Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Outdoor education and citizen science in a high school freshwater ecology science classroom(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Tierney, Sarah Martina; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg FrancisOutdoor education and citizen science practices were implemented into a high school freshwater ecology curriculum to assess student motivation, attitude, and in general their connection with the outside world. In this study students were exposed to various outdoor learning opportunities and citizen science activities. Pre and post treatment student surveys were conducted, student interviews, student journaling, and student engagement tally sheets were all recorded to assess student engagement. As a result of this study, a majority of students reported a benefit from lessons outside the classroom as well as indicating an increase of energy, pleasantness, and engagement.Item Examining the impacts of reforestation and bioremediation projects on high school environmental science students' feelings of biophilia and learning about environmental issues in Hawaii(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Forster, Lorinda; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Greg FrancisThis action research study focused on the overall problem of how to promote biophilia in students while learning in experential, place-based settings. Surveys, relections, scientific terminology probes, anootated drawings, modeling and pre/post quizzes were used to access the results of the study. Results of the study indicate that some students were inspired to follow career paths in the natural sciences while others were further disconnected from nature. Some progress was made in learning vocabulary and facts about places visited. Further work is needed to promote deeper learning and feelings of biophilia for students prone to disconnecting from nature.Item Green museums waking up the world: indigenous and mainstream approaches to exploring sustainability(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2018) Medicine Horse, Jennifer Neso'eoo'e; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert RydellMainstream and Indigenous Museums are ideally situated, both geographically and culturally, to educate the public about complex twenty-first century environmental issues. The most effective approaches to understanding, addressing, and adapting to these climate changes can be conveyed by museums, incorporating a holistic methodology utilizing the knowledge, observations and ideas of both Western and Indigenous peoples, and directed toward the young people of the world most impacted by climate disruption. This qualitative research was conceptualized iteratively within an Indigenous research methodology, using a combination of Western and Indigenous research approaches to create a hybrid methodology that would satisfy academic requirements, yet foster the community required to successfully answer the research question. Although a formal list of interview questions was developed, the qualitative interviews were primarily conducted in an informal conversational manner, allowing the respondents to tell their stories and include what they felt was relevant. A snowball strategy was employed to generate the potential interviews, as well as scouting potential interviews at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and Association of Tribal Archives Libraries and Museums (ATALM) annual conferences during the years 2011-2015. One hundred and three interviews were conducted at ten institutions; all interviews were conducted in-person on-site at the home institutions. Approximately half of the interviews were conducted at the Smithsonian Institution as the result of a Smithsonian Research Fellowship. The interview respondents were forthcoming about their experiences and observations regarding sustainability initiatives at their institutions. The interviews suggest that it is indeed possible for museums to address issues of climate disruption and sustainability efficaciously, utilizing both Western and Indigenous scientific knowledges to educate and engage the public. However, few American museums are currently attempting this task fraught with challenges, although museums are uniquely able to undertake this crucial work. The collaborative work catalyzed by the Cosmic Serpent and Native Universe NSF-funded research projects serves as a tested model to inspire museums to design their own initiatives. Citizen Science initiatives, engaging museums with their constituent youth, provide a promising way of conveying complex environmental information in a palatable manner to youth of various ages and cultural backgrounds.Item Approaching the science of food waste through documentary film(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2019) Bates, Samantha Ellyn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Lucia Ricciardelli'Trash' does not exist in nature, as any waste generated by an organism is utilized by another. Humans have strayed away from the earth's natural processes by exporting waste towards a dead end, allowing it to pile high in landfills where it most likely will never decompose. Documentary filmmakers have attempted to raise awareness about this pressing environmental issue of waste by illustrating the negative impacts of landfills on our lives and providing the viewer with attainable and sustainable waste diversion solutions. This study will describe, discuss, and compare the different aesthetic and thematic approaches adopted in 'Wasted!' 'The Story of Food Waste', 'Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story' and 'Rot', three documentary films that propose environmentally-friendly waste disposal strategies as possible solutions to our global food waste crisis.Item Motivation and pedagogical ecology of school-based outdoor science teaching: a multiple case study(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2019) Vallor, Rosanna Rohrs; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ann EwbankThis study examines why and how teachers incorporate school-based outdoor teaching in their pedagogies. Research demonstrates that students gain in a range of areas when learning outdoors, but teachers can face multiple barriers when considering outdoor teaching, and many choose not to teach outdoors. There is limited research about why and how successful teachers choose to plan and manage outdoor teaching. Using a multiple case study of three public-school teachers, in grades 4, 7, and high school, who have consistently taught outdoors for over 15 years each, the study addressed why exemplary teachers choose to teach outdoors and how exemplary teachers accomplish outdoor teaching. Each teacher constituted an individual case. Semi-structured interview responses, questionnaires, field observation notes, and video-recall interviews were coded and analyzed using NVivo software. Analytic narratives based on themes within the coded data were then developed for individual cases, followed by cross-case analysis of the three cases. The findings indicated that the teachers were motivated to teach outdoors by perceived positive student impacts, by outstanding available outdoor spaces, and by their personal connections to the natural world. Teachers plan and manage outdoor teaching, with administration and community cooperation, to take advantage of opportunities for students to engage in their local environment. These findings were synthesized into the Pedagogical Ecology of Outdoor Teaching (PEOT) model. The PEOT model includes teachers' motivations, contextual factors, and teacher-operational factors in sequential, iterative relationship, and illustrates the complexity and uniqueness of teachers' situations when considering outdoor teaching. Future research incorporating the PEOT model could analyze teachers' contexts and environmental connections to determine assets and needs in their situations. Action plans to address those needs could then be developed to assist teachers and districts to develop outdoor teaching opportunities.Item Growing academic resilience in students of science through mimicry of forest resilience(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2018) Rapone, Marcia G.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Walter WoolbaughFor this education-based classroom research project, inspiration was drawn from the mechanisms used to transmit nutrients and information between individual organisms in a forest through the mycorrhizal network. Whereas forest resilience is based on speed of recovery and ability to regenerate biomass, academic resilience is based on the student's ability to recover from a setback and remain engaged in the learning process. The goal of the project was to mimic the communication network observed in forest mycelium and thus transmit information and receive feedback from students continuously in an effort to support the growth of academic resilience. The hypothesis of this project was that in fostering communication between students and creating opportunities for communication between individual students in the classroom, overall student academic resilience, grit, and content understanding would increase. During the 9-week study, students communicated their level of confidence in understanding content, provided insight into misconceptions they may have been developing, and gave advice to other students to enhance understanding of the material being taught. A culminating whole-class inquiry project was used to require students to work together on finding the solution to a problem. While not statistically significant, positive growth in resilience was observed in 57% of project participants, (N=83), but honors-level students reported higher levels of resilience at the start of the project than those of their general-level counterparts. A statistically significant growth in grit and content understanding was observed in honors-level students. Growth by at least 20% in content understanding over the course of the project was observed in 91% of all student participants. No singular data point was determined to be a predictor of student capacity for resilience, but development and use of a regular survey process provided insight into student mindset and opinion. Due to student inability or unwillingness to give themselves credit, development of a resilience recognition program is recommended as part of the next phase of research to foster awareness in the classroom of actions that exemplify resilience.Item Vehicles, grooming, and other factors affecting snowroad longevity in Yellowstone National Park(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2018) Nelson, Molly McKellar; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Edward E. AdamsIn winter, the National Park Service (NPS) at Yellowstone grooms snow that builds up on the park roads, making 'snowroads' passable by snowmobiles and snowcoaches. The NPS has recently allowed experimental snowcoaches on low-pressure tires (LPTs) in addition to traditional tracks. As they consider a permanent policy on these LPTS, they want to understand these vehicles' impacts on snowroads compared with those of traditional tracked vehicles and snowmobiles. They also want to know how to optimize other operations (e.g., grooming) to maintain quality roads that support safe travel through the park. This two-year field study investigated the snowroad quality in the park and factors influencing this quality. The approach involved data collection on both parkwide road conditions and individual vehicle passes. Both controllable and non-controllable factors were considered to provide information on their relative influence. Parkwide road quality analysis involved collecting GPS data on grooming activity, weather data from existing stations, road depth through radar measurements, traffic counts from motion-sensor cameras, hardness data, and snow sample analysis. The vehicle-by-vehicle impact study involved both subsurface and surface measurements in the road. Load cells, accelerometers, a high-speed, high-definition camera, a penetrometer, and a 'profilometer' provided measurements. Data analysis combined with existing literature provided insights into best practices for the NPS. Parkwide, snowroads harden throughout the season, with temperatures and traffic load being contributing factors. Grooming results in a harder road if snow disaggregation is followed by compaction, and with a longer set time between grooming and traffic. Individual vehicles' impacts are driven by surface interaction rather than motion at depth in the snowroad. On hard, groomed snowroads, both tracked and LPT snowcoaches can form ruts, but tracked vehicles continue to dig ruts deeper whereas LPT coaches' ruts level out and stop deepening with subsequent passes. This seems to be because LPTs form ruts primarily through compaction and tracked vehicles through snow displacement. Reduced tire pressures reduce rut formation and can harden the road. Results from this study demonstrate that LPT coaches should not be disallowed from Yellowstone based on road impacts. Other results will inform NPS operations to optimize grooming practices.Item A Yellowstone snowroad rutting investigation: a comparison of tracks vs. tires and other contributing factors(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2018) Phipps, Ry Edward; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Daniel MillerYellowstone National Park (YNP) has been experiencing more snowroad rutting in the last ten years. Additionally, YNP has recently (winter 2013 -2014) been experimenting with permitting large low-pressure tire vehicles to operate on the parks' snowroads. To gain a better understanding of snowroad degradation, YNP employed a team of snow scientists from Montana State University. In the winter of 2015, a large scale, two year, snowroad rutting study began in YNP. Parameters pertaining to snowroad strength and the difference in impact to the snowroads between tracked and wheeled vehicles were examined. This thesis in addition to Nelson's (2018) thesis produce a detailed overview of controllable and uncontrollable factors of maintaining and measuring impacts to the snowroads of Yellowstone National Park. Instruments were developed to collect data in the field and in the Sub-Zero Lab at Montana State University. These instruments allowed researchers to quantify crucial differences between vehicle types and the behaviors associated with them. Once data was collected, the data was post-processed in various ways to analyze trends pertaining to snowroad strength and degradation. With the data processed and analyzed, the profilometer and hardness data proved to be the most informative on snowroad degradation tendencies, however, the other instruments helped reinforce conclusions made with the hardness and profilometer data. The process of taking subsurface measurements on vehicle pass-bys, allowed researchers to confirm that rutting is most closely tied to vehicle-surface interactions (~ top 10 cms). It was determined that wheeled and tracked coaches can both cause ruts but by different processes. Wheeled vehicles are primarily causing ruts through compaction whereas tracked vehicles primarily cause ruts through a process of snow displacement. Ruts form from wheeled coaches but after subsequent passes the cross-sectional area of the rut tends to level off, especially when inflation pressure is decreased. While tracked vehicles' ruts continue to grow in size after subsequent passes. Additionally, snowroad hardness was affected differently between tracks and tires. Tracks and tires at higher pressures (> or = 62 kPa) tended to more often soften the snowroad, whereas lower pressure tires (< 62 kPa) tended to harden the snowroad.Item Deep Now & The Seed Bank Project(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2018) Jones, Rachael Marne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jeremy HatchThe Deep Now & The Seed Bank Project critically examines flaws in Western Society's tendency towards singular perceptual and singular analytical ways of constructing reality. The exhibition is built from cultural signifiers of both loss and hope, expanding on the belief that what we leave behind is an indication of the future. I am among one of the first generations to expect a future in flux, and in order to adapt, our methods of problem-solving need to expand to include both analytical and automatic thinking strategies. As a relatively new civilization that has expanded its influence globally, the instigation of metacognition between the head and the heart could ignite the fundamental psychological shift to understanding deep time within Western Society. Only with a sense of empathy, as well as deep humility for reconciling our place within the larger eco-system of the earth, will the future look brighter for future generations of all life forms. Looking at both analytical and automatic thinking patterns exhibited within Western Society's evolutionary trajectory, this paper posits that both are valid problem-solving strategies depending on context and flexibility. This involves understanding our reality as a construct, fabricated from both cognition and phenomenological experience. Accepting that this construct will demand flexibility in interpretation as the future changes insures a more cognizant relationship with our environment. Deep Now & The Seed Bank Project was formulated with a rich recognition of cultural signifiers that relate how the 20th and 21st century established Western Society's values as well as a self-consciousness of our era. Through flow state drawing processes, artefactual sculpture and ritualistic, reliquarizing seed banks, the work hopes to deviate from apocalyptic visions, while recognizing an eminent paradigmatic shift in the future of Western Society. The exhibition harks to focus clearly on the clues from the past to rebuild a more interconnected and sustainable intention for our projection into space and time.Item Varying nonlinear dependencies in habitat selection: estimating instead of imposing functional forms(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2016) Ebinger, Michael Ryan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert A. GarrottSpatial heterogeneity of habitats and different foraging strategies can result in dissimilar patterns of habitat selection among individuals in a population. Studies have demonstrated that incorporating individual variation can influence model inferences. Thus, individual variation is increasingly being incorporated in habitat selection studies. Our objective was to advance the concept of individual variation in habitat selection by incorporating varying shapes (i.e., function forms) of responses among individuals. We used simulation modeling to develop a new analytical framework and introduce a new habitat selection metric, the Normalized Selection Ratio (NSR). Our results demonstrated the ability of the NSR to correctly estimate the strength and shape of complex simulated patterns of habitat selection, while simultaneously protecting against over-fitting. Using a simulated population of individuals, we showed how our approach can scale-up individual responses to facilitate population-level inference. We demonstrated how hierarchical clustering of individual-level response curves can identify and quantitatively describe different types of habitat selection within a population. When applied in a temporally dynamic framework, we showed that the NSR can detect ecological dynamics in habitat selection with quantitatively different inferences from analyses that pool data over time. We illustrated application of our approach using global positioning system (GPS) telemetry data for grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). We investigated the direction (preference or avoidance) and shapes of grizzly bear selection for whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) habitat during fall from 2007 to 2014. Our general conclusions support previous findings that grizzly bears exhibit a high degree of individual variation in habitat selection. Our approach of hierarchically clustering response curves detected 4 groups of grizzly bears with distinctly different patterns of whitebark pine habitat selection. Based on the group-level mean responses, 77% of sampled bears selected for whitebark habitat and 23% selected for non-whitebark pine habitats. Among the hierarchical groups that selected for whitebark pine, we observed substantial variation in the strength and density of whitebark pine being used. These results demonstrated the ability of our approach to identify, quantify, and organize individual differences in habitat selection and improve our understanding of grizzly bear ecology in the GYE.