Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Zoos and aquariums (Z/As) are conservation-oriented free-choice learning institutions. In order to support their mission of advancing wildlife conservation, Z/As deliberately design opportunities and experiences to meaningfully engage visitors in understanding, caring for, and acting on behalf of exhibited species. Conservation psychologists and practitioners have applied values-based and models of human behavior to design and evaluate experiences aimed to influence myriad cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. However, there is little research exploring the role of and opportunity for reflection within these institutions. Models of reflection and reflective practice, which are rooted in both theory and empirical data, stress the importance of reflection in achieving transformative learning outcomes. Furthermore, research within higher education and workplace settings find that reflective interventions can be utilized to enhance reflective abilities and meet cognitive and affective outcomes. While preliminary Z/A literature finds a positive relationship between visitors' self-initiated reflection in exhibit spaces and affective and cognitive reactions (Luebke & Matiasek, 2013), reflective interventions have not been explicitly tested within these institutions. Across two studies, this dissertation aimed to better understand whether and to what extent aquarium visitors naturally reflect at a shark exhibit and furthermore, examine the efficacy of a reflective intervention on visitors' self-reported curiosity and affect. Study 1 finds that exhibit dwell time and visitor motivation are related to visitors' natural reflection at the exhibit. Study 2, which incorporated a mixed methods approach, did not find a statistical difference between the conditions (e.g., control, pre and post reflection, and post-only reflection) on visitors' self-reported curiosity and affect. However, qualitative data finds that reflections occurred after the exhibit included less negati (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Ohio University, 2020, Business Administration

Reflection has been identified as a key success factor for entrepreneurs, as thinking critically about successes and failures results in improved strategy. Reflection, therefore, is a valuable skill for undergraduate educators to instill in entrepreneurship students. Despite the increasingly prevalent use of reflection in curricula within higher education, designing, executing, and effectively evaluating reflection assignments remains a challenge. One of the primary challenges of implementing reflection assignments is the "lack of effective structures to help instructors from diverse disciplines guide students through reflection" (Ash and Clayton, 2004: 138). This study makes recommendations on the effective implementation of reflection assignments and provides a sample reflection framework for a course centered around developing the reflection competency. Data from students and program directors at Ohio University is examined, and recommendations are made based on the data and a review of the literature. The study found assignment design to be a determining factor in how deeply students reflect. To enhance students' depth of reflection, recommendations are made on how to strategically frame the assignment to students; ask deep, probing questions in the prompt; use the format most effective for achieving course goals; and how to cultivate a conducive culture for reflection.

Doctor of Nursing Practice , Case Western Reserve University, 2016, School of Nursing

Abstract Problem: Simulation is an effective and widely utilized teaching modality, providing a safe, realistic environment to practice requisite skills and develop clinical reasoning skills. Students report high levels of anxiety and decreased confidence before beginning simulation. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of a structured prebriefing immediately before simulation on nursing students' level of anxiety and confidence. Methods: The study used a one-group, pretest-posttest design. The sample was composed of last semester associate of science in nursing students in a school of nursing in Midwestern United States. A state anxiety scale instrument and confidence scale instrument were used to determine the effects of participating in a structured prebriefing using reflection-before-action. Pertinent Findings: Ninety-three participants completed the study, 100% of the population. A statistically significant decrease in state anxiety level and increased confidence level emerged following participation in a high-fidelity simulation. Conclusions: The theory-based structured prebriefing implemented in this study provided nursing students with opportunities to reflect on their prior knowledge and learning experiences and connect them to the pending simulation learning activity. The structured pre-briefing may have helped students feel more prepared to participate in the simulation, be less anxious and have increased confidence in their ability to engage in the simulation. It is recommended that a structured prebriefing based on reflection-before-action be used prior to beginning high fidelity simulations and that further study be done of the intervention and its effectiveness.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Psychology

Research has identified two aspects of rumination labeled brooding and reflective pondering (i.e., reflection). According to Treynor et al. (2003), brooding involves “a passive comparison of one's current situation with some unachieved standard” (p. 256) whereas reflection refers to “purposeful turning inward to engage in cognitive problem solving to alleviate one's depressive symptoms” (p. 256). Although research has consistently linked brooding to depression, research investigating the relationship of reflection and depression has produced conflicting results. Some studies have found that reflection, like brooding, is positively correlated with depression (Roelofs et al., 2008; Rudeet al., 2007; Verhaeghen, Joormann, & Khan, 2005) whereas others have either found reflection to be unrelated to (Burwell & Shirk, 2007; O'Connor & Noyce, 2008) or even negatively correlated with (Treynor et al., 2003; Crane, Barnhofer, & Williams, 2007) depressive symptoms. In the present study, I sought to better understand the construct of reflection and investigated two potential pathways to explain inconsistent research surrounding this topic within the construct validation paradigm outlined by Cronbach & Meehl (1955). First, I investigated the possibility that the current measures of reflection do not make adequate contact with the construct of reflection. Secondly, I investigated the possibility that these discordant findings are the result of a problem with the definition of construct of reflection itself. Following both lines of reasoning, new questionnaire items were created in an attempt to better measure and understand the construct of reflection. Consistent with expectation, I found evidence that reflection may be most accurately conceptualized in terms of two largely independent factors; one adaptive and one maladaptive. In fact, the Adaptive Factor performed better than any of the currently available measures of reflection in terms of discriminant validity. Addition (open full item for complete abstract)

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Curriculum and Instruction

Reflective journaling is frequently a part of nursing education; these journals provide a student's reflection-on-experience to instructors after required clinical experiences, and the instructor's assessment of the reflective journals is both objective and subjective. A small pilot study of nursing students (n = 17) compared the comfort levels and preferences of groups of students who either audio-recorded their journals or wrote them in text. This study showed the audio-recording (“voice-journaling”) students felt comfortable with the technology and process, and these same students showed a slight preference for using the audio-recording method. Voice-journals were additionally found to be greater in comparative word count than text journals. Later, in the first part of a two-phase study, a small cross-sectional survey (n=9) of nursing instructors identified 15 unique factors falling within four broader categories to be used for assessment of voice-journals. In the second phase of this study, a larger online survey of nursing instructors (n = 60) from several Midwestern colleges of nursing were able to identify and note the presence, or lack of presence, of these earlier named factors when listening to voice-journal excerpts. These same instructors rated each of the unique factors above a neutral level of importance to voice-journal assessment, and additionally provided qualitative data to help formulate guidance for future voice-journaling students.

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2015, Psychology, Clinical

The present study examined student outcomes across a semester of service-learning participation. The study examined two hypotheses: (1) students engaged in service-learning will have significant changes in community service self-efficacy (an in the related civic action construct) and in endorsement of myths and social stigma towards homelessness; and (2) the pre-to-post semester improvements will be greater for students engaged in structured DEAL Model reflection compared to students engaged in the less structured routine reflection. Undergraduate students (N= 30) were randomly assigned to either the DEAL Model reflection or routine reflection condition. Over the course of the semester, students were required to complete four reflections exercises, which differed in structure based on condition. While there were a number of nonsignificant findings, there was partial support for the hypotheses. Specifically, students' endorsement of myths and social stigma significantly decreased from pre-to-post assessment. Further results indicated that the DEAL Model reflection group had a significant decrease in endorsement of myths and social stigma, while the routine reflection did not have this significant decrease. Additionally, the DEAL Model reflection group had a significant increase in civic action from pre-to-post semester assessment. High pre-semester scores on community service self-efficacy measures may have created a ceiling effect that precluded an adequate assessment of pre- to post-semester changes in that construct. However, a retrospective measure of this same construct indicated that students strongly endorsed the notion that participation in the service-learning project substantially contributed to their perceptions of strong community service self-efficacy. The results are interpreted within the context of past theory and research. Recommendations for future research are provided, including future examination of qualitative data (i.e., written ref (open full item for complete abstract)

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

We study deformations of discrete groups generated by linear re ections and associated geometric structures on orbifolds via cohomology of Coxeter groups with coecients in the adjoint representation associated to a discrete representation. We completely describe a cochain complex that computes this cohomology for an arbitrary discrete re ection group and, as a consequence of this description, give a vanishing theorem for cohomology in dimensions greater than 2. As an application, we discuss some situations in which the cohomology vanishes in dimension 2 as well. In particular, we are able to give a proof of a recent result of Choi and Lee on deforming a certain class of hyperbolic orbifolds through non-hyperbolic projective structures in cohomological language and give some insight into how the result can be extended.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Educational Theory and Practice

This study follows four secondary mathematics preservice teachers as they progress through three consecutive field experiences within a teacher preparation program of a large midwestern university. As part of a comprehensive support and assessment system designed to increase the level of reflection among the preservice teachers, each member of the cohort was expected to work closely with the assigned mentor teacher and university supervisor to set quarterly goals, construct weekly responses to structured and unstructured reflection prompts, and complete a reflective self-assessment of their teaching as outlined by twenty-three competencies. These four participants also attended weekly small group discussions facilitated by the university supervisor each quarter. The preservice teacher and university supervisor met before and after each scheduled teaching observation throughout the academic year to discuss the planning, structure, implementation, and implication of each observed lesson. The primary focus each separate case study traces the reflective development of each participant from their first exposure to classrooms through their student teaching experience. Through qualitative methods, the reflective thoughts and writings of each preservice teacher were examined to ascertain the critical features of their three separate field experiences that led to a more mature and integrated view of the work of teaching. Critical features that affect the depth of reflection reached by the participants were also identified. In a cross-case analysis, the researcher identifies four critical features of field experiences that can foster deeper and more interactive forms of reflection. These features include the relationship between preservice teacher and mentor teacher, the level of feedback received from the university supervisor, the amount of latitude given to the preservice teachers to explore their contemporary thinking, and the quality of the second field experience in the (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Geological Sciences

The facts that seismic body-wave types are sensitive to different physical properties, seismic sources radiate polarized waves, and seismic receivers are sensitive to the polarization of scattered body-waves and coherent noise, mean that it is important to consider recording and analyzing different wave-types and data components prior to high-resolution reflection surveys. In this dissertation, important aspects of elastic-wave propagation relevant to high-resolution multicomponent surveying have been analyzed experimentally and numerically, and methodologies have been tested and developed that will improve near-surface imaging and characterization. Factors affecting the ability of common-mode P- and S-wave reflection surveys for mapping features in the near-surface are described and illustrated through analyses of experimental field data and modeling. It is demonstrated through comparisons of known subsurface conditions and processed stacked sections, that combined P- and S-wave common-mode reflection information can allow a geologic sequence to be imaged more effectively than by using solely P- or S-wave reflection information. Near-surface mode-converted seismic reflection imaging potential was tested experimentally and evaluated through modeling. Modeling results demonstrate that potential advantages of near-surface mode-conversion imaging can be realized in theory. Analyses of acquired multicomponent data however demonstrate that mode-conversion imaging could not be accomplished in the field study area, due to the low amplitudes of events and the presence of noise in field data. Analysis methods are presented that can be used for assessing converted-wave imaging potential in future reflection studies. Factors affecting the ability of SH-wave reflection measurements for allowing near-surface interfaces and discontinuities to be effectively imaged are described. A SH-wave reflection data analysis workflow is presented that provides a methodology for delineating a (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Psychology

Work breaks are commonly incorporated into employees' workdays under the assumption that breaks have a restorative effect on employee well-being. In the present study, I tested this assumption by examining well-being changes over the course of a workday, and recovery experiences engaged in during lunch breaks were tested as predictors of post-lunch break well-being. Results indicated that there were overall changes in worker well-being throughout the day with well-being being significantly lower at the end of a workday than at other measurement periods. Furthermore, detachment and positive work reflection experienced during the lunch break were significant predictors of exhaustion, fatigue, and vigor after lunch, and only positive work reflection during lunch significantly predicted post-lunch attentiveness. Control experienced during lunch significantly predicted exhaustion and attentiveness at the end of the workday. The results obtained from this study shed light on general trends in well-being throughout employee workdays, and further affirm the importance of engaging in recovery experiences during respites.

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

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Engineering and Applied Science: Mechanical Engineering

The current increase in the usage of solar panels in cold weather climates requires a comprehensive understanding of droplet freezing. Freezing dynamics of a water droplet resting on a hydrophobic surface is well understood but changes in optical transmission during this process have not received much attention. As the droplet freezes, its refractive index and the shape change simultaneously. Here, an attempt is made to characterize the change in optical transmission during the freeing process using a unique setup that allows for bidirectional imaging of a droplet as it undergoes freezing on coated glass slides. This allows for phase change dynamics to be decoupled from the change in droplet geometry. There is a 45% reduction in optical transmission during the freezing process, but this is primarily due to reflection and not attenuation. The droplet geometry is observed to influence a change in optical transmission due to changes in both reflection and attenuation. Common hydrophobic coatings are tested and their influence on the optical transmission is characterized. The results of this study provide new insight in the development of optically transparent ice/water repellent coatings for solar panels.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

How might teacher educators build a reflective and supportive community of practice with pre-service teachers? How might a visual (intermedia) journaling practice support critical and reflective thinking? How might an arts-based intermedia approach to analysis inform teacher educator pedagogical methods? These questions evolved and emerged throughout my research process during this dissertation study. As an artist/researcher/teacher I used an arts-based research paradigm to guide an emergent research practice focused on understanding the potential of arts-based reflective practice in an art teacher education program. The study was conducted with two groups of undergraduate student participants enrolled in pre-service teacher education coursework. Parallaxic praxis, emerging from a/r/tography, was a guiding research methodology and pedagogical approach used to maintain a creative, living inquiry throughout the study. This methodology supported opportunities and potential for the researcher and participants to generate arts-based study data and engage in performative processes documenting their experience with creative reflective practices. The learnings from the first participant group informed decisions and activity design for participant group two. Participants actively engaged in self-directed and co-designed intermedia reflective activities throughout the cycles of the study. Along the way, poetic inquiry surfaced as a central method for analysis and to generate research renderings, primarily in the form of found poems. The research renderings were conceptualized into a research exhibition designed to be experienced through multiple modalities including an exhibition in an art gallery and a virtual online exhibition. This dissertation illustrates where the research process led me as the researcher, and my students, as participants. Through the renderings in the research exhibition, the process of analyzing data using poetic inquiry highlights benefits and cha (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2024, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Teays River Valley is an ancient river valley system that existed before the Pleistocene Ice Age and spanned present-day Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. During the Pleistocene Ice Age, the Teays River Valley was buried by advancing continental glaciers and meltwater throughout most of its length. Due to the Teays' average width of roughly 2 miles and burial depth of approximately 200 meters (656 feet), the Ohio Geological Survey has been pursuing geophysical methods to map the location and depth of the Teays River Valley in Ohio. The present study is a refraction analysis using the first breaks from a seismic reflection dataset from west-central Ohio across the potential location of the buried Teays Valley. The seismic refraction results display a bedrock topography similar to the original seismic reflection profile, having an estimated bedrock depth along the profile roughly ranging from 24 m (79 ft) to 213 m (699 ft) in the buried valley. The refraction survey indicated average bedrock velocities of 3956 m/s (~13000 ft/s) and depths ranging from about 80 to 700 feet (24 to 213 meters), which is consistent with the reflection results and with a valley fill of unconsolidated sand and clay and limestone bedrock.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2024, Economics

This study attempts to estimate direct network effects within the online video game platform Steam. To overcome Manski's ``reflection problem" in identifying this effect, I use three holidays - the Chinese National Day in 2023, the American Thanksgiving in 2023, and the American Martin Luther King Holiday in 2024 - as exogenous regional shocks and employ the differences-in-differences method on time and players' location. Using data from Steam API, I estimate a model of daily playtime and the choice of whether to play at all, allowing utility to vary with players' own location, day of the week, and their friends' locations. This model permits the localized nature of network effects observed in the data. However, because of the limited number of observed US-to-non-US and Chinese-to-non-Chinese friendships on the platform, the data is underpowered to detect an effect.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Philosophy

This dissertation argues for a moderate view of the value or significance of reflection in epistemology. I arrive at the moderate view by arguing for the following three theses: (I) reflection cannot supply a genuine agential explanation of epistemic normativity; (II) extant empirically informed arguments fail to undermine the reliability and epistemic value of reflection; (III) reflection is an essential component of wisdom, and we can come to appreciate the distinctive social value of reflection by paying attention to its connection with wisdom. Chapter 1 introduces the background of the project. I explain what I mean by reflection. Then, I briefly describe the dialectical situation: in contemporary analytic philosophy, philosophers have taken extreme views on the significance of reflection in epistemology. This background is necessary for appreciating how the arguments in my dissertation cumulatively advance the epistemological literature on reflection by carving out a moderate position on the value of reflection. Finally, I provide summaries of individual chapters and indicate what role each chapter is playing in the overall argument of this dissertation. Chapter 2 argues that reflection does not supply us a genuine concept of epistemic agency, and it does not supply a genuine agential explanation of epistemic normativity. To be clear, this chapter has a broader target: it argues against epistemic agency and against an agential explanation of epistemic normativity. Prominent proposals about epistemic iii agency cash the idea out in terms of voluntary agency, reasons-responsiveness (in both its reflective and unreflective variants), or judgment. I show that each of these proposals faces the following dilemma: either the proposal fails to capture any genuine concept of agency, or it fails to adequately capture the class of items that are governed by epistemic norms. Chapter 3 argues that Hilary Kornblith's recent empirically grounded (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Chemistry

Understanding the fundamental interactions within and at the surface of atmospheric aerosol is of the utmost importance as they drive the properties of aerosol that influence global climate and public health. The first work presented herein explores the highly perturbed structure of water within systems inspired by phase separated organic aerosol. An approach is taken that combines polarized Raman spectroscopy and molecular dynamics to reveal the structural changes that occur as water is added incrementally to propylene carbonate (PC), a polar, aprotic solvent that is relevant in the environment and in electrochemical systems. Polarized Raman spectra of PC solutions were collected for water mole fractions 0.003 ≤ Χwater ≤ 0.296, which encompasses the solubility range of water in PC. The novel approach taken to the study of water-in-PC mixtures herein provides additional hydrogen bond and solvation characterization of this system that has not been achieveable in previous studies. Analysis of the polarized carbonyl Raman band in conjunction with simulations demonstrated that the bulk structure of the solvent remained unperturbed upon the addition of water. Experimental spectra in the O-H stretching region were decomposed through Gaussian fitting into sub-bands and studies on dilute HOD in H2O. With the aid of simulations, we identified these different bands as water arrangements having different degrees of hydrogen bonding. The observed water structure within PC indicates that water tends to self-aggregate, forming a hydrogen bond network that is distinctly different from the bulk and dependent on concentration. For example, at moderate concentrations, the most likely aggregate structures are chains of water molecules, each with two hydrogen bonds on average. The interaction of NO2 with organic interfaces is critical in atmospheric processing of marine and continental aerosol as well as in the development of NO2 sensing and trapping technologies. Recen (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Mathematics

We are concerned with the study of \emph{Shephard groups}, a class of groups which encompasses the Coxeter groups, Artin groups, graph products of cyclic groups, and certain complex reflection groups. We extend a well-known result that Coxeter groups are $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ to a class of Shephard groups that have ``enough'' finite parabolic subgroups. We also show that in this setting, if the underlying Coxeter diagram is type FC, then the Shephard group is cocompactly cubulated. Our method of proof combines the works of Charney-Davis on the Deligne complex for an Artin group and of Coxeter on the classification and properties of the regular complex polytopes. Along the way we introduce a new criteria (based on work of Charney) for a simplicial complex made of simplices of shape $A_3$ to be $\mathrm{CAT}(1)$. It is our hope that this begins the study of complex reflection groups through the lens of geometric group theory, as this has quickly shown to be a fruitful approach.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2023, Electro-Optics

This dissertation is concerned with two distinct applications of volume gratings recorded in photorefractive electro-optic crystals. The first of two applications involves the use of these volume gratings to non-mechanically steer laser beams. A geometric and physical-optics based analysis shows the potential for writing programmable volume gratings in lithium niobate using visible wavelengths in the transmission geometry, and subsequently probing those gratings using infrared wavelengths in a reflection geometry. By appropriate adjustments made to the writing beams, it is shown that both the grating spacing and grating tilt angle can be controlled such that the grating becomes a rotatable Bragg mirror for the incident probe beam, thus steering it to desired angles. The second application of these volume gratings is in image processing. System transfer functions determining the spatial evolution of the reference (input wave) and signal (diffracted wave) beams as they propagate inside a self-pumped volume reflection grating are derived and solved numerically. The solutions are then used to highlight the spatial filtering properties of self-pumped volume reflection gratings, with the focus being on the transmitted (un-diffracted) portion of the reference beam, which is shown to be high-pass spatially filtered. The high-pass spatial filtering manifests as programmable 2-dimensional edge enhancement in the transmitted reference beam. Contrast analysis is done for edge enhanced images, both through simulations and experiments, which show a direct proportionality between the strength of edge enhancement seen in the filtered images and the intensity of the writing beam used to record the grating.

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2023, English: Creative Writing

My thesis, Up Close, concerns three main subjects that do not have agency to speak for themselves and a final section of personal poems. In one section, I draw the reader's attention to sites in my native northern Michigan that do not serve the functions they once did—everything from well-known tourist sites to my childhood backyard. A second section focuses on my maternal grandmother, Marilyn (nee Brownell) Rybka, who raised eight children, has been married for more than sixty-five years, and who now suffers from dementia alongside small strokes that occur with regularity. I imagine what she did and was like in her past as well as what she does in her everyday life. The third section records “postcard” communications from NASA's Mars Viking mission robots, exploring their inner thoughts as they sit idly, having concluded their missions. The final section follows a narrative following changes to the relationship to self through early trauma, the beginning and end of a romantic relationship, and rediscovering the self post-breakup. All four topics raise questions about purpose and value: why something that has lost or changed purpose is still valuable and why we should renegotiate our relationships with them.