ScholarWorks

ScholarWorks is an open access repository for the capture of the intellectual work of Montana State University (MSU) in support of its teaching, research and service missions. MSU ScholarWorks is a central point of discovery for accessing, collecting, sharing, preserving, and distributing knowledge to the Montana State University community and the world.

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Scholarship & Research

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Deciphering the role of the distal pocket in Staphylococcus aureus coproheme decarboxylase
(Elsevier BV, 2025-03)
Stiller, Olivia R.
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Streit, Bennett R.
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Honzay, Garrett
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DuBois, Jennifer L.
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Rodger, Kenton R.
Coproheme decarboxylase (ChdC) catalyzes the sequential oxidative decarboxylation of coproheme III propionate side chains at positions 2 and 4 to form heme b by activation of two molecules of H2O2 at its substrate's iron center. The coproheme III binding pocket lacks the distal His-Arg pair that polarizes and acts as a catalytic base toward activation of coordinated H2O2 in canonical heme-dependent peroxidases. Instead ChdC from Staphylococcus aureus has a Gln (Q185). This report presents thermodynamic, kinetic, and spectroscopic results that provide comparative insight into how wild type (WT) and Q185A and Q185R variant ChdCs activate H2O2. Reactivities with H2O2 and cyanide affinities at pH 7.5 follow the trend: WT > Q185R > Q185A. Both variants exhibited greater catalase efficiency than WT ChdC. Vibrational resonance Raman signatures of ferric coproheme−CN− and ferrous coproheme−CO complexes of WT, Q185A, and Q185R SaChdCs revealed that the Arg mutation does not significantly alter the distal environment while Q185A has a more open active site. Together these data are consistent with a modest role for Q185 in promoting the decarboxylation reaction. A model for the proton transfer required for H2O2 activation that involves the Gln185 iminol tautomer is presented. The three ChdCs reacted with chlorite to generate harderoheme III and heme b to varying extents. In reaction with chlorite, coproheme III:SaChdC was cleanly converted to harderoheme III:SaChdC, which exhibited vinyl bending and stretching modes at 423 and 1622 cm−1, respectively. Differences in SaChdC reactivity with ClO2− and H2O2 relative to those of chlorite dismutase and peroxidases, respectively, are discussed.
Is the Force Concept Inventory biased across the intersections of gender and race?
(American Physical Society, 2025-04)
Buncher, John B.
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Nissen, Jayson
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Van Dusen, Ben
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Talbot, Robert M.
Research-based assessments (RBAs) allow researchers and practitioners to compare student performance across different contexts and institutions. In recent years, research attention has focused on the student populations these RBAs were initially developed with because much of that research was done with “samples of convenience” that were predominantly white men. Prior research has found that the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) behaved differently for men and women using differential item functioning (DIF) analysis. We extend this research in two ways. First, we test the FCI for DIF across the intersection of gender and race for Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, and White Hispanic men and women. Second, we apply the Eaton and Willoughby five-factor model of the FCI to interpret the results of the DIF analysis. We found large DIF on a large number of FCI items. The patterns of items with large DIF follows the five-factor model. The alignment of DIF with this factor structure, along with the measurement invariance of this factor structure across these ten social identities, indicates that the items on the FCI are likely not biased but are instead measuring real differences in physics knowledge among these groups. We frame these differences as educational debts that society owes to these marginalized groups that physics instruction needs to actively repay.
Trip Report. New Paradigm for Discovery-Based Learning: Implementing Bottom-up Development by Listening to Farmers' Needs Using Participatory Processes and Holistic Thinking
(Montana State University, 2011)
Coulibaly, Keriba
I spent 30 days in the USA mentoring and advising students with their specific projects, which are initiated to help and assist people in need in Mali and in other parts of the world using participatory processes and holistic ways of thinking. To fulfill this mission, I worked intensively with many people such as Dr Florence Dunkel, the Principal Investigator of Mali projects affiliated with Montana State University (MSU), Dr Ada Giusti, French professor at MSU, Dr Cliff Montagne, MSU soil scientist and specialist in Holistic Management. I worked on peer-refereed manuscripts with these faculty and a graduate student. I mentored students in Dr Florence Dunkel’s PSPP 465 R class, a University Research Core course in Health, Agriculture, and Poverty: Concepts and Action Research. Dr. Dunkel is being assisted in teaching this class by Dr. Ada Giusti. I gave a presentation to Dr Giusti’s French Language class. I met with students of Dr. Dunkel’s BIOO 162 CS Insects and Human Societies course, each large group meeting, each laboratory, and conducted many individual interviews. At Belgrade Middle School, I also made a presentation and answered questions from 60 students in Denise Dahl’s Social Studies class. Denise Dahl is a former USDA Mali exchange teacher. I also interacted with elders, current faculty and students at Chief Dull Knife College, and former Mali externs on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Lame Deer, MT. I made a presentation on Mali in an MSU International Studies class that covered the geography, population, economy, and the cultural identity of Mali. I worked intensively in all cultural aspects of the typical Malian village and Bambara language training with an undergraduate student who is going to Mali this June to help with a project that contributes to overcoming the ravages of kwashiorkor in children in Sanambele, a subsistence farming village in Mali of about 1,200 Bambara-speaking people. I contributed to individual students, and to students in small and large groups, in general mentoring of the PSPP 465 students working on projects concerning Mali, and I will continue mentoring in a continuing, ongoing process via e-mail and Skype. Various discussions took place with these students who are willing to put in practice the participatory processes and holistic thinking for the solutions to problems of the materially-poor but culturally-rich subsistence farmers throughout the world.
Towards Culturally Responsive & Decolonized Place-Based Environmental Science Education
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2026-06)
Sellars, Mary Riley
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Walter Woolbaugh
This paper examines how place-based environmental science education can be made more culturally responsive and inclusive of different relationships to land and community. It draws on research about place-based education, culturally responsive teaching, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and decolonizing science education. This research is used to identify practical strategies for connecting environmental science with students’ lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and local environments while maintaining alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards.The paper presents five adaptable lesson frameworks centered on community mapping, environmental language, interviews about environmental change, environmental case studies, and environmental policy. These frameworks encourage students to investigate local phenomena, consider multiple perspectives, use scientific evidence, and reflect on how history and power influence environmental issues. They also demonstrate ways to include community and Indigenous knowledge alongside Western science without treating these perspectives as supplemental. This paper suggests that environmental science instruction can be both scientifically rigorous and responsive to the communities in which learning occurs. The proposed frameworks offer educators starting points for helping students connect science to their own lives, participate in environmental decision-making, and recognize themselves and their communities as sources of meaningful environmental knowledge.
Leveled Assessments in High School Biology and their Effects on Student Well Being
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2026-08)
Lakin, Beth Leigh
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Jessica Anderson
Traditional summative assessments often fail to accurately measure student understanding, limiting meaningful feedback and negatively impacting student confidence, performance, and perceptions of learning. To determine how leveled assessments impact student performance, confidence and perceptions of fairness, students in high school biology were administered a unit test in three leveled versions. Students selected their test version in consultation with the teacher and could opt into a lower-level assessment if they found their selection to be too difficult. Student performance on the leveled assessment led to modest, statistically insignificant student performance compared to a prior traditional assessment. Student confidence increased slightly although students indicated a strong preference for leveled assessments citing agency and appropriate difficulty as positives. This initial study indicates that leveled assessments are a possible way to more accurately measure student performance and give better feedback.