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  • Effects of Digital Badging on Middle School Students’ Writing Motivation

    Zyskowski, Catherine (2024)
    This study explored whether digital badges can effectively increase students’ motivation to write and revise their assignments. Conducted in a seventh-grade Digital Short Stories elective class, the study involved four students who wrote four short stories based on similar prompts. On each assignment, students received feedback through suggestions on their Google Docs, comments in Google Classroom, and scores on the assignment rubric. For the final two writing assignments, students could earn up to five digital badges for demonstrating mastery of the specific components outlined in the rubric. Earned badges were displayed on their Google Sites digital portfolios. Quantitative data were collected through the amount of time students spent writing and revising each assignment, as well as their grades on their first submission and revised resubmission. Qualitative data were collected through surveys administered at the beginning and end of the study, along with observations about the quality of student work on each assignment. Although the small sample size limits the generalizability of its findings, participants had a positive experience with digital badges during this study. The average time students spent writing each assignment increased after the implementation of digital badges, and all students revised at least one writing assignment, with every participant revising the final assignment. In contrast, only one student revised their work before the introduction of digital badges. Participants reported that their attitudes toward writing improved or remained unchanged after their experience with digital badges, and they also performed better on the assignments on which they could earn digital badges. Finally, all students responded that they felt that digital badges were effective at motivating students to write and revise. While more research is needed to determine the broader effectiveness of digital badges, the results of this study suggest that this form of gamification has the potential to enhance students’ motivation and engagement in writing and revision.
  • Exploring the Impact of Gamification on High School Students’ Motivation in Social Studies Learning

    Jimenez, David A (2024)
    This study examines the impact of integrating gamification methods into studying practices on high school students' motivation and behavior. The research aims to assess the effectiveness of gamification techniques in promoting studying behavior and motivation among high school students and exploring their perceptions, experiences, and attitudes towards studying approaches integrating gamification. The core problem addressed is students' struggle to maintain interest and motivation in their studies, potentially leading to negative effects on learning outcomes and assessment grades. Qualitative methods, including interviews and observations, were utilized to delve into students' experiences, perceptions, and attitudes. The study's findings provide insights into the potential benefits and challenges of gamification. The method of technological gamification that was used as the intervention is the online platform Quizizz. Ultimately, this research aims to emphasize or discredit the usefulness of incorporating gamification methods in education to enhance students' motivation and engagement in their studies, with implications for improving learning outcomes and academic performance.
  • Evaluating Nearpod as an Anticipatory Set Tool in Secondary Mathematics Education

    Pastore, Samantha (2024)
    An important aspect to teaching is finding the most effective strategy for starting a class period that allows for continued discussion and connecting key ideas throughout the lesson. The purpose of this qualitative study is to discover how using Nearpod as an anticipatory set encourages students to make connections within the material for high school math students. An Algebra II teacher was the participant of this study. This study was a qualitative case study with notes on lesson plan design, planned Nearpod activities, and a reflection from the teacher through an interview. The data collection consisted of digital notes taken during and after the interview. The data and participant interview supported the idea that Nearpod anticipatory sets increases students’ willingness to participate in discussion both at the beginning and throughout the rest of the class period. The results showed that Nearpod anticipatory sets are beneficial for promoting discussion, reviewing fluency skills quickly, and having students create predictions further into the lesson.
  • Empowering Special Education in the Age of Generative AI: Assessing the Impact of IXL on Reading Comprehension and Student Confidence

    Sevor, Aimee E (2024)
    This action research study investigates the integration of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, IXL, into a special education classroom to enhance students’ reading comprehension skills. The research explores the efficacy of AI technology to not only personalize learning experiences but also provide targeted support for students with diverse learning needs. This study employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches through the analysis of IXL data, classroom artifacts and pre- and post-surveys of the students' feelings regarding their reading comprehension skills. The participants in this study are 9th-12th grade students in a self-contained special education classroom in a suburban area.
  • The Impacts of iCivics’ Digital Games: Exploring Middle School Students’ Engagement in Social Studies Learning

    Lucia, Michael C (2024)
    This qualitative action research investigates the impacts of integrating iCivics’ digital game Do I Have a Right? on student engagement in a seventh-grade civics elective course. Informed by the New York State Civic Readiness Initiative and the need to improve student engagement in teaching, this study explores the multidimensional nature of student engagement within the context of educational digital games. Utilizing classroom observations, a survey, and interviews, this study aims to understand how this digital game impacts student engagement. By examining these impacts, this research contributes to pedagogy in civic education and the potential of digital games to improve student engagement and learning outcomes.
  • Implementing Gimkit to Examine Effectiveness in Middle School Student Vocabulary Engagement

    Wright, Shanae S (2024)
    This study revolves around the idea of how best to engage students with vocabulary instruction and if Gimkit is the best way to do so. Students have struggled to stay engaged post COVID pandemic, and in recent years, students writing and reading skills have decreased and a portion of that is their lack of vocabulary and the inability to stay engaged with it. The purpose of this study is to better understand how Gimkit engages 8th grade students with vocabulary. This decrease in skills prompts the question how can Gimkit increase student engagement with vocabulary? The participants in this study are 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) students who were selected with convenient sampling. This study is an action research study that utilizes mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Possible participants were sent home with a consent and ascent form to complete with their parents or guardians and return.
  • Examining The Effect of Sight-Reading Factory on High School Students’ Engagement in Music Learning

    DeNova, Christopher M. (2024)
    Music educators are always looking for new technology to incorporate into their classrooms. The applications educators incorporate into their classrooms must be engaging and motivating for students. This qualitative study aims to address the problem of the need for technology in our music classrooms. This study helped identify the successes and failures of a popular music technology that we could integrate into our classrooms. The participants of this study were 5 music students from my school located in the northern United States. This research was conducted to assist other educators in incorporating music technologies into their classrooms. This helped give insight to new educators as they can see what has already been done by their predecessors.
  • The Impact of Chromebook Integration on Writing Engagement Among Special Education Students

    Ferraiola, Jacob T  (2024)
    Technology profoundly affects the academic success of students, especially those with learning disabilities. The integration of technology into special education has yielded endless positive results over the 21st century. As it pertains to the concept of engagement and motivation, technology can increase these levels within all students regardless of their situation. Informed by the engagement theory, this study explores how Chromebooks have potential to foster secondary school students’ engagement in writing tasks.
  • Exploring the Middle School Student’s Writing Experience: Traditional Pen-and-Paper vs. Computer-Based Writing

    Shields, Katherine (2024)
    This action research study investigates whether typing or handwriting impacts student performance on writing assignments in the middle school setting within the context of English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Writing is a high-level skill that students perpetually work on and refine as they go through their secondary education. As technology becomes more prevalent, not only in society but in the education field, students are being required to type their writing assignments for standardized computer-based tests (CBT) while still having handwritten assignments. This dichotomy raises the question of how each format, digital or traditional, should be used in the classroom to be most efficient and comfortable for students at the secondary level to perform their writing abilities. This mixed method, action research study employed quantitative data in student writing samples and rubric-based writing assignments with qualitative data from student surveys and classroom observations. This study's participants include one section of 8th-grade students from a district in Long Island, New York. In this district, students are equipped with 1:1 Chromebooks which sparked the discussion, along with the rise of CBT, amongst the department’s ELA teachers if writing assignments should be created online or if they should be facilitated with pen and paper. This study provides a clearer understanding of how the format of writing tasks impacts student outcomes; analysis of the data gathered offers practical recommendations for educators approaching the nuance of writing engagement design in the 21st Century. Overall, this study contributes to the persisting conversation around technology in pedagogical practices. The results yield a basis for educators to make informed, evidence-based decisions in the ELA classroom to optimize student learning outcomes with a purposeful integration of technology to uplift student writing.
  • Non-Analog Behaviour of Eastern African Herbivore Communities During the Last Glacial Period

    O'Brien, Kaedan; Ashioya, Lilian; Faith, J. Tyler (Wiley, 2025-01)
    Modern African ungulates navigate seasonal variation in resource availability through diet-switching (primarily mixed-feeders) and/or migrating (primarily grass grazers). These ecological generalizations are well-documented today, but the extent to which they apply to the non-analog ecosystems of the Pleistocene are unclear. Drawing from serially-sampled stable isotope measurements from 18 Kenyan large herbivore species from the Last Glacial Period (LGP), we evaluate how diet, diet-switching, and migration compare to observations from present-day settings. We find a higher grazing signal in most LGP species and a greater magnitude of diet-switching than in the present. Additionally, we find that the relationships between grass intake, migration, diet-switching, and body size during the LGP were unlike those observed today. This establishes a revised paleoecology of LGP herbivore communities and highlights that LGP herbivores were behaviorally non-analog. Our results imply that ecological observations from present-day settings offer an incomplete perspective of herbivore-environment interactions.
  • Exploring the Digital Frontier: Unveiling the Influence of IXL and First in Math on Fourth-Grade Math Engagement

    Ginley, Kaitlin F. (2024)
    This action research study explored the impact of online learning platforms First in Math and IXL on fourth-grade students’ mathematical engagement. Data collected through surveys, interviews, and observations revealed that the gamified features of these tools, including rewards and competitive leaderboards, increased student motivation and enthusiasm for math practice. However, findings also highlighted limited independent use outside of teacher-guided sessions, emphasizing the need for strategies to promote self-directed engagement. This study underscores the value of integrating digital platforms into traditional math instruction to enhance student engagement.
  • Permission To Play: Expressive Arts Therapy for Team Building and Communication

    Avanzato, Olivia (2022)
    Permission To Play examines the use of Expressive Arts Therapy exercises as a method of staff development and team building, as well as facilitating interpersonal communication styles in a work environment. The project was conducted at a staff development retreat for the non-, Friends of Recovery:Delaware & Otsego Counties (FOR-DO). Staff from four branch locations participated in a two-hour workshop designed to provide education and an interactive experience to connect to build confidence around interpersonal communication. The presentation focused on five workplace communication styles, modeled after Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages. Staff members identified their preferred way to receive appreciation in the workplace The group then participated in an activity in which they made “Communication Creatures” using an art therapy technique that involves all participants in a fast paced, drawing activity. Once their Communication Creature was created, each person presented it to their peers. Utilizing an Expressive Arts Therapy technique of personification, staff were able to introduce their creature with their preferred communication style, as well as a name for their creature. This supported a playful and safe environment to discuss communication preferences in a way that invited laughter and broke down hierarchical formality. An additional art therapy exercise focused on communication and team building through storytelling and drawing. The staff was divided into small groups and were each given the same story to create a poster showing what the story was about. Each group was given a different communication challenge that made the group drawing more difficult. After debriefing about the project, team members shared that communication challenges and strengths that came up in the project mirrored those that came up in their day-to-day work. The group then brainstormed how to shift the challenges. Using Expressive Arts Therapy techniques within a staff development environment is an innovative approach for colleagues to address communication issues in a playful, creative way. This workshop can be duplicated and customized to offer a new approach to staff development within any organization or department.
  • Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez: Caribbean Troubadour

    Arango, Gustavo (2022)
    Over the last twelve months, I have been working on a collection of essays and journalistic articles on the life, works, and social and cultural background of the Colombian Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel García Márquez. García Márquez was considered “the most prominent living writer in the Spanish language” (The New York Times, March 7, 2007). Over almost four decades, I have read and studied his life and works from multiple perspectives: as a regular reader, as an aspiring writer, as a journalist, as a biographer, and as a literary scholar. Between 1990 and 1997, while working as a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El Universal (Cartagena de Indias), I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing García Márquez on several occasions. In 1995, I published the book Un ramo de nomeolvides (A Bouquet of Forget-me-nots), a chronicle about García Márquez’s beginnings as a writer and journalist in El Universal (1948-1950). The book included testimonies by García Márquez and his friends during the early stages of his writing career, as well as a selection of recovered texts by García Márquez, found during my research at the newspaper’s archives. In December 1997, I had the opportunity to be García Márquez´s pupil in the Workshop on Narrative Journalism offered by his foundation for the promotion of journalism (Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, FNPI), in Barranquilla, Colombia. Over the last three decades, as a university professor, I have taught, researched, and written extensively about García Márquez's works. Gabriel García Márquez: Caribbean Troubadour, my first book written in English, is a contribution to the general knowledge of García Márquez in the English-speaking world, not only from the scholar’s point of view but also from the perspective of someone who shares his cultural and historical background and who has reflected about the themes and deeper structures of his work. It will be published by Lexington Book in the Spring of 2023.
  • The Development of Late Medieval Warfare

    Moliterni, Miles (SUNY Oneonta, 2023)
    During the Late Middle Ages warfare began to shift with new technology and social structure leading to a change in the way wars were fought. With the forming of the infantry and the gunpowder revolution the growth of professional armies became a necessity in the Late Medieval period. By evaluating the various types of warfare, such as infantry, cavalry, sieges, different armies, and their army composition, we can see how war changed in the time spanning the late medieval period.
  • Fast Fashion: An Environmental Crisis

    Sheerin, Katie (SUNY Oneonta, 2023)
    PLACES Student Paper Award (2023) (short paper winer). Over the course of recent decades, the production of clothing has become cheaper and more globalized than ever before. This can be attributed to a process known as fast fashion. According to a study published in Environmental Health journal, “fast” in this context refers to how quickly retailers are able to take clothing designs from the runway to on the racks in stores (Bick, et al., 2018). Global industrialization has contributed to clothing supply chains becoming international commodities, correlating with a massive shift for manufacturing and construction of garments to low and middle-income countries with cheap labor opportunities. This outsourcing of labor is done in hopes of companies trying to keep their prices and costs low. The United States consumes more garments than any other nation, with the average American throwing away approximately 80 pounds of clothing every year (Bick, et al., 2018). Fast fashion plays a huge part in this. Earth.org states that “retailers like Zara, Forever 21, and H&M make cheap and fashionable clothing to satisfy needs of young consumers” (Maiti, 2022). The fast fashion model pushes for accelerated times in production, consumption, and the lifespan of its produced clothing.
  • Estimating the Impact of Attendance at MLB Games on Air Pollution

    Grogan, Joseph (SUNY Oneonta, 2023)
    PLACES Student Paper Award Winner (2023) (long paper winner). Baseball games draw tens of thousands of fans to a single stadium on game days. These individuals have different means of getting to the venue, but one of the most popular methods is using personal vehicles. These vehicles are known to produce many pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and certain volatile organic compounds that create ozone if they react in the air. This paper studies the impacts of Major League Baseball attendances on ozone Air Quality Index values between 2010 and 2019 in 27 American cities that host MLB teams. I follow Locke (2019), who found a statistically significant but negligible link between MLB attendance and ozone. I assess the robustness of this result by including three additional years’ worth of data as well as control variables for attendances at NBA and NHL games occurring in the same city, which could account for some of the additional ozone observed. The study finds that MLB game attendances have a significant but small impact on local ozone air quality values, with each additional thousand fans leading to an increase in ozone AQI of 0.013.
  • Hope After All? Ethnic Violence and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Wayman, Angela (SUNY Oneonta, 2023)
    Ethnic violence and the lack of consolidated democracies have a long history in sub-Sahara African countries. The region’s colonial past, with European colonial powers like Belgium, France, and Great Britain drawing arbitrary borders without consideration for local ethnic groups, has led to a multitude of long and violent ethnic conflicts over the past 150 years (Wade 2007). This colonial history full of ethnic conflict has also meant that the region is prone to authoritarianism (Badru 2010; see also Horowitz 1993). In the present, neocolonial powers continue to exploit the region and the people within it by extracting its resources and controlling the region’s economy (Kieh 1996). Given the history of the region and the already existing research examining not only the relationship between ethnic conflict and democratization (Dahl 1971; Horowitz 1993), but also the effect of democratic systems on managing ethnic conflict (Lijphart 1977 and 1991; Horowitz 1985; Cohen 1997; Selway and Templeman 2012), this paper will investigate the question “what is the relationship between the presence of ethnic conflict and democratic transition?” and posit the directionality to be negative between ethnic violence and democratic transition, using sub-Sahara African countries during the period 1990-2013 as cases
  • Hannibal Lecter – Merit or Misinformation? Discussion of Psychopathy and Homicide in the Criminal Justice System

    Le, Jennifer (SUNY Oneonta, 2022)
    Center of Social Science Research Student Paper Award Winner (2022), (long paper winner). Psychopathy has been a widely discussed topic throughout movies and pop culture, especially in recent years, which portray psychopathy through the lens of a vindictive, cruel, and charismatic protagonist. Examples that come to mind may be well-known television media such as Dexter, Hannibal, or American Psycho (Berryessa & Goodspeed, 2019). Audiences' interests are piqued when watching a character so strangely and perplexingly emotionally detached, often committing a heinous crime that goes overlooked due to their sharp ability to hide their crime by tricking others into believing a superficial but charming front. Psychopathic individuals are often unrealistically idolized and idealized as endearing super-villains consumers feel themselves rooting for (Keesler & DeMatteo, 2017). Within the criminal justice system, individuals that score high on psychopathy are not always superhuman criminals with distinguished intelligence, able to evade all detection by the law. It is imperative to study the realistic components of crimes perpetrated by psychopathic offenders to discern between fiction and reality. Psychopathy has been related to violence and criminal tendencies, specifically homicide. Within the corrections system, psychopathy also operates differently during and after incarceration than fellow offenders scoring low on psychopathic tendencies. In order to define the association between psychopathic traits and the perpetration of homicide, it is important to discuss models and theories of psychopathy as a concept alongside the motivations and characteristics of psychopath-perpetrated homicide.
  • “Wiles of a Woman”: Challenging Roles and Agency in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    Watson, Kaitlyn (SUNY Oneonta, 2022)
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight subversively place women in positions of power, though their agency is not immediately visible. This poem is a 14th-century text written by an unnamed poet, set within the Court of King Arthur. This work features notable figures of the Round Table, with Sir Gawain, the knight, in the forefront. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a written illustration of the heroes of the Court of Arthur. However, it can also be seen as an early example of a text providing women with power and agency. The power women possess within the tale is hidden until the end of the poem, when it is revealed that Morgan le Fay was behind the games and quest that Gawain endured. This agency women were given is juxtaposed with some of the reactionary views within the text. This can stand to represent the insecurities that were most likely felt during the period this tale was written in, and Gawain is the mode with which these insecurities and fears of powerful women are demonstrated. Considering these elements, this story can take on a new light as a progressive text for the time it was written. The unnamed poet can stand to be seen as an early progressive author who worked to elevate women within their work to a higher-level status.
  • Alternate Realities of the Alt-Right

    Finnochiaro, Debbie (SUNY Oneonta, 2022)
    The American Alt-Right is a 21st-century phenomenon and growing movement that originated on the internet. The movement is often expressed through the use of symbols and ideas. In the past few years, the Alt-Right has immersed themselves in an alternate reality as they create their own truths inconsistent with actuality. Our nation is engulfed in political tension, extremism, and even violence amid an epistemic crisis. The Alt-Right has developed explanations for various social and political events, even claiming that members are "Red-Pilled" into another reality. This is increasingly evident in recent events such as the January 6th, 2021 Capitol Insurrection. Even though Far-Right and white supremacist groups attended the event, most attendees arrested at the insurrection were not members of Far-Right organizations. In this study, I attempt to reveal what compelled these members to participate in an alternative reality. I also seek to make sense of the event and explain how this alternate reality sustains itself through borrowing ideas from American culture and creating symbols and ideas that are unique to the movement. I will achieve this by evaluating the January 6th, 2021 Capitol Insurrection through a series of Parler videos documenting the event. I will then use my findings to conclude how the Alt-Right has become enveloped in a self-sustaining alternate reality.

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