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Addressing Climate Change Anomie in Teacher Education
Get PDFThis research project sought to understand how preservice teachers explore their relationship with Science and confidence in teaching about climate change in Science education amid a culture of denial regarding the impact of the climate crisis. Using data from three cohorts of students in an elementary Science methods course, this paper shares the context of climate change acceptance in the province of Alberta, Canada, the fossil fuel economic hub of Canada, and how using Journell’s framework for controversial issues alongside a critical energy literacy framework using inquiry, supported preservice teachers to address their hesitancy in Science classrooms to engage with climate change education. Science education also needs to shift as our energy and economies need to shift in response to the climate crisis. Preservice teachers, therefore, need to be supported in this transition by better understanding their relationship with Science and how to respond to the climate crisis within regions that do not necessarily support renewable or sustainable forms of energy, such as Alberta, Canada
Comparison of Emissions across Tobacco Products: A Slippery slope in tobacco control
Get PDFIn this narrative review, we highlight the challenges of comparing emissions from different tobacco products under controlled laboratory settings (using smoking/ vaping machines). We focus on tobacco products that generate inhalable smoke or aerosol, such as cigarettes, cigars, hookah, electronic cigarettes, and heated tobacco products. We discuss challenges associated with sample generation including variability of smoking/vaping machines, lack of standardized adaptors that connect smoking/vaping machines to different tobacco products, puffing protocols that are not representative of actual use, and sample generation session length (minutes or number of puffs) that depends on product characteristics. We also discuss the challenges of physically characterizing and trapping emissions from products with different aerosol characteristics. Challenges to analytical method development are also covered, highlighting matrix effects, order of magnitude differences in analyte levels, and the necessity of tailored quality control/quality assurance measures. The review highlights two approaches in selecting emissions to monitor across products, one focusing on toxicants that were detected and quantified with optimized methods for combustible cigarettes, and the other looking for productspecific toxicants using non-targeted analysis. The challenges of data reporting and statistical analysis that allow meaningful comparison across products are also discussed. We end the review by highlighting that even if the technical challenges are overcome, emission comparison may obscure the absolute exposure from novel products if we only focus on relative exposure compared to combustible products
A History of The Bracero Program as an Agent of Transnational Modernity in the 20th Century
Get PDFThe Bracero Program was an agreement devised between Mexico and the United States which provided a state-sanctioned avenue for Mexican men to work as contract laborers in the United States. It was originally intended to alleviate the World War II labor shortage in the United States, but would continue past the war until 1964. Its longevity was due to the central role it played in bringing Mexico and the United States into a modern, transnational relationship. I aim to examine the relationship between the two nations in two contexts: an historical-economic one, and an ethnographic one. These lenses are two sides of the same coin, in that they are both ways of viewing the change that modernity and transnationalism brought to Mexico and America.
Keywords: Bracero Program, World War II, Mexican Immigration, Mexico-US Relations, American Labor Politics
Part of the panel: Hidden Histories during WWIIModerator: Professor Richard Beyle
Understanding the Importance of Social Emotional Learning in Children and the Link Between Mental Health
No full textI will examine how very important it is to society to teach structured Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs to children in school. It can bring mental wellbeing and the ability to have healthy relationships, non addictive behaviors and being able to emotionally regulate themselves. Since we have pushed on only academia and not SEL for our children, mental illness has skyrocketed. This problem started after the SEL part of school was taken out of schools and then the division between rich and poor became wider and wider as time went on. If we were to bring back SEL into school, ie.. programs like yoga, martial arts, computer games building healthy neural pathways..;then children would potentially grow into healthy adults and become more productive members of society. I am using SEL studies and comparing it to other studies in fields of mental health that treat severe mental illness. I will be using my mentor for information on the research that he is currently conducting on children between the ages of 4 & 5, but only as an understanding of Theory of Mind (ToM)
Development of a Two-Photon Laser Scanning Microscope
Get PDFThe objective of this project was to convert a Sarastro 2000 confocal laser scanning microscope into a system capable of imaging using two-photon excitation (TPE) fluorescence for the use of the PSU biology department. TPE microscopy operates on the ability of fluorophores to accept two photons each with half the energy of a desired transition in a single quantum event via a virtual energy state and then emit a higher energy photon upon relaxation. This is preferable to single-photon excitation (SPE) due to the lower energy photons causing less damage to delicate biological samples. The adaptation process included physically altering the system by replacing the on-board argon laser with a Ti:sapphire laser, replacing optical components for optimization with the new laser, and implementing a new scan mechanism. The new scan mechanism, a custom all-analog two-mirror galvo head, interfaces with an analog data acquisition board and a computer with software designed for analog motor control and data analysis
Talking about Weight: Weight Stigma and Information Seeking
Get PDFGuided by the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, this study explores the relationship between fear of discussing weight-related topics, or weight-related communication apprehension and weight bias internalization and tests the inconsistent RISP relationship between risk perception and information insufficiency. It investigates differences in weight-related communication apprehension in those who previously sought weight-related information from interpersonal or mediated sources. Using a survey of 64 undergraduate communication students, the study found that high levels of weight bias internalization correlated with high levels of weight-related communication apprehension. The study did not find a significant difference in weight-related communication apprehension based on the source used in the most recent search of weight-related information, nor a correlation between weight bias internalization (as risk perception) and information insufficiency about weight information. It provides an impetus for further exploration of weight-related communication apprehension and insights for the RISP model and the concept of weight stigma
Prosodic Analysis of Wh-indeterminate Questions in L2 Korean
Get PDFWh-indeterminate questions, particularly wh-questions and yes-no questions, in Korean are ambiguous due to the limited morpho-syntactic markers in the sentence. The absence of these markers leaves two questions syntactically identical, leading to lexical ambiguity. The disambiguation of these two questions relies primarily on prosodic cues. Drawing from previous studies in the L1 Korean context, this study examines the intonation patterns of English learners of Korean in producing and perceiving wh-questions and yes-no questions and explores if there is any sign of L1 influence from English. Five English learners of Korean, who received formal instruction in Korean at a U.S. university, completed a production and perception test that consisted of 10 dialogues featuring ambiguous wh-indeterminate questions. Their speech was analyzed for prosodic features, such as pitch range, boundary tone, and accentual phrasing. The findings revealed that there was a significant variability in prosodic elements, with language proficiency markedly affecting pitch range. However, no consistent relationship was found among learners regarding accentual phrasing. The results of the study suggest that there is a complex interplay between proficiency and target-like prosody in second language acquisition
Community Resilience in Portland Parkland Soils
Get PDFProposing soil nutrient testing as a model for community research and ecology education, this presentation considers pathways to raising public engagement with sustainability issues while enhancing community resilience and social capital. Community Resilience in Portland Parkland Soils represents my research thus far on the conjoined topics of urban soils and community efficacy, in which I have attempted to synthesize biogeophysical processes in city parklands with strategies for raising public awareness about urban ecosystems.
I measured and compared soil nitrogen levels at 8 iconic Portland area parks using commercially- available garden test kits, while concurrently researching the historical and contemporary land uses of each site, demographic characteristics of the surrounding neighborhoods, and consulting social science sources to inform my thinking about how neighborhoods and cities can become better- equipped to face the challenges of climate change, disaster preparedness, and barriers to social cohesion.
I present my ideas through a lens of equity, and propose solutions that center local knowledge and cultural life-ways while avoiding the one-way extraction of data out of communities by offering frameworks for applying citizen research to local conditions and issues
Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography
Get PDFThis presentation is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, and express their identity by conforming to the norms of the broader Queer community. In particular, many Queer rural youth consume influencer-suggested media, change their behavior, and even migrate to coastal urban centers in order to fulfill their perceived ideal of Queer life. Although the Internet serves as a haven for many youth, it exposes them to dangers as well, many of which will shift and change with future technological advancements in AI. This research enhances anthropological understanding of the significance of virtual spaces in contemporary society and their potential to both empower and endanger minority communities
Neuroscience Educational Interventions For Mental Health Management Within The Neurodiverse Population: A Working Model
Get PDFSociological and environmental factors such as economic disparity and cultural marginalization hinder access to educational and medical resources and must be taken into account to ensure accurate diagnoses, effective self-regulation and mental health management for neurodiverse individuals, and offset disparities in access to healthcare and education. Arbitrary attachment of stigma to traits commonly associated with neurodivergence perpetuate neuro-myths1 that have dire consequences when internalized, informing individuals’ development and sense of self. Neuroscience outreach done by NW Noggin is an active model for engaging communities with limited resources and a greater need for services to offset economic disparity. Integrated arts programming like those employed by NW Noggin help bridge the gap in resources within marginalized communities, affording participants and educators the opportunity to better understand the mind and body by asking specific questions that they want to know. Through volunteer work and undergraduate thesis research, further inquiries are actively being pursued, via surveys, interviews, and fostering ongoing conversations with educators and students with a goal of determining the efficacy of neuroscience based educational interventions in mental health management. Neuroscience educational interventions dispel misinformation, enabling neurodiverse individuals, their practitioners, educators, social workers and family members to understand and better navigate neurodiversity