status of Texas Middle School Girls: A Multiyear, Statewide Investigation
Get PDFPurpose
The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the extent to which inequities were present in exclusionary discipline consequences assigned to middle school girls. In the first study, the purpose was to determine the degree to which inequities existed in the assignment of exclusionary consequences to middle school girls by their ethnicity/race. In the second study, the purpose was to ascertain the extent to which inequities were present in the assignment of exclusionary consequences to middle school girls by their economic status. In the third study, the purpose was to determine the degree to which inequities existed in the assignment of exclusionary consequences to middle school girls by their at-risk status. For each article, the presence of trends was addressed across the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020 school years.
Method
A causal-comparative research design was used in this analysis (Johnson & Christensen, 2020). Three independent variables were present: ethnicity/race, economic status, and at-risk status. Two dependent variables were present: assignment to an exclusionary discipline consequence and the number of days assigned to that consequence. These data were archival data obtained from the Texas Education Agency Public Education Information Management System.
Findings
Inferential statistical procedures revealed the presence of statistically significant differences in the assignment to an exclusionary discipline consequence and to more days, on the average, by the ethnicity/race of Grades 6, 7, and 8 girls. Black girls and Hispanic girls in all four school years were disproportionately assigned, in comparison to their enrollment and to White girls, to an in-school suspension. Moreover, when they were assigned to such a consequence, they were assigned to almost one day more than were White girls. High percentages of girls in poverty and girls who were at-risk were also assigned to an exclusionary discipline consequence and to more days, on the average, to such consequences. The disparities documented in this journal-ready dissertation in both the rate at which girls of color were assigned to an exclusionary discipline consequence and in the number of days they were assigned undoubtedly contribute to the existing achievement gaps
Erma Bombeck: Growing Feminist Consciousness
Get PDFThis thesis uses humorist and feminist Erma Bombeck as a case study of feminist history. Bombeck demonstrates a growing feminist consciousness through her written and political work. Breaking boundaries set by feminists and society, Erma Bombeck defied social constructs and invited her large group of fans to do the same. Second-wave feminism is often characterized by women like Betty Friedan. Many second-wave feminists thought that women could easily go forth into the workforce, without thinking of those who could not afford homecare. Erma Bombeck created space in the feminist movement for housewives to feel welcomed. Though many housewives bound themselves to the antifeminist movement, there is room for more complexity in this history. Erma Bombeck spoke on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment by recruiting the everyday housewife, reaching out to a group that had otherwise been written off by feminist groups
RESILIENCE IN YOUNG ADULT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS: EXAMINING POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY PROTECTIVE FACTORS AND INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE OUTCOMES IN MALE AND FEMALE YOUNG ADULTS
Get PDFMen and women can both experience not only negative, but also positive, outcomes as a result of trauma (Vieselmeyer et al., 2017). The current study assessed whether protective factors identified within the positive psychology movement were associated with negative and positive outcomes related to one form of trauma – experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). This is the first known study to examine linkages between positive psychology protective factors (e.g., posttraumatic gratitude, proactive coping methods, proactive attitude) and aspects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), posttraumatic growth (PTG), and psychological wellbeing (PWB), in young adults who experienced IPV. Higher levels of positive psychology protective factors (i.e., posttraumatic gratitude, proactive coping methods, proactive attitude) were negatively associated with PTSD symptomology levels and positively associated with PTG and PWB. Exploratory analyses assessed the extent to which positive psychology protective factors predicted outcomes of IPV and the extent to which resource loss/gain factors added unique variance accounted for in the association between the positive psychology protective factors and the outcomes of IPV. As such, mental health professionals could integrate therapeutic techniques that increase the acquisition of positive psychology factors in therapy clients with IPV trauma histories as a means of improving client treatment outcomes
Online Learning Experiences of Latino Public Middle School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFThe COVID-19 shutdown in the spring of 2020 was a historic and unprecedented
event creating a ripple effect that will affect our world for years to come. Scholars and researchers have already studied the effects of the shutdown on economics, health care, education, and more. We now have information about how student learning and progress were affected by the pandemic, but we needed to hear directly from students who experienced this event.
In this phenomenological study, I explored the complex experiences of Latino
public middle school students who were online learners during the COVID-19 pandemic school year. Prior research on the topic of online learning focused primarily on college students. Research about online learning during a pandemic has only been published within the last year and collecting the voices of Latino middle school students has not been done as of this writing.
In this study, research is presented about the unique needs of middle school
learners and Latino learners, culminating in the results of interviews with six Latino
students who were in middle school when the pandemic hit. The findings are presented with implications for practitioners studying this population and those who are exploring the strengths and weaknesses of an online learning environment
Emancipation and Freedom During Reconstruction: A Study of Cumberland County, Virginia, 1865-1870
Get PDFThis thesis studies the African-American experience of Emancipation during the early years of Reconstruction in Cumberland County, Virginia. Located in the Piedmont region of central Virginia, Cumberland County’s African-American population experienced some highs and lows as they adjusted to their newly won independence in the years leading up to the re-entry of Virginia into the Union in 1870. Using primary sources ranging from census records and reports to Freedmen’s Bureau archives, this study evaluates three areas of Emancipation to understand how African Americans in Cumberland County participated in advancing their civil rights. Despite not being able to legally marry until after Emancipation, freed individuals engaged in long-term marriages that stretched back into enslavement, often defying their White owners even though most of the relationships involved individuals on two different plantations. From an economic perspective, African Americans of the county fared more poorly, having to sign onto onerous labor contracts that tightly controlled their behavior. Additionally, by 1870, almost no one in the Black community owned any land, something that would have given them more autonomy over their lives. Finally, because Cumberland County was an African-American majority population during the initial years of Reconstruction, they experienced more initial success in rallying for and receiving their voting rights, voting two African-American men into office to represent them in the General Assembly. All in all, while they may have experienced some success, particularly politically, ultimately minority White planters reasserted control over formerly enslaved individuals, preventing them from advancing themselves economically. Although everything changed with Emancipation, in reality, very little changed
The Seasonal Dipter Larval Species Richness During Decomposition and Comparisons to Current Successional Models
Get PDFForensic entomology is the study of insects and related arthropods as applied to legal proceedings. The first documented case using forensic entomology was reported in the 13th century in “The Washing Away of Wrongs” by Sung Tzu, a Chinese lawyer. It wasn’t until the 19th century during exhumations in France, that the important role that maggots play in decomposition was discovered. In general, there are four or five stages of decay: Fresh, Bloated, Decay (which can sometimes be further divided into active and advanced decay), and the Skeletal/Dry stage. Carrion does not adhere to these stages strictly, and the process can be flexible. Depending on the climate, some stages can be skipped. The purpose of this experiment is to do a comprehensive assessment of the Diptera larval species present during decomposition throughout the summer and winter. Summer 2009 had a higher species richness and diversity than summer 2017. Piophillidae and Phoridae were present in the adult successional models but were absent in the larval model. The only Muscidae species present was Hydrotaea aenescens during the larval assessment. Calliphoridae was present with the largest number of different species. Lucilia spp. was present during the larval assessment but not the adult assessment. Winter 2010 had a higher species richness and diversity than winter 2018. Only one species of Calliphoridae Calliphora livida was present in the winter larval assessment. Summer 2017 had a higher species richness than winter 2018. Winter had a lower accumulated degree days than summer which could have resulted in the lack of diversity. Winter most likely had less adult presence than summer due to the temperatures and therefore had a lower diversity. There was more rain in the winter than the summer which likely deterred some Diptera from coming to the carrion