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Food Literacy and Applying Learnings Towards English Literacy
Get PDFFood Literacy promotes the way people should consciously think about the food we ingest on a day-to-day basis. This paper explores how teachers can positively teach students how to be literate when it comes to food and how students can apply these learnings towards their English subject matter skills. This paper also explores how children from all economic backgrounds seek out highly processed foods (such as fast food) which are filled with various chemicals and additives, which in turn, can affect students\u27 performance within the classroom in an negative manner
Unchecked Consumption? The Unbridled Access to Processed Foods in America
Get PDFWhy are processed foods so readily available, and why does it seem like the government turns a blind eye to their harmful effects
Benefits of Implementing Environmental Education Programs in Special Education Classrooms
No full textThe advantages of incorporating environmental education into special education classrooms are significant. The lack of an adapted curriculum and accessibility for students with special needs has inhibited the implementation of environmental education. This senior capstone examines the benefits of environmental education for special education students, especially in cognitive, behavioral, social, and academic development. Through the use of an extensive literature review, a survey of special education teachers, and the integration of environmental education into the particular education curriculum with a specific focus on environmental studies, the findings revealed that environmental education does not only enhance the learning of special education students beyond the inside and outside of the classroom but also contributes to the child\u27s holistic development
Multi-tissue Analysis of Combined Fluctuating Environmental Stressors in Juvenile Copper Rockfish, Sebastes Caurinus
Get PDFGlobal ocean chemistry has been affected by historic and ongoing anthropogenic carbon emissions. These changes are expected to intensify and subject species normally tolerant to fluctuating, stressful environments, such as those in Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) like the California Current Ecosystem to increasingly more extreme conditions. Specifically, dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH are both expected to decline in upwelled waters below the extremes currently experienced. To investigate the effects of these projected changes on the physiology and gene expression of potentially vulnerable nearshore rockfish, I utilized tissues samples from juvenile copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus) subjected to fluctuating combined pH/DO stressors designed to mimic upwelling pulses normally experienced in the field. Over 13 weeks, fish were exposed to alternating 8-day cycles of stressor ( upwelling , pH 7.3, 2 mg/L DO) and ambient (pH 8.0, 8 mg/L DO) conditions. Two cohorts experienced fluctuating conditions and were sampled at the end of either an upwelling phase or an ambient phase. A third cohort was kept at static ambient conditions for the duration of the experiment as a control. At the end of the experiment, brain, gill, liver, and muscle tissue were collected for RNA sequencing and compared to physiological responses of the same individual fish. A de nova metatranscriptome combining expression of all tissues was constructed and used as a reference for differential gene expression. Recently, falling costs of sequencing have made genomes much more prevalent for nonmodel species, and so to investigate the differences between transcriptome and genome references I performed all analyses again with a copper rockfish genome reference. Overall, I found that the genome reference led to similar but generally less noisy results than the metatranscriptome. I also did not detect evidence for a conserved stress response, because although I found significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (p \u3c 0.05) in all tissues, no DEGs were shared between all tissues. In fact, each tissue appeared to leverage specialized responses to the stressors rather than relying on a general stress response, which could be a result of adaptation to the chronic exposure in this experiment or a reflection of evolutionary tolerance to upwelling stressors. Brain and muscle tissue appeared to recover during the relaxation phase of the fluctuating cycle, indicating that transcriptomic resilience is an important mechanism of stress tolerance in these tissues. On the other hand, gill and liver tissue appeared to exhibit lingering effects of stressor exposure, indicating that mechanisms such as frontloading (i.e., constitutive expression of stress response genes) may be more important for these tissues. To overcome some of the limitations of gene expression alone, a separate analysis correlating expression of novel gene networks to physiological traits from the same fish was performed. These results largely mirrored those seen in the differential gene expression analysis, thus increasing confidence that patterns seen in the gene expression data reflect relevant physiological effects rather than just gene expression perturbations that do not rise to a meaningful physiological level. Analyzing gene expression from multiple tissues under environmentally realistic fluctuating stressors highlights tissue specific environmental stress responses and allows for a more holistic understanding of predicted future upwelling conditions on a potentially vulnerable life stage of copper rockfish, an important nearshore fish within the California Current Ecosystem
The Forgotten Subject: PE and the Power of People
Get PDFThis project focused on student engagement in PE at the middle school level. Student engagement is so meaningful because even though physical education is supposed to educate kids to be physically active while being active in practice, quite the opposite is happening. Middle school is the point at which students begin to lose interest in PE, viewing it as repetitive and pointless, which is why it is so essential to make this forgotten subject fun again. After survey and interviewing students and staff members participating in physical education at a local middle school in Marina, three themes emerged from the analyses of the responses. They were to give students more varied and relevant options to do during class and throughout the year; install a reward system to break down group mentality to motivate students; and do more collaborations with outside organizations like CSUMB. The best course of action out of the three would be doing more collaborations with outside organizations as the extra manpower would allow the teachers of those classes more wiggle room to bond with their students, give them more choices, and install an effective motivation system as they are not so focused on classroom management
Effects of Americanization on the Immigrant Student Population
Get PDFThis senior capstone study aims to investigate the impact of Americanization on immigrant students whose first language is not English and the effects of Proposition 227. This law, which cut all state funding for bilingual programs, prompted significant changes in language education policies. Through surveys, this research seeks to determine whether Proposition 227 has influenced students\u27 cultural identity or academic success. Additionally, this study examines California education standards to understand how they influence language education practices. Interviews with teachers will provide insights into their approaches to teaching immigrant students and fostering cultural inclusivity in the classroom. This capstone aims to shed light on the consequences of Americanization policies on immigrant students and inform recommendations for more effective and inclusive language education strategies
Improving Emotional Regulation Skills in Elementary School Children
No full textSocial-emotional skills of second-grader children are fundamental for relationships, emotional management, and empathy. A child must be able to identify and express feelings and self-regulate. Lack of emotional regulation in a young child can lead to behavior and social issues
Increasing Emotional Development in Preschool Students
No full textThis capstone project focuses on teaching preschool children about the emotions they are feeling. During this period in their lives, children experience different thoughts, feelings, and emotions. However, many preschool students need help to identify what they are feeling and experiencing clearly. Young children have difficulty identifying their emotions and what is causing these emotions (Webster-Stratton & Lindsay, 1999), which can result in behavioral problems. Preschool students need awareness of the emotions they are experiencing and of the emotions those around them are experiencing. They need this because they tend to lack the social cues of others and cannot process what they are feeling and experiencing. They need support to verbally express what they are feeling and what they need to help them get through the emotions they are feeling. Because of this need, I developed a three-part lesson that focused on identifying emotions, communicating emotions, and showing one\u27s emotions. My first lesson focused on identifying happiness, excitement, frustration, and sadness. My second lesson focused on how to communicate those emotions to those around them, including telling someone what they are feeling, asking for help, and asking for space. My last lesson focused on different soothing techniques, these could include breathing exercises, mindfulness, art, and alone time. These lessons occurred in Monterey California at the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Early Learning campus. I worked with three-year-olds and four-year-olds
Emotional Regulation in Preschool Age Children
Get PDFThis capstone focuses on teaching preschool students about emotional regulation and emotional understanding. Many preschool students have not developed the appropriate language to express their emotions making it difficult to regulate emotions. Poor emotional regulation at a young age can have negative effects on a child\u27s life. For example, it can affect their behavior at school, their ability to deal with transitions during the school day, and their social relationships (Loomis, 2023). Young children have a difficult time regulating emotions because they are not sure of the feelings that they have and have not developed the skills to control their negative emotions nor the way to calm themselves down. It is important for children to learn techniques to regulate those emotions so they have the ability to calm down when feeling overwhelmed. Because of this need, I developed three lessons that can help young children become more aware of their emotions and how to regulate them. The first lesson will help children learn about their own emotions when it comes to feeling sad, happy, calm, afraid, and angry. In the second lesson they will be able to identify the causes of their peers’ negative emotions. In the last lesson they will be able to learn and demonstrate strategies to calm down. The three lessons that will be conducted over 3 weeks at Northminster Daycare Center in Salinas, California. My target participants being English and Spanish speaking preschoolers aged three through four
Strategies To Help Young Children Obtain Healthy Social-Emotional Development
Get PDFThe focal topic of this capstone project is the healthy social-emotional development of low-income preschool and kindergarten children. One of the school districts in East Salinas is the Alisal District, which has a 100% minority enrollment, and a little over 89% of those students are economically disadvantaged (“Overview of Alisal Union,” 2019). A focus on the social-emotional well-being of the students in this age group and community is needed because some of these children have difficulty integrating socially into the school system and struggle to express their feelings or emotions healthily and safely. Strengthening children\u27s capacity to manage emotions and behavior is vital for school success. Low-income, minority children who receive high-quality education can reduce achievement gaps (Salim et al., 2021). Children need the tools to help develop their social-emotional skills to strengthen their capacity to manage their emotions and behavior, which are essential for school success and healthy social-emotional development. Salim et al. (2021) propose that children from disadvantaged and or minority backgrounds, as well as low-income backgrounds, enter kindergarten without the skills needed to succeed academically. Children can have difficulty integrating into a class setting because they have not mastered healthy social-emotional skills. Because children need help identifying and controlling their emotions, I developed three bilingual lessons in Spanish and English to help low-income Latino children learn how to identify and manage their feelings by naming their emotions and learning how to respect the personal space of others. Finally, they will also learn how to employ a breathing technique to calm themselves and help them integrate into a classroom setting easier. The focal group for this project is children of low economic status who live in Salinas, California. They are 3 to 5 years of age and attend playgroups in the Alisal School District