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Proposed Tax Literacy Standards to be Included with Washington State Graduation Requirements
Get PDFWashington State has Financial Education Learning Standards that will be required to be taught starting for all grades in the 2027/28 school year and as a graduation requirement for the class of 2031. These Learning Standards include some tax concepts, but high school graduates would benefit greatly from a more thorough exploration of tax literacy as a part of financial literacy. The benefits of increased tax literacy are profound for both the government and its citizens, and the proposed amendments will not pose a burden to incorporate into the already existing Learning Standards
Poulsbo Greenhouse Gas Intern
No full textworked on creating the City of Poulsbo’s new Climate Element for integration into its Comprehensive Plan during my Summer/Fall 2025 internship with the City’s Planning and Economic Development Department. As the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) intern, my role was to contribute to the update of Poulsbo’s Comprehensive Plan to be in line with Washington’s Growth Management Act (2023, HB 1181). My role focused on drafting the GHG Emissions Reduction Sub-Element, which supports Poulsbo’s efforts to meet state and county level GHG emission reduction goals. Part of drafting this sub-element involved compiling the City’s GHG inventory. The primary objectives of compiling this inventory were to (1) understand geographic vs consumption-based GHG inventories and which to use, (2) review state and local government resources relating to GHG inventories and their creation, (3) research other existing Climate Elements and GHG Sub- Elements, and (4) develop policies that integrate emissions reduction strategies into Poulsbo’s long-term planning
City Sprouts Farm Intership
No full textThis internship focused on how small-scale farming can support food access through sustainable and science-informed practices. At City Sprouts and Birchwood Food Desert Fighters (BFDF), I worked on organic farming techniques like composting, crop rotation, and low-till methods that help protect soil health and reduce long-term impact on the land in smaller spaces. I also learned dry farming techniques using ollas and mulch to retain water in areas without irrigation. These methods helped me better understand nutrient cycling, soil ecosystems, and water conservation. I also saw how limited resources and community involvement can shape local food systems. This internship allowed me to apply what I’ve studied in environmental science, especially ecological feedback, biodiversity, and sustainable land care, in practical and hands-on ways. Most of all, it showed me how farming can help rebuild connections between people, land, and food in neighborhoods like Birchwood that are working to meet their own needs
Photocatalytic CO2 Hydrogenation: Synergistic Effects of Ni2P on Reducible Metal Oxide Supports
No full textResearch on solar fuel production holds promise to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Using the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction, carbon dioxide (CO2) is reacted with hydrogen (H2) to form carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O) with the primary energy input coming from sunlight. The resultant CO can then be converted into long chain hydrocarbons by methods such as the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Nickel phosphide (Ni2P) was synthesized on a range of metal oxide supports (MxOy) by phosphine (PH3) reduction and characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectroscopy, nitrogen physisorption, CO and CO2 chemisorption, and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Examined metal oxides were chosen to span a wide range of reducibilities, with alumina (Al2O3), silica (SiO2), and zirconia (ZrO2) being low-reducibility insulators, titania (TiO2) being a moderately reducible semiconductor, and ceria (CeO2) and indium oxide (In2O3) being high-reducibility semiconductors. Catalysts were then tested in a photocatalytic reactor system to observe the effects of different supports on CO2 conversion activity and selectivity.
It was observed that in light with external heating to 150 °C, the activity of 2.5 wt% Ni2P/MxOy catalysts showed a trend of increasing CO2 conversion activity and decreasing CO selectivity with increasing oxide reducibility. However, two notable results were observed for the most reducible oxides, with 2.5 wt% Ni2P/CeO2 having the highest activity and poor CO selectivity, and 2.5 wt% Ni2P/In2O3 having high activity and near 100% CO selectivity
Continuous fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM) and water quality parameters from a YSI EXO sonde in Little Indian Slough in Padilla Bay, Washington, from July 2024 through July 2025
No full textThe Little Indian Slough Sonde dataset consists of continuous measurements collected using two alternating YSI EXO2 multiparameter sondes deployed in a tidal slough along the southwestern margin of Padilla Bay, Washington (48.457810° N, 122.471191° W). Data span July 17, 2024 through July 23, 2025, recorded at 15-minute intervals until August 1, 2024, after which measurements were collected at 10-minute intervals. Each sonde was equipped with sensors for conductivity and temperature, optical dissolved oxygen, pH and oxidation–reduction potential (ORP), total algae (chlorophyll; RFU and µg/L), fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM; calibrated QSU and uncalibrated RFU), and turbidity (FNU, installed beginning July 22, 2024), and included a central wiper for automated cleaning of optical surfaces. The EXO sondes used in this study did not include a depth sensor. Two sondes with identical configurations were rotated monthly, with each instrument undergoing post-calibration checks, cleaning, storage, and pre-deployment calibration between field cycles. Several gaps occur throughout the record due to periods when the sonde was not correctly marked as deployed, battery issues, one wiper installation error that resulted in significant biofouling and exclusion of affected data, and periods of likely kelp accumulation around the deployment tube that caused optical sensor readings near zero and required exclusion of affected intervals. Additional short-term biofouling occasionally influenced chlorophyll and FDOM signals, and slight negative values in dissolved oxygen, FDOM, or other optical channels reflect normal sensor noise. The EXO Total Algae sensor also outputs a phycoerythrin channel (TAL PE RFU), but this channel was not calibrated and is not recommended for quantitative use. Turbidity values occasionally exceeded the sensor’s calibrated accuracy range (\u3e4000 FNU) and should be interpreted with caution. Timestamp corrections were applied where necessary to ensure consistency with Pacific Standard Time. Little Indian Slough is a tidally influenced channel receiving both freshwater agricultural drainage and marine water from Padilla Bay, resulting in strong variability in salinity, dissolved oxygen, and biogeochemical conditions. The dataset is provided as a single CSV file suitable for analyses of tidal dynamics, estuarine biogeochemistry, and dissolved organic matter (DOM) variability
The Emerging Role of Artificial Intelligence in Content Creation
No full textThis paper examines the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation and evaluates its future involvement in varying forms of internet media. This paper utilizes case studies of multiple different AI projects, beginning with pioneering projects such as Nothing, Forever and moving to more modern examples, namely Neuro-sama to understand the dynamics behind their successes and failures. Furthermore, it also evaluates the feasibility of hyper-personalized media content. The research reveals that early AI generated media relied heavily on novelty and absurdity in order to garner short-term attention, without any way to create lasting entertainment value. Contemporary examples found longevity by combining AI generated content with human creativity. This paper argues that audiences value human authenticity in the media that they consume, therefore media containing AI generation must also include human originality in order to be successful and that the feasibility of the hyper-personalization of media depends much on the timeline of advancement for large language models
An Odyssey into Creative Writing (As an Engineer)
No full textThe aim of this project is to explore the overlap between creative writing skills and engineering skills. This consists of research and formal analysis on a particular literary device (the depiction of nuclear weapons both directly as well as indirectly through metaphor), the creation of a short story using the ideas discovered in the research, and a short meta-analysis on how an engineering skill set applies to a creative writing project
Honors Capstone Report: Emulating the Global Change Analysis Model with an Expanded Input Space
No full textMulti-sector dynamics (MSD) models are capable of predicting the evolution of highly complex human-earth interactions. The nuanced relationship between these interactions requires sophisticated modeling. This sophistication poses difficulty for researchers performing exploratory analysis, as it increases the time and computational power necessary to run the model. Previous work created a deep neural network emulator of one popular MSD model, with significantly reduced runtime. However, one of the limitations of the emulator is the limited scope of inputs that it accepts compared to the full MSD model. This paper describes work extending this previous emulator to accept an expanded input space – 233 inputs, as opposed to the original 12 inputs – as a step toward more comprehensive emulation of MSD models. In our work we demonstrate that our emulator is highly accurate, obtaining R2 metrics over 0.98 on a heldout test set, mirroring the successful results of past work despite the greater complexity of the emulation problem
Functional Analysis of ROCK1 and ROCK2 in Vascular Development Using Zebrafish
No full textDysregulated Rho-Associated Kinase 1 and 2 (ROCK1/2) protein activity has been implicated in the development of cranial vascular malformations, leading to severe hemorrhage and stroke in human patients. However, the individual roles of ROCK1 versus ROCK2 in regulating blood vessel development have yet to be comprehensively characterized. We use zebrafish as a model organism to determine if and how Rock1 and Rock2 regulate vascular development and integrity. To determine if Rock1 and/or Rock2 are required for blood vessel integrity or patterning, we use CRISPR/Cas9 to mutate rock1 and rock2 protein-encoding genes individually or in combination in transgenic zebrafish embryos with fluorescently labelled blood vessels and imaging these embryos using florescence confocal microscopy. Additionally, to determine whether mutating the rock1 gene leads to transcriptional compensation by rock2 and/or vice versa, we use quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to measure relative rock1 and rock2 mRNA expression levels in CRISPR/Cas9-injected zebrafish embryos. We find potential distinct roles of rock1 and rock2a/2b in trunk vascular development and cranial vascular development respectively. Further, we uncover evidence for the occurrence of genetic compensation by rock1 following the mutagenesis of rock2a/2b in combination
Balboa the Warrior: The Experience of Editing my Novel
No full textThese combinations of reflective journals are used to describe the experience and emotions of editing 13 chapters of a book that was written by the author, Ariel Hall, between the ages of 10-12. They specifically cover the adventure of the meaning behind giving creative justice to the younger self while also exploring the editing process after having experienced life. Along with the journals are excerpts from the novel itself, comparing the original version to the newly edited story. These changes express the advancement of language, story development, as well as personal growth from the author which have affected overarching themes of trust, confidence, and what it means to be a warrior