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Robots as Social and Behavioral Change Agents in the Classroom
No full textThe use of robots in a multitude of contexts is becoming increasingly mainstream, both in society as a whole and educational contexts. One pressing concern about the integration of robots into a classroom is the short- and long-term effects on students’ social skill development. Research suggests that social skills may overall be impeded by extensive interactions with robots, as well as a blurring of the boundaries between human and non-human entities. Moreover, there is a lack of research examining the real-time effects of robots on students’ social skill development, as well as what the implications of developing social skills from a robot might mean for the future of humans as social creatures. Higher education staff and faculty are gatekeepers for students before they enter a public and social space beyond school, so it’s imperative that staff and faculty clearly delineate the benefits and drawbacks from using robotics and AI as a whole in classroom instruction. The objectives of this presentation are to engage in critical inquiry with higher education staff and faculty to evaluating students’ current social skills, reflect on the impact robotics or AI have on those social skills, and create a shared manifesto of aims and uses of robotics and AI that develop and nurture students’ social skill development while not inhibiting or harming those skills. Activities in this presentation include identifying key social skills, understanding how social skills present in classroom contexts, and examining current uses of robotics and AI in higher education classrooms
The Importance of Recruitment of Low-Income Pregnant Persons in Interdisciplinary Research to Understand the Impact of Social and Environmental Determinants: Lessons Learned About Implementation and Recruitment
No full textBackground: Prior research indicates that enrolling underrepresented populations in clinical research is challenging. Although research has identified some barriers to participation and strategies to overcome them, studies have made little progress in being inclusive and representative. There remains a great need for including racial/ethnic minorities, low-income families, and pregnant women in research. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation of enrollment strategies used in our study to understand the feasibility of building a maternal cohort and better understand the relationship between environmental and social impacts on maternal exposure and child outcomes.
Methods: Working across multiple academic units, our team implemented equity-focused team science strategies to recruit diverse populations into a research study. The phases included development, conceptualization, implementation, and translation.
Results: Our interdisciplinary team study used intentionality and commitment to deploy effective strategies including clearly defining the problem, selecting the correct team members to leverage expertise, clearly defining the study, establishing roles and responsibilities, representation, and clear and constant communication. A total of 100 pregnant women enrolled in our study using a team science interdisciplinary model.
Discussion: Building interdisciplinary teams can help us understand complex problems, increase innovation, and develop effective solutions in policy and practice. More specifically, interdisciplinary teams can advance our ability to recruit diverse populations into research. Future studies should consider how to harness the strengths of the different research team members to achieve more inclusive participation.
Health Equity Implications: This work has the potential to improve representation in research findings, enhance understanding of health disparities, and promote inclusive research practices
Improving Schools to Promote Upward Mobility: The Promise and Limits of School Finance Reforms
No full textAs part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presents a lecture titled, Improving Schools to Promote Upward Mobility: The Promise and Limits of School Finance Reforms by Brookings senior fellow in economic studies, Sarah Reber.
Systematic differences in access to high-quality schools by race, income, and other characteristics perpetuate inequality across generations. Local property tax financing of schools is often identified as a key cause of unequal educational opportunity. While the consensus of rigorous research supports the common intuition that, on average, “money matters” in improving educational outcomes, questions about how much, and under what conditions, school funding affects performance remain unresolved. To improve schools, should policymakers and advocates focus primarily on increasing funding, or are other reforms equally (or more) important?
In this lecture, Brookings Cabot Family Fellow in Economic Studies Sarah Reber explains how schools in the United States are funded, how that has changed over time, which schools have the least (and most) funding, and what it means for inequality and economic mobility
Designing Futures: Embedding Life Design Into Second-Year Seminar
No full textIn COE 202: Second-Year Seminar (SYS), students engage in Life Design to build purpose-driven academic and career pathways. We use design thinking to help students: Identify values, strengths, and goals Explore possible life and career directions Reflect on academic choices in relation to future plans
Life Design Portfolio — Includes: Worldview & Lifeview reflections Odyssey Plans Decision-Making Matrix Prototyping conversations and experiences
Learning Outcomes: Apply design thinking to life and career planning Demonstrate reflective decision-making skills Articulate personal and professional values Connect coursework to long-term aspirationshttps://oasis.library.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1213/thumbnail.jp
The “Presentation Log Report”: A Project Workflow That Supports Notes, Annotation, and Editing, From Project Inception to Final Presentation
No full textMy “presentation log report” practice repurposes presentation software to serve the function of the research report with the flexibility to transform a logbook into a final report. This practice is (1) accessible to students, (2) supports workforce skills, (3) models workflow stages, and (4) is resistant to Gen AI abuse. Using my Google Slides project template, students thoroughly log details of each project stage and then “collapse” this log into a final report. Presentation slides are ideal for structuring report sections and visual documentation of resources and data. Slides can be shared, supporting collaboration and peer review, and students can practice visual design skills to show the hierarchy of information—what’s more and less important—in their research writing. My template requires that students annotate their project resources with callouts, highlights, and captions, a process that encourages them to engage meta-cognitively with resources and is difficult to sidestep with current Gen AI tools.https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1218/thumbnail.jp
Teaching With Roleplaying Games
No full textRoleplaying Games (RPG) offer a uniquely dynamic teaching practice. Educational RPGs invite students to roleplay as historical figures or character types navigating complex scenarios. My students have roleplayed as golden age hip hop artists, presidential campaign teams, and citizens debating for/against Maya Lin’s proposed Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1980. Any scenario is possible! The length of these games can span from one class period to an entire semester. It just depends on your objectives.https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1209/thumbnail.jp
Physical Function in Young and Older Adult Active Pickleball Players – A Cross-Sectional Study
No full textTopics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology Volume 6: Issue 1, Article 5, 2025. Limited information exists on pickleball’s impact on physical function in older adults (65+ years), despite reported health benefits. PURPOSE: This cross-sectional study evaluated the physical function of active older adult (OA) women and men recreational pickleball players via handgrip strength (HGS) and fatigue (HGF), 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) test, as well as the short physical performance battery (SPPB) compared to sex-matched young adult (YA) controls. METHODS: Thirty YA (18-26 years; n=15 women/men) and 27 OA (65-89 years; n=13 women, n=15 men) participants who played pickleball at least thrice weekly were assessed for physical function outcomes. A two-way ANOVA (age x sex) with repeated measures and Sidak post-hoc test were used (p\u3c0.05). RESULTS: Compared to sex-matched YA, OA women and men had significantly lower absolute HGS (OA women: 22.4±5.8 vs YA women: 31.7±5.6kg; OA men: 40.8±7.3 vs YA men: 50.5±8.9kg) and relative HGS (OA women: 8.7±2.3 vs YA women: 11.1±1.9kg/m2; OA men: 12.3±1.8 vs YA men: 15.0±2.7kg/m2). Absolute HGF followed the absolute HGS results. There was also a main effect for OAs to have lower SPPB chair sit-to-stand scores than YAs. In contrast, compared to sex-matched YAs, no significant differences were observed in OA women and men for 6MWD percent predicted (range: 104.6-115.4%) and SPPB walking speed and balance scores. CONCLUSIONS: In OA women and men recreational pickleballers, lower body physical function of walking speed/distance and balance did not show age-related differences compared to sex-matched YA pickleballers, but lower body strength and upper body strength/fatigue did present age-related declines
How Do Parents Influence Female Students\u27 Engineering Trajectory?
No full textUsing the Parental Socialization Framework, this research provides a detailed analysis of how early STEM exposure, parental confidence in abilities, and gender-neutral upbringing contribute to the development of STEM identities among women. Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, six undergraduate women engineering majors were interviewed in-depth about their parents\u27 influence on their STEM pathways. The findings reveal that parents\u27 high academic expectations, confidence in their daughters\u27 abilities, verbal and non-verbal encouragement, and early STEM opportunities are pivotal in steering female participants toward engineering. The study also underscores the importance of creating a gender-neutral environment that allows girls to explore and develop an interest in STEM from an early age. Our research offers novel insights by applying a structured framework to analyze parental influence, which has not been sufficiently explored in existing literature. These findings have significant practical implications for educators, policymakers, and parents. Recommendations include integrating hands-on STEM activities in early education, fostering parental confidence in daughters’ abilities, promoting gender-neutral upbringing, facilitating mentorship programs, and developing supportive policies to enhance parental involvement in STEM education. By addressing these factors, stakeholders can create an environment that nurtures female students\u27 interest and success in engineering, contributing to greater diversity and innovation in STEM fields
Climate Change Anxiety and Hope Both Predict Action: A Moderation Analysis
No full textClimate change is associated with extreme weather events that have devastating effects on communities worldwide. These events disrupt ecosystems, damage infrastructure, and influence physical and mental well-being. Urgent action is needed. Prior studies demonstrate that people are more likely to take action if they feel anxious about climate change and if they feel hopeful they can make a difference. However, we hypothesized that anxiety and hope would interact: that anxiety would only predict action when people felt hopeful. Therefore, we used path analysis to determine if hope moderates the relation between anxiety and action.
In a cross-sectional design, 500 United States MTurk workers completed the Climate Change Hope Scale, Climate Change Anxiety Scale, and Climate Change Action Inventory. We found anxiety strongly predicted action, hope weakly predicted action, and being less than 30 years old weakly predicted action. However, hope did not moderate the relation between anxiety and action. Thus, people who are anxious about climate change engage in similar amounts of action regardless of their level of hope. Because anxiety and hope both had positive relations with action, future research could determine if hope and anxiety have causal impacts on action and look for ways of increasing urgency without dampening hope
Worship Without Barriers
No full textIssue: Church accessibility and digital inclusion.
Controversy: Does livestreaming strengthen or weaken spiritual community
Viewpoint 1: Barna Group (2020) – Found that online church gives people more access, especially during and after the pandemic.
Viewpoint 2: Pew Research Center (2021) – Reports some worry that virtual worship reduces personal connection and long-term engagement.
Viewpoint 3: Campbell (2012) – Argues that digital religion is evolving and churches must balance tradition with technology.
My View (Graff & Birkenstein, 2021): Livestreaming is a ministry tool that helps include people who are sick, isolated, or unable to attend in person—it expands, not replaces, spiritual community.
Research Question: How do church in-person volunteer services contribute to accessibility, safety, and spiritual engagement within underserved communities?https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/educ_tss_303/1000/thumbnail.jp