College of Letters & Science
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/37
The College of Letters and Science, the largest center for learning, teaching and research at Montana State University, offers students an excellent liberal arts and sciences education in nearly 50 majors, 25 minors and over 25 graduate degrees within the four areas of the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics and social sciences.
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Item Flathead Watershed curriculum development : knowledge, skills, and disposition results from the Flathead Watershed delphi survey(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2016) Vallor, Rosanna Rohrs; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael BrodyThis research focused on the establishment of foundational knowledge, skills and dispositions for the Flathead Watershed Educators Guide, a place-based watershed curriculum for middle school grades based on the Flathead Watershed Sourcebook. The methodology of this research was the consensus building process known as the Delphi survey. Survey participants (n=33) were chosen based on their expertise as educators, resource managers and scientists living and practicing in the Flathead Watershed in northwestern Montana, USA. Participants' responses were gathered through the three-round survey by the Montana State University (MSU) research team using MSU's online software program Desire 2 Learn (D2L), an anonymous, asynchronous platform with distance accessibility. Round One responses were gathered through the D2L discussion function so that participants could read each other's responses and reply if desired, allowing an exchange and development of ideas. Round One discussion responses were formatted into statements, which were then made available to the participants to rate through two successive rounds using 1-5 Likert scales. Of the initial 142 statements, 91 statements were retained in the final round. The 91 final statements were matched to Flathead Watershed Sourcebook contents to identify the learning objectives for the Flathead Watershed Educators Guide. The final statements listed the knowledge, skills, and dispositions survey participants felt were most important for students in the Flathead Watershed to learn. Statements showed concern for conservation and protection of the natural environment through place-based watershed education.Item Exploratory research of the Big Horn Medicine Wheel acting as an indigenous place-based pedagogical instrument for learning sky-earth relationships, skywatching fundamentals, and celestial mechanics(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2014) Merriot, Ivy T. Fisher-Herriges; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sara MastThis study explored the ability of the Big Horn Medicine Wheel to act as a pedagogical instrument for learning sky-earth relationships. The Big Horn Medicine Wheel is one of six large stone wheels in the northern plains that show astronomical potential. It is a National Historic Landmark and Sacred Site, created before all known histories--oral and written. Forty years ago, John Eddy and Jack Robinson proposed the first stellar alignments at the Wheel. My own study between 2009 and 2014 concluded that the Wheel's placement, its "Place," reveals extensive symmetry with celestial mechanics and offers pedagogy for learning skywatching fundamentals. My study combined the methods of Native Science and Western science. I collected oral histories, compared images of the Wheel taken by various photographers over 100 years, and tracked stars and the Sun through summer and fall seasons for five years using the naked eye, binoculars, transits, GPS, and a Meade Cassegrain 8" electronic telescope. I sought Native ceremony to prepare for the immersion of my senses in place-based cognition while allowing my intelligence to learn from "inert" materials such as stars, mountains, and stones. My results showed the Wheel accurately mirrors the sky using embedded stones on the ground to correspond to the major north polar stars over the Earth's 24,000 precessional cycle. The Wheel is perfectly situated on the shoulder of Medicine Mountain to make use of the dip in the northern mountainous horizon to cradle the precessional north polar stars as they roll through their millennia cycles, creating a stellar circle in the sky above the Wheel's stone circle on earth. I found the latitude of the Wheel is a "sweet spot" for detecting small angular changes in heliacal stars over time and for the nightly, yearly, and 5000-year circular movement of its zenith star Capella, which also holds a symmetry with the northern landscape. And I found the twenty-eight segments of the Wheel correspond to stellar grid systems based on asterisms. I make no conclusion about the builder's purpose, only about the possible pedagogical uses of the symmetry of the Wheel in its contextual Place.Item Teaching science through native Crow culture : a placed-based experience(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Plain Bull, Dorcella; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.This project was conducted to determine the affects of a culturally responsible placed-based experience for Native American elementary students. The students were exposed to two place-based experiences with the central theme of the traditional Crow uses of buffalo. The place-based experiences included a Tribal Elder guest speaker and a field trip to a battlefield museum and buffalo jump. The results indicated that both student and parents gained a greater appreciation for native Crow culture as a result of the place-based experiences.Item A forest for every classroom : place-based professional development through the seasons(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Curtis, Janeen Suzanne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Educators from western Montana participated in a year-long series of place-based professional development workshops that aimed to give them the skills to more fully incorporate their local place into their teaching. Pre and post surveys and interviews were used to assess the effect of the program on the teachers' place based knowledge and teaching practices. Teachers were found to have greater knowledge of their local environment, to teach more lessons outside of the classroom, to more often use local themes to organize their teaching, to more often engage students in service learning, and to more often involve community members in their teaching as a result of their participation in the program. The relationships teachers built with each other and with the workshop organizers and presenters from their community were found to be the most valuable part of the program while the program assignments were found to be the most challenging piece.