Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The effect of the covid-19 pandemic on backyard bird feeding habits and populations using a citizen science approach(Montana State University, 2021) Rittner, Zachary FrancisCitizen science is an effort to engage the public in scientific practice and enhance the educational experience for science students. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most residents to isolate themselves in an effort to control the spread of the disease. As a consequence, backyard birdwatching and feeding have become increasingly popular, but the ecological effects of increased supplemental feeding for backyard birds are largely unknown. Monitoring changes in the abundance of common backyard bird feeder species in the towns of Scotch Plains-Fanwood Ecosystem (SPFE), New Jersey through the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) could provide insights into motivating students through authentic, community-based learning and how changes in human behavior during the pandemic have contributed to population dynamics of the bird community of the SPFE through changes in resource availability. Students at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School participated in a minimum of 15 consecutive minutes of bird watching during the GBBC in 2020 and 2021 at locations within the SPFE. In addition, students were asked to complete a survey evaluating the effectiveness of the Great Backyard Bird Count in engaging the public through citizen science. The results indicated that fewer total individual backyard birds were reported during the COVID-19 lockdown compared to the count before the lockdown in 2020 within the SPFE. In contrast, the increases in adjusted Simpson and Shannon indices suggest an increase in species diversity by 9-21% from 2020 to 2021. The increase in diversity may be partly explained by the 25% increase in the number of feeding stations. However, the data potentially have considerable uncertainties associated with small sample size, inconsistencies in observation duration, available resources (training, equipment, available instructors, etc.), all of which are challenges typical of citizen science and working with teenagers during a global pandemic. Finally, participant feedback regarding the effectiveness of citizen science was overwhelmingly high and demonstrated clear public engagement in and admiration of the scientific process.Item Saving cultural resources by learning places!(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2021) Sulam, Barry; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Eric AustinAccording to nationally reported citations uncovered during a recent scan of the environment, little research exists examining how a grassroots effort to offer an online course in Historic Preservation might increase service learners' competency. To address this gap, launching an intervention online and conducting research to better understand service learners' experiences with their chosen cultural resource in a community context used formative assessment technologies. The researcher used a mixed-methods design to examine how online and field experiences might support more service learners' preservation activity. For example, would authentic and robust service-learning opportunities in the online course for Historic Preservation training increase the utilization of federal preservation incentive programs? Summative assessments measuring outputs lead to a contextual comparison methodology to gauge future outcomes for more resilient communities? Results suggested that diverse participants sampled technology-focused online continuing education serving as confirmatory events for continuing education programs in Historic Preservation. The enrolled service learners' online training affords them opportunities to apply theory and content knowledge to practice and contend with issues related to technology integration, preservation project planning, and management within a hybrid of virtual online learning and chosen real-world contexts. The first two years of efforts had volunteers step up to protect and reduce their perceived problems of an endangered cultural resource. The prevention of unnecessary losses of cultural resources in rural communities required affordable online assistance modeled in this dissertation can be repeated and transferred whenever service learners volunteer to help save their cherished community's cultural resources. Based on the uniquely designed IDEALS(c) curriculum, anyone can participate in these grassroots actions through online learning of historic preservation fundamentals. Useful findings can improve the design of future modules for Historic Preservation field experiences for service learners and facilitate scaffolding the opportunities to help them better integrate technologies into their professional and volunteer experiences. The pluralistic, e-democracy, technologically aided grass-root project documented in this dissertation helped others learn how to heal some of the budget cuts of late from the federal government agencies involved in cultural resources that can reduce the number of threatened historic places caring, resilient communities.Item Developing a sense-of-place in middle school students through service learning : a case study(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2001) Ingraham, Patricia JayItem Science service learning : learning in deed(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Glass, Lelia "Dale" Soutter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Many schools require community service, yet students work at a food bank or stream clean-up without understanding causes or solutions for the issues they encounter. Since students learn best when they make connections between scientific concepts and real-world issues that interest them, integrated science service learning is an effective and engaging way to teach. My fifth grade students at National Presbyterian School in Washington, DC learned about climate change through a service learning project to help the environment on campus. My class of 28 fifth-graders investigated environmental variables affecting our campus. They brainstormed ways they could help the environment and decided to focus on reducing idling in the school carpool lane. Students researched the relationship between automobile exhaust and climate change, acid rain, and health. Students crafted a tally sheet to record the number of cars and their idling times. Over an average week with pleasant weather, 35 of 165 cars (22%) which arrived early for carpool idled for a total of 509 minutes. This put out 75 kg of the greenhouse gas, CO ₂, and cost $34.00 in fuel. Students used this research to develop an anti-idling campaign, which they presented to the whole student body and posted on the school website and e-newsletter. Students showed improvement on climate science knowledge and realized typical or better marks on benchmark assessments. They also became more confident in their knowledge, moving from an average 3 before the project to an average 8.5 afterwards on a 10-point Likert scale. Students also demonstrated a change in their view of science. Before the project they drew chemists with bubbling test tubes but after the project they drew themselves as a variety of different scientists helping to solve problems in the world. This project attests that science service learning can make science more concrete and relatable, teaching students not only about the concepts and techniques of science, but its role as a tool for the public good.Item What are the effects of science outreach by college students with elementary school children?(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2011) Knutson-Person, JoDean Lynn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.This project focused on developing a service learning group of college students to do science outreach with elementary students as a win-win opportunity to increase the content knowledge of all the students involved, give the college students the opportunity to empower the elementary students, and fulfill some of the needs of the college awareness program at an elementary school. Analysis of this project was completed using results from pre- and post-outreach experience questionnaires as a way to establish demographic information of the participants, get comparative awareness and interest of college and science information, and find some common points to make connections between the groups of students. Questionnaires were also used for the classroom teachers to understand how outreach benefited their classroom. Journals were utilized with college students as well as wrap-up meetings after each outreach experience in order to document personal experiences both as a mentor as well as students growing in their own content mastery. I also kept notes of the experience from my viewpoint.Item The impact of service-learning on 'at risk' high school biology students(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2011) Dayton-Wolf, Joann; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Students who may not graduate with their peer cohort are deemed "at risk." This investigation studied the effect of service- learning on attendance, attitude, and achievement of at- risk high school biology students. Students participated in two community service- learning projects: raising trout for release into local streams and/or implementing a vegetable garden on high school property. Data collected included attendance records of students both prior to the projects and during the projects. Surveys and interviews were conducted to assess the confidence factor, and pre- and post-project content questions were administered to assess the achievement portion of the research. An improvement in confidence or attitude was documented, but it did not correlate to a significant improvement in attendance or achievement. Therefore, the results are inconclusive and indicate a longer-term study is warranted.