Education

Tyson Jones, Utah Valley University Academic Affairs In 2008 the people of the United States and the world were awakened from a dream that huge financial gains can be made at the expense of huge public losses while everything will stay just and fair. Unfortunately, the 2008 economic crash wasn’t the result of just one idea in one sector, but rather a culture within economies; a culture that has not just investment bankers but everyday American and foreign citizens pursuing the same path. This path, that many American and foreign citizens have been enticed by, is a business structure that leaves an individual and their chances of success equal to the chances of failure of those that follow suit, namely Ponzi Schemes. The many people who follow Ponzi Schemes are looking for financial security along with promises of high earnings and early retirement, but are often met with greater debt than they had before simply due to the structure of these Ponzi schemes. For the most part Ponzi schemes have been made illegal in the United States; however, due to certain laws that have been established, Ponzi schemes have been operating under the guise of established businesses known as Multi-level Markets (MLMs). The laws in question are the DSHEA, which has aided MLMs on a national level, and Utah S.B. 0182, which created a loophole for MLMs to operate in large numbers on a State level. Thus a culture of legal positivist views allows the illegal and immoral business practices of MLMs to encourage a culture of harming many to reward a few. This conclusion about MLMs comes from contrasting the structure of MLMs with the moral theory of Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative which requires that all moral actions be held as a universal maxim, and that people are not treated as merely means to an end. The purpose of this research is to assess whether the previous conclusion is in fact true of MLMs in regards to moral business practices through the Categorical Imperative. If after examination the conclusion is found to be true, the DSHEA and Utah S.B. 0182 both need to be revoked in order to begin a change in culture; else large amounts of U.S. dollars, as well as other currencies, will continue to fund illegal Ponzi schemes acting as legitimate businesses and an opportunity to take steps to change U.S. culture on the nature of wealth. In addition, a new culture that allowed for the 2008 financial crisis of large rewards for the few at huge public expenses will continue to grow.

Brandon Dollar, Utah Valley University College Success Studies Student retention and persistence to graduation are two issues that receive significant attention and allocation of financial and human resources in higher education. A recent study (Creighton, Creighton, & Parks, 2010) stated that 26% of new freshmen do not matriculate their sophomore year. Consequently, many institutions within higher education have placed emphasis on the first-year experience (FYE). In response to the issues that lead freshmen to dropout, FYE program outcomes generally include student self-awareness (Krause & Coates, 2008), learning academic skills and strategies (Crisp & Cruz, 2010; Schrader & Brown, 2008), connecting students to campus (Zhao & Kuh, 2004; Bell, 2012) and social support (Tinto, 2009; Wilcox, Winn & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005). However, research shows that most institutions approach FYE programming with a “piecemeal approach” (Krause, Hartly, James, & McInnis, 2005) and do not take a “whole-of-institution” approach (Kift, Nelson, & Clark, 2010) where student retention and persistence are part of the fabric of the entire institution. One of the aspects of FYE programming is peer mentoring. Peer mentoring emerged within the FYE programs to facilitate these program outcomes and ultimately, student retention. In fact, an early literature review (Jacobi, 1991) on mentoring revealed four identifiable outcomes of mentoring, three of which claimed to be applicable to peer mentoring and successful fulfillment of FYE outcomes. Some peer mentoring programs emerge from student affairs (Lopez, Johnson & Black, 2010) while other programs originate from academic affairs (Colvin & Ashman, 2010). Aside from the differing origins of peer mentoring programs, research identifies six types of mentoring programs, five of which claim to be applicable to peer mentoring (Karcher, Kuperminc, Portwood, Sipe, & Taylor, 2006). However, there still appears to be no universal approach to peer mentoring in higher education. Specifically, research has yet to reveal a peer mentoring program that comprehensively synthesizes the great foundational work of Jacobi (1991) and Karcher and his colleagues (2006) and maintains the necessary theoretical alignment proposed in recent literature (Hall & Jaugietis, 2011; Crisp & Cruz, 2010) within a holistic and integrated institutional approach to student success and retention.

Megan Curtis, Utah Valley University Academic Affairs Capitol Reef Field Station (CRFS) is located in south-central Utah within Capitol Reef National Park (CARE). Due to its arid climate and diverse geology, many plant species found within CARE have unique adaptations that are sensitive to disturbance. Cryptobiotic crusts, which play a vital role to the health of vegetation by stabilizing soils, cycling nutrients, and reducing erosion, are extremely sensitive to disturbance and can take many years to recover after being damaged by footprints. In addition, the spread of invasive species can harm native vegetation by competition for resources. Since CRFS’s founding in 2008, it has been frequented by visitors who come to learn about CARE’s natural and cultural history. Consequently, various trails and dirt roads surrounding CRFS may be a source of human disturbance and spread invasive species. Another source of disturbance is cattle that graze in this area on their route through CARE twice each summer. The objective of this study is to characterize the vegetation surrounding CRFS and determine the present level of human and domestic impact on this vegetation. Our specific questions were; (1) Is the level of human disturbance associated with plant community structure and proximity to CRFS, (2) Which communities have the highest levels of cattle/human disturbance?, (3) How does community structure vary by vegetation type? To address these questions, two 100-m transects with differing proximities to CRFS were established in each of four vegetative communities’ Pinyon-Juniper, Big Sagebrush, Riparian, and Grassland. Species frequency, cover, and disturbance (density of tracks within a quadrat) were recorded within each transect using a nested plot frequency design -four nested subplots ranging from 0.25 4m2. To account for seasonal variance, data were collected in four sampling periods throughout growing season. To characterize community abiotic factors, slope, aspect, and soil attributes were measured for each transect. To analyze the data, we ran multivariate analysis, including Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS), and Multi-response Permutation Procedure (MRPP). The two-dimensional NMS solution explained 80.1% of variability in community structure.

John Maynes, Utah State University The Center for the School of the Future In the early history of the United States, the Founders of our nation set aside vast amounts of land which were to be used to support public schools. Starting in 1785, lands were dedicated to support schools and thereby provide public education to new settlers in the “Northwest Territory.” Further legislation in 1787 reinforced this granting process with the language, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” These actions were championed by many of the same men who would be influential in writing the Constitution, most notably Nathan Dane of Massachusetts. However, after the first lands were granted, many new states were admitted to the United States without granting lands for schools. It seemed that the idea for granting school lands had been forgotten. However, in 1803 Ohio was admitted as a state, and the land grants for public schools were renewed. Since that time, every state admitted to the Union was granted school trust lands. The purpose of this study is to address the following questions: What resources were used to support public education? How did attitudes toward these resources evolve from the beginning of our country to now? Based on preliminary findings, we can see that attitudes towards school trust lands have varied throughout history and the policies and resources used to support them have been equally variable. By looking at school trust lands and school permanent fund values, I hope to evaluate the attitudes of decision makers toward education over the course of American history. Using historical records such as legislation, Congressional annuls, and personal correspondences to evaluate personal attitudes of policymakers, this study will identify determinants that supported the unique attitudes and policies surrounding school trust lands.

Evans, Hannah; Peterson, Rebecca (Utah State University)
Faculty Advisor: Shumway, Jessica (Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services, School of Teacher Education and Leadership); Clarke-Midura, Jody (Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services, Instructional Teachnology and Learning Sciences Department); Lee, Victor (Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services, Instruction Technology and Learning Sciences Department); Silvis, Deborah (Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services, Instruction Technology and Learning Sciences Department)

The push for computer science integration in kindergarten classrooms is a surfacing topic in public education in the United States. One approach to this is to integrate computer science with mathematics. However, there is minimal research on computer science and computational thinking as it relates to mathematics in early childhood education. In order to address this need, we are part of a larger research project that is studying the integration of computer science and mathematics in kindergarten classrooms. Specifically, we are exploring computational thinking (CT) elements that we see students engaging in (e.g., algorithmic thinking, debugging, and decomposition) while at the same time exploring mathematics skills that emerge (e.g., measurement, spatial reasoning, and pattern recognition). We study these skills and elements as we teach formal coding instruction using play-based, screen free coding robots. In this presentation, we will present early results of this integration in local kindergarten classrooms. Our main research question is: What CT and mathematics skills and strategies emerge as a result of this formal coding instruction?

Our sample consists of 16 kindergarten students. Groups of 3-4 students participated in six 30-minute coding lessons, followed by an assessment interview. Our data set is made up of video data from both the coding instruction and the assessment interviews, as well as field notes and assessment score sheets. We will present descriptive statistics regarding these assessments, as well as in-depth case studies of 2 students (one student who scored high on their post-test, and one who scored low). We will present data from the videos of their individual experiences as they engaged in formal instruction, as well as data regarding their assessments, in order to answer our research question and analyze what CT and mathematics skills and strategies emerged as a result of their formal coding instruction.

Judd, Emma J.; Clark, Sarah K. (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Clark, Sarah (Education, Teacher Education)

The study examined the integration of science into literacy instruction for the early grades. The study specifically explored how science-infused literacy instruction influenced the quality of compare and contrast science informational text produced by second graders, compared to literacy instruction alone. Additionally, the motivation of the students to read was examined in connection to the quality of the informational text they produced. The participants were second-graders (N = 72) between the ages of 7 – 9 and were enrolled in the first quarter of the school year at a Title 1 school. Seventy-three percent of these students were White, 22% were Hispanic, 2% were Asian, and 1% were Black, with 63% of the students eligible for free or reduced lunch. The treatment group (N = 35) received science-infused literacy instruction and the control group (N = 37) received their regular literacy instruction. Two instruments for measurement were used: a motivation survey which measured the students’ motivation to read, and a weighted writing rubric with an emphasis on signal words, content-specific vocabulary words, and word count, which was used to score the informational text writing samples produced by the students. The students took the reading motivation survey and answered the same informational text writing prompt before and after the instruction. The instruction for compare and contrast writing took place over the course of a four-week unit, and consisted of three 30-minute lessons weekly. The research was designed as quasi-experimental using a paired samples t-test with follow-up effect size measures. The results demonstrate that students in the treatment group produced significantly higher reading motivation scores but wrote lower-quality text, while students in the control group produced lower motivation scores but wrote higher-quality informational text. Implications from this study will be provided for educators and literacy instructional practices, and for researchers and future studies.