Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2016, Curriculum and Instruction

This study investigated the nature of instructional coaching interactions in three formats: online synchronous, online asynchronous, and face-to-face. Knight's (2007) Seven Partnership Principles of Instructional Coaching were used as a framework to analyze and compare the coaching interactions between coach and teacher to determine whether online coaching may be a viable option to provide support for the teachers unprepared to teach the new science standards. Some previous research has suggested that online communication can result in deeper personal interactions (Walther, 1996), while other studies suggest that interactions are the more natural and easier in formats that are more similar to face-to-face interactions (Kock, 2005). The findings of this study support the media naturalness theory (Kock, 2005) and suggest that collaboration may be especially difficult in asynchronous online communication. Although differences were noted in the actual interactions, teacher perception remained fairly consistently positive across the three formats. Research beyond this exploratory study is needed to make findings generalizable.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2012, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze African-American participation in science fiction fan culture at science fiction conventions. My inquiry will include four main sections involving how and why African-Americans seem to be underrepresented at science fiction conventions in comparison to their proportion of the general population. These include a brief history of science fiction conventions, an exploration of the possible reasons for African- Americans who read science fiction literature or watch the television shows and movies would chose not to participate in science fiction conventions, some examples of positive portrayals of black characters in both science fiction literature and visual media, and the personal observations of my research subjects on their experiences regarding attending science fiction conventions. My research methodology included personal interviews with several African-American science fiction fans and authors, an interview with a white science fiction fan who is very familiar with the history of fan culture. I also draw upon scholarship in the science fiction studies, cultural anthropology and critical race theory.

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2023, Education

The objective of this dissertation was to explore how the principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) can inform the design of a junior high school curriculum to enhance science learning by providing meaningful learning experiences to all students. The transformative paradigm provided a framework used as a lens to emphasize the importance of understanding the social, cultural, and historical context in which individuals and communities are situated. CSP and Backward Design Model were applied to develop a curriculum for a sheltered science literacy elective class for below grade level readers. The purpose of using CSP in the curriculum design was to create a more inclusive and culturally sustaining learning environment that would support students in developing strong science literacy skills. Project–based learning (PBL) was used with CSP to allow for flexibility and creativity in project designs that give students the opportunity to explore and experiment with different ideas and approaches in the learning environment. The California Department of Education's descriptions for effective use of CSP in a classroom was incorporated into the curriculum to be used as an assessment tool measuring the effectiveness of the curriculum. The implications of this curriculum development suggest the effectiveness of CSP on science literacy and its connections enhance student performance in science. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Geology

Within the United States, academic emphasis in high schools is placed on science topics such as chemistry, physics, and biology. This leaves other science topics underrepresented at a key time when students are developing career choices and attitudes. This study analyzed the impact of short term, project-based, place-based education, research-based outreach programs on students perception of science, self-efficacy, anxiety towards science, value of place-based education, and geoscience career interest. Specifically, I focused on how this type of program can be used to combat the lack of diversity in geoscience. The program takes place in the form of a 3-session geoscience outreach program investigating lead contamination throughout Northwest Ohio. This program was available to all classroom grades six through twelve with an emphasis on capturing underrepresented populations in science. The impact of the program was evaluated by a Likert scale pre-survey and post-survey. Over 6 months in 2023-2024, over 800 students participated in the program, and 597 surveys were collected. The results from this program show that a three-day place-based education outreach program can positively impact student perception of science, anxiety towards science, self-efficacy, career interest and value of place.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2021, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology PhD

Adopting organizational science recommendations can lead to beneficial outcomes, but there is a gap between what scientists recommend and what managers do. This research introduced the construct of confidence in organizational science procedures (COSP), which refers to an individual's belief that organizational science findings a) are accurate, b) are important, and c) should be applied in organizations. In addition to introducing COSP, the purposes of this research were to develop a measure of COSP and test hypotheses related to the nomological network of this construct. First, 29 participants completed an item sorting task, providing content validity information for the COSP measure. Next, 686 participants completed measures of COSP, cynicism about organizational change, rationality, and experientiality. Factor analyses revealed that the COSP measure is likely unidimensional and statistically distinct from measures of the aforementioned constructs. Finally, 784 participants completed measures of COSP and various cognitive constructs, such as motivated reasoning, and organizational constructs, such as organizational change resistance. Two weeks later, 173 of these 784 participants completed the same measures again. Results yielded reliability and validity evidence for a six-item COSP measure and suggested relationships between COSP and other variables of interest. Key takeaways included the utility of the COSP measure when predicting workplace-specific outcomes, the generalizability of motivated reasoning beyond a climate science context, and the potential trainability of COSP.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Curriculum and Instruction Science Education (Education)

The purpose of this study was to examine science teacher perceptions of digital simulations and virtual labs as digital tools in the 7-12th science classroom. The first study research question was: In what ways do science teachers use digital simulations and virtual labs in the 7-12th science classroom? The second study research question was: What factors influence teachers' use of digital simulations and virtual labs in the 7-12th science classroom? The theoretical framework used for this dissertation included the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), self-efficacy, and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). The research was a mixed methods sequential explanatory research design divided into two phases. Phase one consisted of a survey that was analyzed using descriptive statistics, and open response items were quantitized using inductive analysis. Phase two consisted of semi-structured interviews that were coded and analyzed inductively for emerging themes. Findings from each phase were integrated using an integrated results matrix, and meta-inferences were drawn. The findings indicate that science teachers use digital simulations and virtual labs for purposes of integrating scientific practices; providing safe, alternative science experiences, and visualizations. Findings concerning factors affecting their use included value of digital simulations and virtual labs; lack of adequate, formal professional development, learning curve, availability of functioning technology; cost, quality, and validity; and lack of general support. Based on this research, implications arise for teacher education, professional development, classroom practice, and the development of digital simulations and virtual labs. Implications include providing formal professional development opportunities that emphasize successful models of implementation, development of digital simulations and virtual labs that meet the needs of teachers, providing time (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2017, Macromolecular Science and Engineering

The lifetime performance and degradation behavior of photovoltaic (PV) modules is of the utmost importance for the success and growth of solar energy as a major resource for fulfilling growing worldwide energy needs. While PV reliability has been a concern for some time, existing qualification testing methods do not reflect a cohesive picture of the science behind module degradation, and are not capable of accurately predicting module lifetime performance. Towards these goals, a statistical methodology, semi-gSEM, was developed and applied to investigate the response of full sized PV modules to accelerated stress conditions. The results of this initial study indicated that a correlation exists between system level power loss and the buildup of acetic acid resulting from the hydrolytic degradation of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) polymer encapsulant. To further explore this proposed mechanistic pathway, a study was designed and conducted to characterize the degradation of mini-module samples under damp heat accelerated stress conditions. Mini-module samples featured two construction geometries that differed in the thicknesses of screen-printed silver conductive lines (SP-Ag) to assess the impact of gridline size on damp heat induced degradation. Samples were measured non-destructively at many points along their degradation pathway, using techniques that gathered both chemical and electrical information. The semi-gSEM analytical method was applied to this dataset to highlight degradation pathways and mechanisms observed in the experimental results. An EVA encapsulant spectroscopic degradation feature was found to be statistically related to quantified degradation features of simultaneously measured EL images. In turn, the EL image degradation was found to be statistically related to I-V curve parameters describing system level power loss. The degradation pathway observed was attributed to EVA encapsulant degradation leading to metallization corrosion and ultim (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (EdD), Wright State University, 2016, Leadership Studies

The publication of the National Research Council's Framework for K-12 Science Education (2012) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) marked a turning point in science education characterized by a shift away from the idea that students should learn about a set of science facts and toward the idea that students should figure out core science ideas by solving problems and making sense of phenomena. To successfully realize the vision for science education that was articulated in the reform documents, teachers' science classroom practices will need to change, particularly at the elementary level. Science education research has suggested that teachers' science subject matter knowledge, topic specific professional knowledge, and beliefs about effective science instruction may impact teachers' implementation of classroom practices consistent with the reforms. The goal of this causal structural analysis using an ex post facto research design was to empirically test a proposed conceptual model for teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices and to examine the direct and indirect effects of science subject matter knowledge, topic specific professional knowledge, and beliefs about effective science instruction on teachers' implementation of science classroom practices consistent with the reforms. The sample for this study consisted of 731 elementary teachers who were surveyed as part of the 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education. Structural equation modeling was used to test the overall model structure, the amount of variance in science classroom practices that could be explained by the model, and the direct and indirect effects of science subject matter knowledge, topic specific professional knowledge, and beliefs about effective science instruction on science classroom practices. Results from analyses supported the conclusion that science subject matter knowledge, topic specific professional knowledge, and beliefs abou (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, English/Literature

The arts and the sciences have coexisted for centuries, yet there have been few instances in modern academic history in which scientists and literary scholars worked together side by side, influencing each other's research and benefitting from their varying approaches and ideas. This work examines the beneficial effects that may result from a discourse between those two cultures in order to help promote a better understanding of the importance of interdisciplinarity. I chose quantum theory as a representative of the sciences and Lacan's psychoanalysis as a representative of the arts to demonstrate that a shared metalinguistic coding system can provide the basis for successful communication. Therefore, the first part of this thesis explains the two theories without using jargon or mathematical formulae to make them more accessible to a broader audience. In the next part, I analyze two Shakespearean plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet, through the scope of these theories, utilizing both their similarities and their differences. Working from the perspective of a literary scholar, my final claim is that literature can be used as an analogy to better understand both quantum theory and psychoanalysis, while at the same time, these two theories can help us understand and discover new meaning in literary works. This demonstrates that no discipline is superior to the other, and that bridging the communicational gap between them in order to combine multiple approaches and their different viewpoints will have beneficial results for both cultures, opening up an entire new spectrum of ideas and theories.

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)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2024, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines how three major American newspapers reported on paleontology during the 1990s. Paleontology experienced a popularity spike in the 1990s with the Jurassic Park films breaking film records and bringing dinosaurs to the forefront of the public consciousness. A number of important specimens were found and improving technology revolutionized the field, leading to numerous discoveries. This study documents which topics within paleontology the media reported on the most and what news values drove this reporting. Additionally, this study analyzes the occurrence rate of a few common tropes, metaphors and mistakes often associated with paleontology within news articles. This thesis examines USA Today, The New York Times, and The Associated Press's coverage of paleontology due to their status as being amongst the largest news organizations and running wire services which distributed their work across the United States. This study applies the revised news values proposed by Harcup and O'Neill to gauge which news values are used by reporters and editors when covering paleontology and to determine if these revised news values are applicable to science journalism.

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Philosophy

Amid the current climate crisis and the scientific consensus on its anthropogenic causes, one task left to the humanities and social sciences is to understand why we humans have failed to effectively act on addressing the issue. I intend to show how the work of Edmund Husserl and Bruno Latour is especially relevant to this topic, bringing their ideas to bear on questions of the climate crisis and the lack of faith in science seen in certain populations in America. I will argue that the crisis of the sciences which Husserl identifies in his last work highlights the Modernist roots of our situation where we separate ourselves from nature, which sheds light on our lack of action. I will augment this analysis with Latour's studies of science and climate change, as well as work done on the phenomenon of lack of faith in science in America, to help furnish a better understanding of the global predicament we are in.

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, Theological Studies

The Vatican's condemnation of Fr. John Augustine Zahm's most famous work, Evolution and Dogma, in the autumn of 1898 has traditionally been the subject of great interest among religious scholars and historians. This thesis describes several coalescing factors that negatively affected the book's fate: the neo-Thomists' critical reaction to Zahm's use of Saints Augustine and Aquinas in defense of evolutionism; the author's Americanist connections; the release of the French translation of Walter Elliott's The Life of Father Hecker; and the Church's resistance to the advancements of liberalism in European society, especially after the French Revolution. However, this thesis also takes a step further and argues that Fr. Zahm's writing and teaching career did not cease after the condemnation of his book. His passion for imparting an intelligent faith to his Catholic readers and audiences did not cease; his expansion efforts at the University of Notre Dame as Provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross and his later publications, such as the trilogy of South American travelogues and the apologetic work Woman in Science, are testaments to his enduring “teaching heart” -- his passion for pursuing knowledge and communicating new understandings to others. This thesis emphasizes the importance of acknowledging Fr. Zahm's life holistically, in broad strokes. His contribution to American Catholic history need not be limited to the intrigue surrounding Evolution and Dogma.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2019, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Despite growing pressure for organizations to implement more science-based solutions into practice, efforts to successfully achieve this task have been known to fail due to the tensions that exist between science and application. While there has been a great push in the implementation science, translational science, evidence-based practice, and human factors literature, a void still remains regarding a framework that details the necessary requirements for bridging this known gap. In order to fill this void, I propose The IMPActS Framework, which is founded on the existing literature but acts as a new frame of reference for those trying to translate science into implementations. IMPActS proposes a new standard of what it means to make organizational “impact”, which is now defined as science-based solutions that maintain the maximum appropriate levels of scientific integrity while also being implementable and sustainable in real world practice. IMPActS also acts as an acronym for the five necessary factors each necessary but only jointly sufficient in making this successful definition of impact. These factors are Ideas, Model alignment, Pragmatics, Actors, and Sustainment, and can be thought of as the barriers to making impact that need to be overcome. In this paper, I will describe the IMPActS Framework in more detail and through the lens of three clinical cases, all of which deal with implementing clinical alarm interventions over the last 30 years. The purpose of introducing this framework and comparing it against real-world case studies is to highlight the barriers to making successful impact in hopes that the pathways to successful impact will become more salient, navigable, and tangible for all of those involved. Solution designers should use IMPActS as a means of assessing where to invest their future resources and efforts in order to overcome these barriers in practice.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science and Engineering

The analysis of news content has been a central focus for media scholars, political scientists, sociologists and historians. Traditionally, it has been performed using relatively small news archives collected over limited periods. However, in the last 20 years, following the creation of the World-Wide Web, a dramatic change has occurred in the reporting and dissemination of news. One result of this change is that an ever growing archive of news is readily available as electronic text. This, in turn, is making it possible to analyze news on a large scale using methods developed in the fields of Web Intelligence, Data Mining and Machine Learning. The issues that news content analysis tries to address include: Identification of salient topics; summarization of stories; extraction of opinions; and characterization of news reports in terms of content, sentiment, bias, etc. These are also the motivating issues for this research. The research in this dissertation describes a framework called IONA: Intelligent Online News Analysis. This is meant to be a tool to accomplish four goals: 1) Extracting and visualizing important stories from real-time news streams; 2) Characterizing and comparing the cognitive/epistemic organization of all news in different media sources over the same time period; 3) Comparing the structure of specific stories from different media sources to characterize similarities, differences, and possible biases; and 4) Doing comparative analysis of how specific stories and the news streams from different media sources evolve over time in order to characterize the dynamics of news from each source. The IONA approach represents an innovative combination of methods from natural language processing, semantic analysis and complex networks. The identification of topics uses a novel algorithm that integrates Latent Dirichlet Allocation (\LDA) with tagging using Ngrams. The resulting topics are used to extract coherent sets of news reports from large corpora (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, EDU Teaching and Learning

The aim of this research is to develop a measurement instrument that is valid and reliable, called the Middle School-Life Science Concept Inventory (MS-LSCI), for the purpose of measuring the life science conceptual understanding of middle school-level students. Although there are several existing concept inventories related to biology concepts (i.e. Secondary-Biology Concept Inventory (S-BCI) and Biology Concept Inventory (BCI)), there is no fully developed concept inventory available that collectively measures the major life science concepts covered in middle school classrooms (Klymkowsky, Underwood, & Garvin-Doxas, 2010; Stammen, Lan, Schuchaerdt, Malone, Ding, Sabree, & Boone, 2016). Study one focuses on how data from a multi-panel expert review and student interviews were used in the Middle School-Life Science's (MS-LSCI) item content qualitative validation and iterative refinement process. Of the 50 questions reviewed by the expert panels, 12 items were identified as having content validity concerns. Generally, these content validity concerns fell within two categories: (i) imprecise phrasing and (ii) age inappropriateness. During the student interviews, a total of 26 items were identified as displaying content validity issues. These 26 items fell into one of three categories: (i) imprecise phrasing, (ii) contextual ambiguity, and (iii) formatting/diagrammatic complexity. Using the data from the multi-panel expert review and student interviews, the items with content validity concerns were refined and modified before the items were field tested. Study two describes the MS-LSCI's quantitative validation and item selection process. Specifically, this study focuses on the psychometric functioning of the 60 field-tested MS-LSCI items using Rasch analysis. The results of this development, refinement, and evaluation process suggest that the 25-item MS-LSCI is a valid instrument in that the items appear to be unidimensional, item and person measures display (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2017, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

This study seeks to identify the reasons for the decline in science fair participation, ascertain educators' views on the value of science fair as a curriculum tool to teach state science standards and assess the importance and relevance of science fair in today's science curriculum. The Ohio Academy of Science (OAS) provided state data showing the downward trend with 4,886 students participating throughout the state in 2001 and falling to 2,669 in 2015. Both the state and OAS science standards are modeled after the Next Generation of Science Standards set forth by the National Resource Council. This inclusion of science fair in the science curriculum fulfills the requirements set forth in the current Ohio Learning Standards in Science comprising project-based learning and 21st Century Skills. With the current standards changing to reflect all objectives and pedagogy of a correctly modeled science fair, it was surprising to see a decline rather than an increase in science fair participation. A survey was constructed to find why science fair was on the decline and not being implemented, to determine if educators valued its worth, what they perceived necessary for a successful science fair, and if science fair satisfies the state standards. The salient findings of the District 15 survey mirrored those of the state and district in participation rates. The results also showed educators placing a high value on science fair along with identifying obstacles that impede its enactment. The leading obstacles are lack of time and finances, too much emphasis on testing, too many teaching duties, and unfamiliarity with its implementation. This study also offers a practical solution to the major concerns of educators regarding the implementation of science fair.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1970, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School