Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, History

This thesis investigates the numerous installments of the Godzilla film franchise, created by Toho Studios from 1954 through the present day, that contributes to the overall historiography and understanding on a post-World War II Japan. This study complicates previous scholarship on these films and Japan as a whole, which asserts that these films were primarily geared towards children and rarely offer substantive socio-political messages. By examining the numerous films of this franchise, this study demonstrates not only that there were themes reflective of Japanese memory, fear, and anxiety throughout the franchise, but that these films aim to bring about changes in society as a whole. All of these films display to some degree uncomfortable memories of the Second World War and mounting fears of the Cold War, both of which many Japanese people saw their country at the mercy of. The films captured the Japanese zeitgeist and transformed these attitudes and emotions into thematic elements, openly displaying them on screen in the hopes of involving great societal change within Japan and the international sphere. Ideas such as fears of thermonuclear devastation, worry over the spread of Communism and Communist regimes, the growth of science and technology, musings over man's place in nature and the world and many others are openly present throughout the Godzilla franchise. The efforts of the numerous filmmakers to display these ideas and invoke societal change throughout the franchise led to many national and international policy changes towards bettering Japan's place in a growing world. As a result, the Godzilla franchise contributes to a better understanding of the Japanese zeitgeist during and after the Cold War and how the moods and emotions of a people can be openly displayed on screen.

Committee: Walter Grunden (Advisor); Benjamin Greene (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, History

Ernst Haeckel was one of the nineteenth century's most famous and influential scientists, and science popularizers. According to one historian of biology, he was “the chief source of the world's knowledge of Darwinism” in his time. He was also one of the chief sources of the world's knowledge of what has come to be called, in our time, the “conflict thesis” in the history of science and religion. At the same time, he endeavored to set up his own Darwinian-romantic theology, the forgotten religion of monism, in the place of Christianity. This paper makes use of new information technologies to gather documents which have been largely inaccessible in the past, on account of the difficulty of finding and sorting them. It aims at a comprehensive discussion of Haeckel's influence in the United States at this time – with lay people, with clerical audiences, and with other scientists. I find that Haeckel's ideas met with a poor reception in the United States, because they faced a steep “cultural gradient,” as between the monarchical, romantic, and sharply anti-Catholic values prevalent in Haeckel's native Prussia, and the democratic, empirical, and mildly anti-Catholic values prevalent in the United States. In the “struggle for their existence,” Haeckel's evolutionary monism faced superior competition from evolutionary world-explanations which originated within an Anglo-American context, and which were, in consequence, better “adapted,” so to speak, to their “environment.”

Committee: Alan Rocke Dr. (Advisor); Kenneth Ledford Dr. (Committee Member); Miriam Levin Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

MA, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Since the 1960s, Mars has become a nearly constant fixture within American space science. The planet has garnered an exceptional status that puts it above other planets and space science projects, receiving far more investment from NASA than any other planet. In the twenty-first century, NASA has stated that Mars is one of its top priorities, and the planet continues to receive constant enthusiasm from the American media. This work seeks to explain Mars's rise to prominence within American space science, and, in particular, it asks why Mars has grown into such an emblematic topic over the course of five decades. In general, this set of chapters examines American Martian research from the 1960s through the year 2000 from the perspective of scientists. It concentrates on the development of interplanetary probes and missions that NASA sent to Mars during this period and the way these projects impacted American space science. Overall, this work argues that the growth of scientific interest in Mars is a result of the way scientists incorporated Martian research into broader principles within American society. Interplanetary Martian research began in the 1960s because of advocacy by a new group of scientists called exobiologists that argued that searching for life on Mars was important for science and society. This rhetoric appealed to an American culture already fascinated by notions of aliens and other habitable worlds. Exobiologists situated Martian research within American society, allowing it to garner scientific and public support despite a political climate focused on Cold War military priorities. Scientists invested in these Martian missions, such as Mariner IV, Viking, and Pathfinder, generally reinforced the importance of extraterrestrial life as the main priority in their research despite the evidence these missions provided. When Mariner IV did not portray any signs of Martian life in its images, exobiologists questioned the mission's comprehensiven (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Matthew Crawford (Advisor); Kenneth Bindas (Committee Member); Mary Ann Heiss (Committee Member); David Pereplyotchik (Committee Member) Subjects: Astronomy; History; Science History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Teaching and Learning

This dissertation presents a four-month study which investigated the effectiveness of curriculum materials incorporating the history of science on learning science, understanding the nature of science, and students' interest in science. With regards to these objectives, three different class contexts were developed with three main types of historical information. In the first class context, the similarities between students' alternative ideas and scientific concepts from the history of science were considered in developing teaching materials. In the second class context, the teacher developed discussion sessions on the ways scientists produce scientific knowledge. In the third class context, short stories about scientists' personal lives were used without connection to the concepts of science or nature of science. Ninety-four eighth-grade students were randomly assigned to four classes taught by the same science teacher. The concepts in the motion unit and in the force unit were taught. Three of the four classrooms were taught using the contexts provided by the history of science while the fourth class was taught in the same way that the teacher had used in previous years. The effects on student meaningful learning, perceptions of the nature of science, and interest in science were evaluated at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end of the study to compare differences between historical class contexts and the Traditional Class. Results of analysis showed that the changes in meaningful learning scores for the first class context were higher than other classes but the differences between classes were not significant. The history of science affected student perceptions of the process of science and the role of inference in the process of science. Stories from scientists' personal lives consistently stimulated student interest in science, while discussions of scientific methods without these stories decreased student interest. The positive effects of stories relat (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Arthur White (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Sciences

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2024, History

This thesis argues for an interdisciplinary examination of the origins and subsequent appearance of the Wassermann blood test, the first test developed for detecting syphilis, in eugenics initiatives and medicolegal mandates. When this seemingly impartial medical tool intersected with preexisting social and cultural biases regarding syphilis its story became one of blood purity initiatives for the preservation and proliferation of white normativity. Reframing the Wassermann as more than a passive medical tool highlights how ostensibly impartial medical processes can produce institutional violence in masculinized spaces of control. While the Wassermann offered a source of hope for protecting against syphilitic infection, in application, the serodiagnostic tool served as a source of scientific validation when misapplied as a quantifiable method for justifying medicolegal interventions in the 20th century US. This examination traces the bioethical legacy of the Wassermann from its 1906 development in Berlin to its appearance in eugenics-based legal mandates in the US. Through an analysis of scientific publications and court records at archives across the East Coast this paper centers those who didn't benefit from the Wassermann and investigates how scientific authority derived from an imperfect diagnostic test was harnessed to reproduce and reinforce the sociocultural biases that linger today.

Committee: Kimberly Hamlin (Advisor); Madelyn Detloff (Committee Member); Amanda McVety (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; European History; Gender; History; Law; Medical Ethics; Medicine; Public Health; Science History; Technology; Womens Studies

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

American Catholics were once a voting block which favored the Democratic party. However, Catholics now vote nearly the same as the general population, a contradiction when compared to other Christian denominations in the United States. This essay works to explore the political, historical, and theological elements of this division which caused the Church to fracture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Philosophically, the core political ideals of the Catholic Church and the modern United States stand in stark contrast with one another. Presently, the foundational political theory of the United States as formulated by John Locke has become warped into a sort of hyper-individualism. This hyper-individualism emphasizes a personalization of moral truths, and thus stands against the natural law theory of the Church developed from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. This hyper-individualism would eventually seep into the American Catholic Church, and events throughout the twentieth century would work to further this permeation. Historical events such as the Americanism controversy, the Second Vatican Council, the election of John F. Kennedy, the widespread rejection of Humanae Vitae, and the political actions before and after Roe v. Wade, would work to further divide the Church. Finally, the essay concludes with an examination of various topics prevalent in American political discourse and determines how a Catholic could respond to those issues while remaining faithful to the teachings of the Church. This examination includes consideration of teachings from the Magisterium and determines the level of authority each teaching has by utilizing the concluding paragraphs of the Profession of Faith. The conclusions of this examination show that many politicians who claim to be Catholic take up positions contrary to the faith and risk placing themselves outside of full communion with the Catholic Church. Finally, this essay raises the question as to whether American Cathol (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ronald Carstens PhD (Advisor); Matthew Ponesse PhD (Committee Member); Leo Madden S.T.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Political Science; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation examines the careers of African American members of Congress from the election of Oscar DePriest, the first African American elected in the 20th Century in 1928, through the early years of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1973. It examines the interactions with and contributions of Black members of Congress to the broader Civil Rights and Black Power movements during this period and their relationship with electoral politics. It shows how Black members both played fundamental roles in passing major pieces of Civil Rights legislation during this period and how without their work and input these laws would have been weaker. Simultaneously, it shows how the demands and realities of electoral politics constrained the scope of Black members' legislative efforts, but also how these members actively took steps to advance partisan political goals at the expense of activists because they believed that their work was the best and sometimes only legitimate form of Black activism. Building upon scholarship in both history and Political Science, it contributes to our understanding of the scope of Black political power in the United States prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the impact it had. Simultaneously, it compliments the literature on the Civil Rights and Black Power eras that focus on grassroots movements as the main agents of change by showing how the connections between many Black activists and Black Congressmen helped passed landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but also how Black members came to distance themselves from those activists as they failed to monopolize Black political action around themselves to the detriment of both their own political agenda and that of activists.

Committee: David Stebenne (Advisor); Bart Elmore (Committee Member); Hasan Jeffries (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; History; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Philosophy

This dissertation is a collection of four papers on George Berkeley and the role of metaphysics in natural science. Each paper addresses a separate scientific concept and examines Berkeley's critique of the application of that concept in demonstrations within physics and the mathematical principles of physics. These concepts are quantity of matter (i.e. mass) in chapter one, percussive force (i.e. impact) in chapter two, true motion in chapter three, and the fluxions of the calculus in chapter four. In each case, Berkeley directs his attention to the ontology of that concept. This attention manifests itself primarily in two ways. First, in some cases Berkeley recognizes that certain metaphysical assumptions about the nature of the entity in question influence (oftentimes in negative ways) the way natural philosophers develop and interpret the claims of their scientific theories. Second, in some cases Berkeley argues that a proper understanding of the entity in question (based in his idealist metaphysics) can rectify errors in the way natural philosophers develop and interpret the claims of their scientific theories. On the whole, Berkeley is concerned to show not just that the physics of his time is compatible with his metaphysics of idealism, but further that physics is more fully and properly understood only when founded on his idealism.

Committee: Chris Pincock (Committee Member); Lisa Shabel (Committee Member); Lisa Downing (Advisor) Subjects: Philosophy; Philosophy of Science

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2022, English

This dissertation considers five novels: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, The Overstory by Richard Powers, and Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh. It is interested in how vitalism, a term that emerges at the intersection of the work of Jane Bennett (vital materialism) and Amitav Ghosh (vitalist politics), might work to re-focus the form of the novel in a way that thoughtfully considers climate change. Vitalism is an answer to the mechanized, biopolitical, realist modes of contemporary human art and social organization. A vitalist politics reconceives of political systems and structures in a way that acknowledges the role that nonhuman agency plays in shaping human events. A vitalist politics would mean all political and economic decisions acknowledge that nonhuman entities and systems have agency. Vitalism reconceives of "nature" as not brute matter to be extracted, but a web of carefully linked systems. It differs from an animist politics in the sense that it shuns the idea of ascribing any sort of soul to an individual entity (whether human, animal, or plant) for considering all entities as linked in a collectivist, rhizomatic web. The focus of this dissertation project is on contemporary fictional texts out of which strong strains of vitalist politics and aesthetics emerge. In doing so, it considers what the shapes of novels might be in a future that is itself reorganized by climate change.

Committee: Anita Mannur (Committee Chair); Stefanie Dunning (Advisor); Timothy Melley (Advisor); Theresa Kulbaga (Advisor); Marguerite Shaffer (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Justice; Literature; Philosophy of Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation aims to reclaim the significance and innovations of female home scientists in India's development from 1947 until 1972. Historiographies of India's development in the post-independence period have largely overlooked how gendered projects, such as the establishment of home science programs in new Indian agricultural universities, were directed by professional women. To discover the ways and to what extent home scientists played an essential role in India's modernization projects, this study investigates the transnational interactions of U.S. home economists and Indian women who earned advanced degrees in home economics subjects in the United States during the Cold War. Analyzing archival material, personal collections, oral history interviews, online subscription databases, and open-access repositories, this dissertation recovers the voices and lived experiences of these professional women. Additionally, this process uncovered a rich collection of first-person narratives. Over one hundred and twenty-five theses and dissertations written by Indian home scientists during the first three decades after Independence, collectively and individually, illustrate their pioneering leadership. The significance of this research is that it reveals home scientists' personal and professional renegotiations, setbacks, triumphs, and transnational connections with philanthropic organizations, government officials, and U.S. home economists as they collaborated and led nation-building projects.

Committee: Mytheli Sreenivas (Advisor) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Higher Education; History; Home Economics Education; International Relations; South Asian Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Science, University of Toledo, 2021, Biology (Ecology)

Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella, Val.) is an invasive species in the Great Lakes region that may cause ecological damage to the lake ecosystem and harm the region's economy. Grass carp spawning was documented in the Sandusky River, Ohio, in 2015 through targeted egg sampling. Continued egg sampling in the Sandusky River suggested that grass carp spawning is related to discharge and water temperature. In this thesis, I used the egg sampling data from 2014 to 2019 to develop an empirical model to understand the likely conditions related to grass carp spawning. Using a Bayesian approach, I first established the likelihood of spawning as a function of discharge and water temperature. The results suggest that spawning is most likely to occur when discharge is above 10m^3/s and water temperatures below 25℃. Using stream-specific discharge-velocity relationships, the Sandusky River model results were extrapolated to determine the risk of grass carp spawning in eight other tributaries of Lake Erie. The Grand, Maumee, and Cuyahoga rivers in Ohio have the highest risks of spawning. The model provides a mechanism for setting research and management priorities to develop management strategies to prevent the establishment of a spawning grass carp population in Lake Erie. Furthermore, the Bayesian model can be updated with data from another river to incorporate river-specific features to identify likely spawning locations.

Committee: Song Qian (Committee Chair); Christine Mayer (Committee Member); Patrick M. Kocovsky (Committee Member); Ana Rita Gouveia (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Environmental Science

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Biological Sciences (Arts and Sciences)

Populations of the Diamond-backed Terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, are threatened as a result of road mortality, habitat destruction, nest predators, and commercial fishing practices. Numerous conservation initiatives have been established to mitigate population declines including head-starting. Head-starting involves raising juvenile individuals in captivity until they reach a body size with higher survival. Here, I compared patterns of growth in wild M. terrapin from the Patuxent River and Poplar Island, Maryland with a head-started subset of the Poplar Island population. Chapter 1 describes patterns of growth among populations and between the sexes. Head-started female M. terrapin are larger than wild females from both populations until after the onset of sexual maturity. This effect results from the accelerated growth head-started turtles experience in captivity and contributes to faster maturity in some head-started females. Wild males from Poplar Island followed patterns similar to wild females where a growth lag was observed during the hatchling and juvenile stages. Early in life, growth in head-started and Patuxent River males, however, was characterized by accelerated growth, suggesting wild males from the Patuxent are larger sooner compared the Poplar Island males, possibly due to differences in the available thermal and resource environments. In Chapter 2, I investigated growth between captive M. terrapin in two water temperature treatments, 24°C and 29°C, raised in K-12 classrooms throughout Maryland. Water temperature and basking behavior were monitored for six months and plastron length and mass were recorded monthly. No divergence in growth was observed between treatments, but I detected a difference in basking behavior that suggested M. terrapin in the cooler (24°C) water treatment compensated in the cooler rearing environment by basking and achieved a similar size to their warmer counterpart. This study coupled with long-term M. terrapin demographic d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Willem Roosenburg (Advisor) Subjects: Biology; Ecology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2017, History

Through textual analysis and mapping of 1790s published travel accounts, this project examines how lower class individuals utilized the growing British Empire to expand their societal status and travel opportunities. Modeled on early novels of the mid-eighteenth century such as Robinson Crusoe and Pamela, these supposedly “true” travel accounts showed their protagonists using personal connections, patronage, and employment to overcome adversity and rise socially. Individuals demonstrated mobility through their public image, dress, and speech. Passing for middle class was difficult, although often achievable through education, conduct, and finances. A publicly available interactive map in ArcGIS Online was created. It shows the routes of travel, characteristics of the travelers' social status, and quotations from the primary sources, allowing them to be compared. The interactive map was built from the travel accounts descriptions of their travels, social status, financial status, and employment through manual data entry. The map is designed to be accessible and appealing to a broad public, enlarging the audience beyond specialists in digital humanities.

Committee: Renee Baernstein Dr. (Advisor); Lindsay Schakenbach Regele Dr, (Committee Member); Robbyn Abbitt Mrs. (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; European History; Geographic Information Science; Geography; History; Literature

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2015, Department of Humanities

This research project aims to evaluate the agency of scientists participating in American Cold War research initiatives funded by the government. The aim will be to weigh the internal direction of scientific programs versus the external pressures faced from patron organizations such as the Department of Defense. The project utilizes secondary sources supported by governmental documentation as well as written and oral accounts of scientific and technical personnel involved in select research efforts. The two initiatives examined were aerospace research and its eventual adaptation to the space program, as well as nuclear testing and the national laboratories which supported it. Sources strongly suggested significant internal direction on the part of rank-and-file laboratory and technical personnel and very little pressure to orient research toward defense-related activities, despite some cooperative overlap.

Committee: Brian Bonhomme PhD (Advisor); Donna DeBlasio PhD (Committee Member); Daniel Ayana PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Aerospace Engineering; American History; Military Studies; Philosophy of Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History

This project seeks to explain why Japan developed nuclear power despite its negative experiences with nuclear weapons and fallout. It focuses on the period from the end of the American Occupation in 1952, when the Japanese regained full sovereignty, until the signing of the agreement to import a commercial British nuclear reactor in 1958. The Japanese experience with atomic bombs and radioactive fallout made Japan a seemingly unlikely candidate to develop nuclear power. These fears were renewed following the Lucky Dragon Incident when an American hydrogen bomb test showered a Japanese fishing vessel with radioactive fallout and contaminated deep water tuna throughout the Pacific. Japan, however, had ample reasons to embrace nuclear power as it: provided a potential solutions to Japan's energy crisis, while offering Japan a way to secure its place in the international community and a means of defining itself as a nation dedicated to scientific, technological, and economic development. Pro-nuclear advocates identified nuclear power as a key to the advancement of Japan, partaking in what Hiromi Mizuno termed “scientific nationalism.” Although Japanese policy makers were interested in the adopting nuclear power before the US offered to extend aid to Japan, the process of doing so was influenced by the American approach to the Cold War and was heavily informed by American efforts to maintain the support of both the government and the general public. While Japanese policy makers moved forward with their investigations of nuclear power, the United States addressed the Japanese public through a series of exhibitions as part of the Atoms for Peace program to direct the national conversation away from nuclear bomb testing. As they toured Japan, these exhibitions presented nuclear power as a suite of technologies that would greatly benefit scientific research, medicine, agriculture, industry, and transportation. Seven different national and regional newspapers cosponsored (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Bartholomew (Advisor); Philip Brown (Committee Member); Christopher Reed (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2014, Humanities

The purpose of this thesis is to explore healthcare for undocumented immigrants in France and the US in light of immigration policy, labor needs, and social values. While both countries have historically relied and continue to rely on undocumented labor, they treat irregular migrants differently when it comes to healthcare. While many hospitals in the US deport undocumented patients in a practice termed medical repatriation, the French government has legislated an illness clause that gives residency permits to severely sick sans-papiers who need medical care. To explore the reasoning behind these extremely contrasting treatments, the thesis studies the social values that underlie the healthcare systems in both countries. It concludes that in recognition of healthcare as a human right, France has concrete legislation for sans-papiers; in contrast, rights language is largely missing from the US healthcare system, resulting in a void of legislation that leads to practices like medical repatriation.

Committee: December Green Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kirsten Halling Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lafleur Small Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Comparative; European Studies; Health; Health Care; Health Care Management; History; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Political Science; Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History

This dissertation tells the story of how a zoo changed the world. Certainly, Charles Darwin shocked scientists with his 1859 publication On the Origin of Species, by showing how all life emerged from a common ancestor through the process of natural selection. Darwin's classic, though, cannot explain why by the end of the century many people thought critically about the relationship between humans and animals. To understand this phenomenon, historians need to look elsewhere. Between 1870 and 1910, as Darwinism was debated endlessly in intellectual circles, zoological parks appeared suddenly at the heart of every major American city and had (at least) tens of millions of visitors. Darwin's theory of evolution inspired scientists and philosophers to theorize about humans and animals. Public zoos, though, allowed the multitudes to experience daily the similarities between the human world and the animal kingdom. Upon entering the zoo, Americans saw the world's exotic species for the first time—their long necks, sharp teeth, bright colors, gargantuan sizes, ivory extremities, spots, scales, and stripes. Yet, more significantly, Americans listened to these animals too. They learned to take animals seriously as they interacted with them along zoo walkways. In fact, zoo animals led zoogoers in surprising directions— to the halls of Congress, to the halls of museums, to global trade networks, to the birth of the airplane, to the formation of primatology, to tuberculosis outbreaks, to the rise of animal rights, and to the genesis of ecology. Zoos, in turn, ushered animals into the heart of American politics, print culture, science, environmentalism, ethics, and medicine. Zoological parks encouraged visitors to approach animals on their own terms. In so doing, zoos put Humanism on display, where the limits of anthropocentrism could be scrutinized by a zoogoing world. Zoological parks at the turn of the century prepared the way for later environmental, conservation, and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Randolph Roth (Advisor); John Brooke (Committee Member); Chris Otter (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Animals; Environmental Studies; Science History; Zoology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Physics

In order for Physics Education Research (PER) to achieve its goals of significant learning gains with efficient methods, it is necessary to figure out what are the sorts of pre-existing issues that students have prior to instruction and then to create teaching methods that are best able to overcome those problems. This makes it necessary to figure out what is the nature of student physics misconceptions—prior beliefs that are both at variance to Newtonian mechanics and also prevent a student from properly cognizing Newtonian concepts. To understand the prior beliefs of students, it is necessary to uncover their origins, which may allow instructors to take into account the sources for ideas of physics that are contrary to Newtonian mechanics understanding. That form of instruction must also induce the sorts of metacognitive processes that allow students to transition from their previous conceptions to Newtonian ones, let alone towards those of modern physics. In this paper, the notions of basic dynamics that are common among first-year college students are studied and compared with previous literature. In particular, an analysis of historical documents from antiquity up to the early modern period shows that these conceptions were rather widespread and consistent over thousands of years and in numerous cultural contexts. This is one of the only analyses in PER that considers the original languages of some of these texts, along with appropriate historical scholarship. Based on the consistent appearance of these misconceptions, a test and interview module was devised to help elucidate the feelings students have that may relate to fictitious forces. The test looked at one-dimensional motion and forces. The first part of the interview asked each student about their answers to the test questions, while the second part asked how students felt when undergoing three cases of constant acceleration in a car. We determined that students confabulated relative motion with the ex (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lei Bao (Advisor); Andrew Heckler (Committee Member); Gordon Aubrecht (Committee Member); Samir Matuhr (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Physics; Science Education; Science History

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Education : Educational Foundations

The major purpose of this study was to examine, through the use of oral history technique, the lived experiences of seven women scientists and the factors that affected their pursuit of science. Numerous reports indicate that while women are gaining ground in the sciences, they are behind their male counterparts in many areas and continue to face barriers (National Science Foundation Report, 2002; Wilson, 2004). There is still work to be done to understand how gender differences in science participation affect the lives of women scientists (Clewell and Campbell, 2002). The qualitative data from seven women's histories was coded to identify emerging themes in the areas of family life, education and experiences with science. The seven women interviewed represented work in science, technology, engineering and math, had terminal degrees and 10 to 55 years of professional experience. Six themes were identified as major factors in the science careers of these women; experiences with science, support from others, an ethic of care, passions of the mind, self efficacy in science and belonging vs. marginality. Each of these had some impact on each woman's sense of identity as a scientist and their strong sense of agency for accomplishing their career goals. The factors and influences that lead them to their careers speak to the ways in which they were able to overcome any barriers and become successful scientists. The stories of these women present a picture that is both consistent with and offers some challenge to the feminist critique of science. While their stories attest to the predominance of males in science they also refute that image in the way these women were able to create a science career for themselves that is not solely defined by the conditions of a male science. As the feminist critique suggests, gender is an important variable in the factors influencing the pursuit of science. While these women acknowledged the role of gender in their scientific experience th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Annette Hemmings (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Environment and Natural Resources

Informal science education (ISE) contexts such as zoos, nature centers, parks, and natural history museums play a critical role in allowing the general public to learn scientific concepts (National Research Council, 2009; 2010). Most adult learning of scientific concepts takes place outside of classrooms and away from work (Rennie and Williams, 2006). Zoos and natural history museums have stated missions to increase visitors' knowledge and behaviors related to the conservation of our natural resources (Krishtalka and Humphrey, 2000; Patrick, Mathews, Ayers, and Tunicliffe, 2007). Theoretically, the successful communication of the desired message of these ISE institutions would inspire a more informed and engaged citizenry on the use and conservation of our natural resources. Effectively framing information can be an avenue to achieving these goals of ISE institutions (Chong & Druckman, 2007; Nisbet, 2009). Shultz and Zelezny (2003) posit that messages framed by egoistic concerns, concerns which focus on the individual, will be better received by the general public, leading to a greater likelihood for them to become engaged. This dissertation reports on a series of descriptive mixed methods studies conducted at a zoo, a natural history museum, and a science center, exploring the framing effects of communications framed by environmental concern (Schultz, 2001). The research examined the relationship between individuals' perceptions of the overlap between their lives and nature, their levels of environmental concern, and their preferences for statements designed to align with the types of environmental concern (i.e. egoistic, social-altruistic, and biospheric). Further, the effects of messages framed by environmental concern on individuals' expressed intent to engage in behaviors were examined. Lastly, interviews were conducted to provide a deeper understanding of the findings. Findings suggested there are framing effects that can be attributed to communication using e (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joe E. Heimlich (Advisor); Jeremy Bruskotter PhD (Committee Member); Amanda Rodewald PhD (Committee Member); Robyn Wilson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Communication; Ecology; Education; Psychology; Science Education; Social Psychology; Social Research