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Robotics in Japan: A Program Design for The Experiment in International Living
Get PDF“Robotics in Japan” is a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) based program design for The Experiment in International Living (The Experiment). This design is for a four-week program for high school students. It is grounded in The Experiment’s mission and basic program structure. The purpose of Robotics in Japan is to add a STEM-based program to The Experiment’s portfolio in one of The Experiment’s most popular and marketable countries. In addition, this design adds a computer and technology theme, an area within STEM that has even less representation in The Experiment’s portfolio. In this paper, all necessary aspects to run this program are addressed. This includes pre-program aspects such as recruitment, marketing, staffing, and health and safety as well as on and after program information such as a basic program itinerary, goals and objectives, curriculum, crisis management, budget, and evaluation plan.
This program design is informed by research and literature on study abroad, adolescent development, STEM, robotics, and curriculum design. It is also informed by two needs assessment surveys, one completed by former Experiment Group Leaders and one completed by former Experiment participants. These assessments were anonymously completed online with no incentives for participation. The surveys showed successful student growth outcomes in a variety of identity development areas. The surveys also showed a primary participant interest in program destination and a perceived parent interest in computer and technology-themed programs. Robotics in Japan aims to capitalize on the student interest in Japan and the parent interest in computers and technology to add a STEM program grounded in theory to The Experiment’s 2021 catalog
Women in Conservation: A Study of Effective Community-Based Conservation and the Empowerment of Women in Tanzania
Get PDFThe subject of this study is women involved in Community-Based Conservation (CBC) from areas surrounding Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. CBC is a participatory process between people and organizations who have responsibilities affecting conservation. Communities surrounding protected conservation areas tend to experience high levels of poverty and marginalization due to exclusive conservation policies and the lack of co-management principles. Although tourism revenue is abundant in these locations, the benefits rarely impact local community members that disproportionately experience the effects of conservation. This is especially true for women who hold the responsibilities of collecting firewood, cooking, tending to livestock, farming, and sending their children to school. Effective CBC requires integrating conservation with the socio-economic requirements of local people while implementing policies that promote collective responsibility and conservation education. Is there a relationship between effective CBC and the feeling of empowerment within women involved in the conservation process? This study found a positive correlation between the involvement of CBC and the feeling of empowerment in female participants through economic incentives, social power, and educational opportunities
Analysis in E Minor: An Autoethnographic Poetry Collection and Study of Transgender Identity in Liminal Amsterdam
Get PDFThis study is an autoethnographic account of the extent to which liminal identity, specifically genderqueerness, are continuously developed in the city of Amsterdam. Transgender identity is a permanently liminal personhood, which is influenced by both potentially liminal periods of time and the liminality of spaces in which the subject lives. At the time of this study, my genderqueerness was situated in the deeply liminal city of Amsterdam for a transient, yet semi-permanent, length of time; thus, this is a study of the temporal and spatial impacts that the Dutch context has had on my personhood. Five locations in the city were identified for their liminal characteristics— threshold-like or in-between states, paradoxical or puzzling functions, sites of transition— and were analyzed for the ways in which the spaces inform my identity. After completing a series of objective observations, I surveyed my mental and physical responses to the spaces, to form a holistic view of both the places and their effects on me as a genderqueer researcher. The data generated from spatial analysis was then contextualized in a framework of liminality study and transgender identity scholarship, specifically handling language of the monster and the cyborg as strategies for identity expression. Rather than displaying my findings in academic prose, they are found in the autoethnographic poetry collection E Minor . Poetry was chosen as the primary analytical tool in order to best make implicit liminality explicit, as well as to capture the emotional component of identity development as it is influenced by compounding liminalities
“What Are You?” An Exploration of Race and Mixed Identity in the Netherlands
Get PDFThe Netherlands is a country well-known for its multiculturalism and politics of tolerance. But is this the whole story? How do colonial legacies impact the current racial politics in the Netherlands, and how does this framework differ from that of the U.S.? This zine, along with reflective artist’s statement and literature review, provides background in both colonial histories and current language and context around mixed race/bicultural identities and the regulation of interracial relationships in the Netherlands. Furthermore, it explores my own relationship with my mixed identity, as a student coming from the U.S. to the Netherlands
Criminalizing the Other: Exploring the Impact of The Netherlands\u27 Adaptation of Prosecutorial Guidelines on Sentencing Disparities
Get PDFThis research explores the impact of the 2015 institution of prosecution guidelines in the Netherlands. Prior to this switch, the Openbaar Ministerie operated using a punishment point system, which provided a mathematical formula with which to decide sanctions. Though the motivation of this change was to make the overall system more efficient and enable individual prosecutors to consider each case in a customizable and more equitable form, this research demonstrates that the change has served instead as a perpetuator (and in some cases, facilitator) of the persistent ethnic and gender biases already at work in the Netherlands. The social and political history of the country has ensured generations of prejudice and disproportionate experiences within the criminal legal system, especially for racialized Others, which have resulted in discriminatory sentencing for those individuals. This paper shows that these experiences have not changed, or have become more aggravated, after the prosecution guidelines implementation
We Are All Alive: Understanding Connections between People and Coral Reefs in Samoa
Get PDFThis work seeks to incorporate ecological research methods, socioeconomic data analysis, and local story collection into one understanding of coral reefs on the island of Upolu in Samoa. Data collection utilized transects and timed dives to assess four reef health indicators, and socio-economic indicators were sourced from the Samoa Bureau of Statistics. Interviews were also conducted to gain Samoan perspectives on the importance of coral reefs. Findings include patterns between the socioeconomic factors of population demographics, unemployment rates, education, and improved water, waste, and sanitation facilities and the environmental indicators of prevalence of plastic, percentage cover of living coral, parrotfish population size, and fish species richness. The ecological assessment showed that Palolo Deep was by far the healthiest reef. Interview responses indicate that Samoans care about coral reefs for a variety of reasons, which may be part of what makes certain reefs healthier, connecting people and reefs into one codependent system
Seeing Every Corner of Tangier: A Photographic Collection Going Beyond the Media Sphere
Get PDFTangier is an iconic city, with an image recognized internationally. Its image is created, not only by the city itself, but by its representation in the media. That said, it is worth considering, how true to Tangier is its image? This study considers this issue by addressing the following question: how does the image of Tangier, as represented in photographs, compare with that portrayed in the media? To accomplish this, a collection of 18 photographs over the area of Tangier, an area of 44 square miles, was taken. The photos were taken to as objectively as possible represent the city of Tangier. The images were then considered against images found in the media, specifically the internet, comparing urbanicity and visibility of the ocean. There appeared a large discrepancy in both indicators between Tangier and its representation in the media. While the findings were nonconclusive, it is worth further studying the ways that Tangier is represented differently in the media. Additionally, the photographs collected serve as valuable, standalone data, which could be used in further studies
Humanitarian Assistance in Protracted Emergencies: Rethinking the Role of Food Aid in Adjumani
Get PDFHumanitarian food assistance is incredibly susceptible to funding cuts, which reduces the quantity of food available to refugees. If refugees depend solely on food aid for survival, the implication of reductions is increased food insecurity at a household level. The Government of Uganda champions a self-reliance strategy that has failed to support refugees to the desired extent, especially when food rations are low. This study aims to assess the impact of humanitarian food assistance on the socioeconomic structures of refugee settlements in Adjumani, Uganda to understand the consequences of unstable food aid. The research was conducted over a four-week period. The sample consisted of eight key-informant interviews, 17 in-depth interviews with refugees, two focus groups. Data was also collected through participant observation of food and cash distribution, morning team meetings, secondary sources, and through a household food insecurity questionnaire. This research argues that the role of food aid must be rethought as an economic asset rather than just a means to food security. Doing so highlights the importance and role of income-generating activities in forming strong socioeconomic structures for refugees to provide them with alternative, more sustainable means, of achieving a state of food security. The research also addresses (1) how procurement strategies continue to marginalize the everyday Ugandan farmer; (2) the innate hypocrisy in the institutional defense of cash-based interventions; (3) the lack of dietary diversity in the food aid package and the possible ensuing micronutrient deficiencies; (4) the high-levels of chronic food insecurity in Boroli and Mireyi refugee settlements; (5) possible solutions for a more sustainable future
Basque Nationalism and Education: The influence of Euskara on student achievement in the Basque Country
Get PDFBetween 2012 and 2015, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test scores in the Basque Country have dropped significantly. In reading, the average score dropped 7 points and in math, scores fell by 13 points. Most notably however, science proficiency plummeted 23 points between 2012 and 2015. With 2018 PISA data yet to be published, this downturn in the educational success of the Basque Country is drawing significant concern from educators, parents, and policymakers alike.
These concerns are bolstered by the fact that Basque public schools spend €3,712 more per pupil than average expenditure of Spain, yet perform slightly lower than the state and multiple other autonomous regions in all three subjects. This has led many to ask why, if education spending is significantly higher, the region is economically prosperous, and there is little diversity among the population, are Basque schools performing below the Spanish average? Likewise, what is fueling the overall downward trend in Basque scores?
These questions reignite the ongoing debate about the efficacy of using Euskara, the Basque language as a medium of instruction. In many respects, the emergence of Basque as a language of instruction is considered to be politically motivated rather than the result of positive pedagogical outcomes. Therefore, in this paper, I hope to examine how Basque nationalism, operationalized by Euskara as a language of instruction, impacts student outcomes and educational achievement in the Basque Country.
By examining the Basque Country’s performance on the 2015 PISA exam among a number of important education factors: school type, language of instruction, language of the exam, and socioeconomic status, I aimed to determine what may have caused the overall decrease in scores in the Basque Country. The results of my research shows that above all other factors, socioeconomic status and the overall downturn in the Economic, Social, and Cultural Status of the Basque Country had the greatest influence in students’ PISA competence scores. Language of instruction on the other hand, was not found to have statistically significant results
Systems of Crime and Castigation: A Reevaluation of the Punishment Bureaucracy
Get PDFModels of reform within the criminal justice system often operate from a top-down perspective, affecting change on surface levels to attempt to better the system. One example of such a reform is Scotland’s Presumption Against Short Sentences. These kinds of changes, as I will illustrate in this paper, both fall short of achieving genuine change and often produce negative side effects. However, a few countries have made deeper changes to the ways their systems both view and handle crime and punishment; one such system is Norway. Through rehabilitation and restorative justice, Norway has greatly decreased rates of recidivism, increased social wellbeing and shifted attitudes around criminality. This paper thus presents an argument as to why top-down models of reform such as Scotland’s are not effective, and why systems must be addressed from the bottom-up to effectuate actual change by examining efficacy and reasoning behind the institution of punishment. Further, I argue that that the United States system of law and order specifically both does not operate objectively and has been wielded as a historical tool of political oppression; I thus posit that small reforms will always fall short when proposed within the context of a system built off of economic and racial oppression. Due to the foundations of injustice within the American criminal justice system, I thus conclude that we must pursue deeper changes instead of peripheral reforms