10274 research outputs found
Sort by
Improving Language Learning: A Data Formatting and Plotting App for the Spanish Language Learning Research Group
Get PDFThis web app provides a way for the Spanish Language Learning Research Group at WWU to easily format data files and generate plots from the data. The group’s overall goal is to improve the Spanish program at WWU, and one piece of this process was to collect data from Spanish students. The group collected data through a Qualtrics survey, and I designed an app to help them process that data and create plots from it. The app consists of three parts: the processor, the plotter, and the merger. In the processor, the user uploads an excel file that must be the raw data downloaded directly from Qualtrics. The app will then display a download button, which the user can click to download the clean version of the data. Once the user has this clean data, they can move to the plotter. Here, they can upload the clean data, which triggers the display of various options for different features of the plot. The user can make their selections, then click a button to show the plot on the screen, and then download it as an image if desired. The merger part of the app is used for concatenating two files together. Since the survey has been and will continue to be sent out multiple times, the group needs a way to have all of this data in one file. The user can upload two files to the merger, and the second one will be appended to the end of the first one. This is saved to a new file, so neither of the original files are changed. Optionally, the user can choose to sort the combined files by student, so that if the same student has taken the survey multiple times, their responses will all be grouped together. The choice to sort the new file is made after uploading the two original files and before downloading the combined file. Overall, this app is for the Spanish Language Learning Research Group to have an easy way to clean and organize data, as well as be able to generate plots to easily examine the data and present findings.
[Data is provided in supplementary files on this page.
Char gardens: vegetation trends in planted conservation burn piles in the San Juan Islands, WA
No full textConservation Burns are a technique that burns slash material in such a way to maximize charcoal productivity. Once these char piles are planted, they are referred to as Char Gardens. This study examines the efficacy of Char Gardens as a technique to increase native plant dominance in the understory of rocky bald and upland woodland ecosystems in the San Juan Islands, Washington. Char Gardens were found to have a significantly higher proportion of native plants than the surrounding landscape, as measured from a Control plot adjacent and paired to each Char Garden surveyed in this study. Medians were calculated from the proportion of native vegetation of total biomass at each site - Cady Mountain, Mt. Grant LSR, and Turtleback LSR - for each monitoring period - April and June. On Cady during the April monitoring session, the medians were 85.74% and 24.34% Nativity for Burn Piles and Control plots respectively. In June, Cady medians were 80.36% and 38.97% respectively. At the Mt. Grant LSR site in April the medians were 81.24% and 23.36% for Burn Piles and Controls. In June the Mt. Grant medians were 82.33% and 29.07%. On Turtleback, the April medians were 66.58% and 3.56% for Burn Piles and Controls, and 75.02% and 11.52% in June. Shade levels, soil moisture, soil depth, and aspect were also compared between sites and treatments to determine their effect on plot nativity. Deep soil (\u3e10cm) had the highest native cover (median = 23.5%) and species richness (median = 6). Optimal shade across all aspects was 50.34%, on warm aspects 58.23%, and on cool aspects 42.45%. Soil moisture showed a weak correlation with native cover (rho = 0.14, p-value = 0.03) and the proportion of nativity (rho = 0.13, p-value = 0.05). Fidelity and frequency of each species observed was also calculated. The species that showed high fidelity/high frequency to Char Gardens were Achillea millefolium (Yarrow), Eriophyllum lanatum (Wooly Sunflower), and Prunella vulgaris (Self-Heal). Some species included in the planting mix were more closely associated with Control plots - Brodiaea coronaria (Harvest Brodiaea), Toxicoscordion venenosum (Death Camas), Collinsia parviflora (Blue-eyed Mary), Fragaria vesca (Woodland Strawberry), Dodecatheon hendersonii (Shooting Star), Erythronium oreganum (Fawn Lily) - indicating that burning is either neutral or harmful to their populations and care must be taken to not harm their existing spread. This study indicates that Char Gardens are an effective method for increasing native plant presence in rocky bald ecosystems in the San Juans, and may have applicability in increasing nativity and species richness within the larger Pacific Northwest region and beyond
WWU Spatial Institute Intern
No full textBetween January and June of 2025, I interned as a research assistant for the Spatial Institute, working with research assistant Evan Redmond, GIS Specialist Natalie Furness, and Director of the Spatial Institute Aquila Flower. The Spatial Institute was contracted by the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC) to produce a digital mining atlas of the Upper Skagit Valley (Figure 1). The main goals of this project were to: a. Compile a comprehensive dataset on historic and contemporary mining activity in the area, accompanied by relevant supporting data. b. Use these data to tell the story of mining in the area in an accessible and engaging way
Whatcom Food Network Policy Intern
No full textDuring my internship with the Whatcom Food Network, I had the opportunity to explore the ways that council committees and members of our food system provide guidance to the Whatcom County government on maintaining a sustainable food system. I attended a Food System Committee meeting as well as an Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting, which were both created to provide insight to County Council on different issues impacting our food system. The Food System Committee was created through the Whatcom Food Network for the purpose of maintaining the Whatcom County 10-Year Food System Plan. Meanwhile, the Agricultural Advisory Committee provides insight to County Council on issues specific to agriculture. After attending the Agricultural Advisory Committee meeting, I wrote a report to share the results of the meeting, which was posted on the Whatcom Food Network website and social media for interested community members to access. In addition to attending these council meetings, I conducted research on members of our food system to update information on Whatcom Food Network’s online resource guide. The information on the resource guide was outdated from before the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the updated contact information, we reached out to members of our food system with a survey created to bring community input into the Whatcom County Food System Committee Annual Report. The information that WFN collected from the survey will be presented by the Food System Committee in their annual report to the County Council, which will also contribute to updates in the 10-Year Food System Plan. I also attended an event organized by Whatcom Food Network and WWU Community Engagement Fellows that was a community discussion as part of a Resilient Foodscapes series. Lastly, I did a gap analysis of the 10-Year Food System Plan and the Food System Dashboard that was recently created by members of the Food System Committee and Whatcom County Health and Community Services. The Food System Dashboard is an online resource that maps data about food production and access in Whatcom County. In this analysis, we compared the goals in the Food System Plan to the data in the Food System Dashboard to find out which actions are being measured. During these experiences, I learned about local policymaking processes impacting our food system, how community members within our food system interlink and collaborate, and about the struggles that our food system is currently facing
City Sprouts Farm Community Food Systems Intern
No full textCity Sprouts is a small urban farm located in the Birchwood neighborhood of Bellingham, Washington. Two years prior to the farm’s establishment in 2018, the only grocery store within the Birchwood neighborhood shut down, turning the area into a food desert and making food access significantly more difficult for much of the Birchwood community. This was one of the driving factors that inspired City Sprouts founders Annah Young and Ellie Duncan to start their farm on a 1-acre plot of available land in the area, allowing them to provide affordable fresh vegetables to the local community. Over the past eight years, the farm has gradually evolved and in 2024, City Sprouts officially became a part of WWU’s Center for Community Learning where they continue their mission of increasing food access and building community resilience. I became involved with City Sprouts through their Community Food Systems Internship during the Spring quarter of 2025, and I hope to continue my work with the farm through the summer
Whatcom Land Trust Community Engagement Intern
No full textThe Whatcom Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is based in Bellingham with the mission to protect and preserve wildlife habitat as well as agricultural and open space lands within Whatcom County. There are multiple ways that the Land Trust manages to achieve these goals; some of which include engaging the public about stewardship, obtaining and managing different properties, and putting on work parties to bring community members into the work that we do. Throughout this past school year I was one of the Community Engagement Interns that got to work with the Volunteer Coordinator helping with different events. Going into the internship I thought that I would be mostly working on the community engagement aspect of the work that the Land Trust does, but I ended up having a very wide variety of work that I got to do. This really gave me the opportunity to learn more than I had anticipated, and it helped me to gain confidence in the direction I want to take my career after I graduate
Natural and Restored Tidal Marsh Surface Accretion Trends in the Stillaguamish River Estuary
No full textFor centuries, coastal wetlands have been diked and isolated from tidal influence to generate and protect agricultural land, leading to long-term subsidence and vulnerability to sea level rise. Restoration of coastal wetlands can re-establish hydrological connectivity, leading to sediment accretion that can increase long-term resilience to rising sea levels. From 2011 to 2014, twenty-one surface elevation tables (SETs) were installed in the Stillaguamish River estuary to monitor long-term elevation changes in natural and restored marsh zones. This report, created for The Nature Conservancy, details net accretion and erosion rates over the last fifteen years at each monitoring site in the Stillaguamish River estuary using SET data. Surface elevation change rates are utilized to gauge sediment availability and the effects of restoration on the marsh’s capacity to accrete sediment at a rate faster than relative sea level rise in both natural and restored marsh. This report finds that all natural and restored zones in the Stillaguamish River estuary currently have net accretion rates outpacing the rate of relative sea level rise in the Puget Sound region
Fear & Futures: Navigating artificial intelligence at the university level
No full textIn the face of the uncertain future of AI, I felt the growing narrative that I must embrace AI to avoid being left behind. This paper attempts to understand our current moment with Artificial Intelligence and what it means for universities as they prepare students for future jobs. I conducted primary research, literature reviews and independent research to better understand the agency we have in regulating development of A.I. and deciding what we want it to look like. I argue that universities must act responsibly in the course of A.I.\u27s use in the academic realm by creating space for conversation with faculty and students. Rapid A.I. development is not unavoidable, and while the government is doing little to regulate it, universities can exercise their agency within campuses by using democratic processes that engage faculty and students in expressing how or if they want A.I. in education
One more Light
No full textA disturbed man sits down to chronicle his experiences during the final moments of his life
Optimizing cure conditions for frontal polymerization composites
No full textPolymer-matrix composites (PMCs) have become increasingly employed across industries to achieve strength-to-weight ratios that were not previously possible. As the popularity of PMCs grows, there is great potential for energy and cost savings in the methods used to cure these polymer-based materials. One such method is frontal polymerization, where, once initiated, the curing reaction propagates through the part as a wave. Frontal polymerization is enabled by a fast exothermic cure along with favorable heat capacity and thermal conductivity to propagate the curing event through the part as a wave. RapiCure Solutions has investigated these chemistries and is working to bring a variety of frontal polymerization resins to market. This work describes a series of studies aimed at finding a very fast method for curing one of RapiCure’s pre-production formulations as the matrix material in carbon-fiber composites. Through these studies, we identified that thin composite parts could be effectively cured in three minutes with a heat gun placed one centimeter above the composite surface