This dissertation examines the different types of attitudes toward animals held by 7th grade stud... more This dissertation examines the different types of attitudes toward animals held by 7th grade students in one middle school in the rural southeastern part United States. This study was conducted using seven-point Likert scale surveys over the course of 5 weeks. Each survey contained twenty items consisting of a wide range of animals across four phyla. These surveys showed that students preferred smaller, local, colorful, vertebrates to other animals. The objective of the study was to determine what types of attitudes students exhibited towards animals presented in the surveys and what influenced these attitudes. The results show that students’ attitudes mostly result from knowledge and exposure to a certain species, with aesthetics and perceived threat of the animals used to inform their attitudes in the absence of content knowledge or exposure to the animals. This project also examined students’ attitudes and knowledge toward bats and questioned if the bat curriculum would influence these attitudes and science content knowledge. The survey toward bats used pre and post testing items and found that educational intervention did improve attitudes (t(48) = -6.9, p <.001) and knowledge X2 (1, N = 49) = 19.2, p < .001 toward bats by a statistically significant amount. Themes discovered that strongly impacted student attitudes toward animals were knowledge, aesthetics, exposure, and taxonomic relation of the animal to other animals.
This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several use... more This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several used in formal and informal settings in a rural southern US state. The goal was to develop engineering design-infused STEM activities that used everyday materials, related to students' lives, had a prosocial focus, met state science standards, and helped youth develop STEM literacy and skills. This process of curriculum design falls into the category of "design experiments" as described by Brown (1992), Collins (1992) and others. Over 375 students were exposed to the Solar Landmine Detectors curriculum over the course of a year and the module was continuously revised based on observations of the students.
Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests... more Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests some form of resource partitioning is occurring. I examined eight habitats in Jackson County, Alabama, and detected evidence of habitat partitioning by shrews in pine forests, mixed forests with liana undergrowth, and deciduous riparian zones. Also, I discovered that I was 11 times more likely to capture a shrew on a night with rainfall than on a night with clear skies. Habitat segregation and increased activity on rainy nights should both be considered when researchers attempt to capture shrews in the field.
This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several use... more This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several used in formal and informal settings in a rural southern US state. The goal was to develop engineering design-infused STEM activities that used everyday materials, related to students’ lives, had a pro-social focus, met state science standards, and helped youth develop STEM literacy and skills. This process of curriculum design falls into the category of “design experiments” as described by Brown (1992), Collins (1992) and others. Over 375 students were exposed to the Solar Landmine Detectors curriculum over the course of a year and the module was continuously revised based on observations of the students.
Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests... more Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests some form of resource partitioning is occurring. I examined eight habitats in Jackson County, Alabama, and detected evidence of habitat partitioning by shrews in pine forests, mixed forests with liana undergrowth, and deciduous riparian zones. Also, I discovered that I was 11 times more likely to capture a shrew on a night with rainfall than on a night with clear skies. Habitat segregation and increased activity on rainy nights should both be considered when researchers attempt to capture shrews in the field.
This dissertation examines the different types of attitudes toward animals held by 7th grade stud... more This dissertation examines the different types of attitudes toward animals held by 7th grade students in one middle school in the rural southeastern part United States. This study was conducted using seven-point Likert scale surveys over the course of 5 weeks. Each survey contained twenty items consisting of a wide range of animals across four phyla. These surveys showed that students preferred smaller, local, colorful, vertebrates to other animals. The objective of the study was to determine what types of attitudes students exhibited towards animals presented in the surveys and what influenced these attitudes. The results show that students’ attitudes mostly result from knowledge and exposure to a certain species, with aesthetics and perceived threat of the animals used to inform their attitudes in the absence of content knowledge or exposure to the animals. This project also examined students’ attitudes and knowledge toward bats and questioned if the bat curriculum would influence these attitudes and science content knowledge. The survey toward bats used pre and post testing items and found that educational intervention did improve attitudes (t(48) = -6.9, p <.001) and knowledge X2 (1, N = 49) = 19.2, p < .001 toward bats by a statistically significant amount. Themes discovered that strongly impacted student attitudes toward animals were knowledge, aesthetics, exposure, and taxonomic relation of the animal to other animals.
This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several use... more This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several used in formal and informal settings in a rural southern US state. The goal was to develop engineering design-infused STEM activities that used everyday materials, related to students' lives, had a prosocial focus, met state science standards, and helped youth develop STEM literacy and skills. This process of curriculum design falls into the category of "design experiments" as described by Brown (1992), Collins (1992) and others. Over 375 students were exposed to the Solar Landmine Detectors curriculum over the course of a year and the module was continuously revised based on observations of the students.
Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests... more Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests some form of resource partitioning is occurring. I examined eight habitats in Jackson County, Alabama, and detected evidence of habitat partitioning by shrews in pine forests, mixed forests with liana undergrowth, and deciduous riparian zones. Also, I discovered that I was 11 times more likely to capture a shrew on a night with rainfall than on a night with clear skies. Habitat segregation and increased activity on rainy nights should both be considered when researchers attempt to capture shrews in the field.
This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several use... more This paper documents the year-long process of developing one curriculum module out of several used in formal and informal settings in a rural southern US state. The goal was to develop engineering design-infused STEM activities that used everyday materials, related to students’ lives, had a pro-social focus, met state science standards, and helped youth develop STEM literacy and skills. This process of curriculum design falls into the category of “design experiments” as described by Brown (1992), Collins (1992) and others. Over 375 students were exposed to the Solar Landmine Detectors curriculum over the course of a year and the module was continuously revised based on observations of the students.
Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests... more Shrews are small mammals that often occur in sympatry with other species of shrews. This suggests some form of resource partitioning is occurring. I examined eight habitats in Jackson County, Alabama, and detected evidence of habitat partitioning by shrews in pine forests, mixed forests with liana undergrowth, and deciduous riparian zones. Also, I discovered that I was 11 times more likely to capture a shrew on a night with rainfall than on a night with clear skies. Habitat segregation and increased activity on rainy nights should both be considered when researchers attempt to capture shrews in the field.
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