Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Developing culturally acceptable peanut nutrition bars with smallholder women farmers in Kaffrine, Senegal(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2020) Allan, Edwin Yenbono; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Wan-Yuan Kuo; Florence Dunkel, Paul Lachapelle, Sun-Hwa Kim, Aliou Ndiaye, Cullen Kinnare and Wan-Yuan Kuo were co-authors of the article, 'Developing culturally acceptable peanut nutrition bars with smallholder women farmers in Kaffrine, Senegal using participatory action research' submitted to the journal 'Agriculture and human values' which is contained within this thesis.; Aliou Ndiaye, Emily Raber and Wan-Yuan Kuo were co-authors of the article, 'Developing culturally acceptable peanut nutrition bars with smallholder women farmers in Kaffrine, Senegal using response surface methodology' submitted to the journal 'Journal of food science' which is contained within this thesis.Smallholder farming families in Senegal suffer from poverty with children deficient in micronutrients despite contributing 80% of food exported and consumed in Senegal. The aim of this study is to employ participatory action research to seek out hindrances with value-added processing and recommendations to develop a culturally acceptable and nutritious product for school-age children in partnership with smallholder women farmers in Kaffrine, Senegal. A survey was conducted with 60 smallholder farmers in the Diamal, Ndangane, Keur serigne djibel and Ngouye Siwakh communities to identify constraints to peanut farming and value-added processing. Interested male and female survey participants were invited to focus group discussions to provide depth to survey findings and develop ideas for a healthy peanut product. The survey and focus groups revealed quality seeds, farm input and income as the challenges to peanut farming and food security and access to mills and other post-harvest equipment, as community needs. The focus groups identified Quakers Peanut Butter Baked Squares as a reference for peanut product due to its similarity to local peanut cakes and selected corn flour, cowpea flour and baobab powder as healthy ingredients. From the surveys, all four communities were generally interested in value-added processing, and the women farmers identified as responsible for processing the harvest. The women were therefore selected to evaluate developed prototypes, which they found to have an acceptable taste but crumbly texture. Smallholder women farmers in Senegal, engaging in value-added agriculture, have the potential to improve farm income and food insecurity. A peanut nutrition bar was therefore developed with supports of smallholder farmers in Kaffrine, Senegal, informed with the use of healthy Indigenous ingredients and community-feasible methods gathered in the previous focus group interviews. This study used response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design to optimize the formulation for making the peanut nutrition bars. The RSM design included two formulation factors, the weight ratio of cowpea flour to corn flour, and the weight percentage of baobab powder in the cowpea-corn-baobab blend. The influence of the two formulation factors on the texture properties, nutrition profiles, water activity, and consumer acceptance was investigated. Cohesiveness and gumminess of the peanut nutrition bars were dependent on both the ratio of cowpea flour to corn flour and percent baobab powder in the mixture. Protein and folate contents were found to be dependent on the ratio of cowpea flour to corn flour and a decrease in water activity was observed with increasing percent baobab powder in the mixture. Statistical differences were not observed between the acceptance scores of peanut nutrition bars with baobab powder levels between 10-20% (w/w, d.b.), a Senegal local peanut product and an industry optimized peanut product. Formulations with cowpea flour to corn flour ratios between 50-75 and baobab levels below 20% were identified as having suitable texture, nutrition content and water activity to be easily adapted by the smallholder women farmers in Kaffrine.Item Economic analysis of the impact of free school meal access expansion on elementary school children in community eligibility provision pilot states(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2017) Gruber, Anja Felicitas; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gregory GilpinIn 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed to update and improve provisions of the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Most prominently, it introduced new meal guidelines and nutritional requirements for school meals. Additionally, it authorized the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) that became available to schools with more than 40 percent of students who are eligible for free school meals, based on federal means-tested program participation, in ten pilot states before it was authorized nationally for school year 2014-15. Schools that opt into the provision are required to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. While a number of studies have established that implementation of the provision leads to increased student participation in school meals, no study is known that empirically analyzes the impact on individual student outcomes. Student-level data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey- K: 2011 is merged with school-level data in six pilot states and a difference-in-difference model estimates the impact of CEP implementation on students' health, academic, and behavioral outcomes. No statistically significant effect of CEP implementation on student outcomes is identified. Additionally, no indication is found, that students who receive free or reduced-price meals before CEP implementation are impacted differently than students who paid full price for school meals is found. Thus, this analysis does not provide any evidence that CEP implementation in fact benefits individual students, either by means of participation increases or reductions in stigma and student body segmentation associated with subsidized school meals. Additionally, it is unlikely that schools gain financially from implementation of the provision. Consequently, this thesis questions that there are any significant returns on this public policy.Item Diverse literature in elementary school libraries: who chooses and why?(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2017) Bulatowicz, Donna Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joyce HerbeckPublished children's literature in the United States overrepresents some identities while underrepresenting others, such as people of color, LGBT people, people with disabilities, people who live below the poverty line (Crisp et al., 2016), and more. Thus, some children may not encounter text representative of their identities. As literature can assist with identity development and provide ways for children to learn about those who differ from self, the lack of diversity in children's books disadvantages children with minoritized and majoritized identities (Bishop, 2012; Koss, 2015; Lifshitz, 2016; Schachter & Galili-Schachter, 2012). School librarians function as gatekeepers through the purchase and promotion of various texts. The decisions made by these gatekeepers may enable greater access to representative literature or may limit access. This illustrative case study with a descriptive survey examines the frequency with which librarians promote diverse literature, their comfort level doing so, and how they describe the factors that impact their decisions regarding diverse text. The researcher created an online survey on Qualtrics with both quantitative and qualitative questions and emailed 1,137 elementary school librarians in Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming to request participation in the survey. One hundred and sixteen librarians completed the survey. Eight participants self-selected for interviews. Librarians felt most uncomfortable promoting books with LGBT characters, and were most likely to "never" promote these books than any other type of diverse identity listed in the survey. Two main themes emerged from this study: internal and external factors impact librarian decision making regarding promotion of diverse texts, and some librarians may self-censor purchase and/or promotion of diverse texts. This study offers insight into the factors that impact librarian decision making, as well as how frequently librarians promote diverse texts and their comfort level promoting diverse literature. The study concludes with an examination of the implications from this study, including lack of available texts reflective of LGBT identities, a possible need for training regarding intellectual freedom and the librarian code of ethics, and the impacts of budget issues. Finally, recommendations for future studies are explored, which may further illuminate this under-researched area.Item The influence of home environmental factors, socio-emotional factors and academic resilience on reading achievement(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2017) Hill, Coulter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Arthur W. BangertResearch shows that the influences of home environment, as well as social and emotional behaviors, have a significant relationship to academic achievement. Emerging research, as well as this study, shows that positive learning behaviors such as persistence, attention to task and adaption to change in routines can mediate negative influences of poor social-emotional behaviors and at-risk home environments (McTigue, Washburn & Liew, 2009). These positive learning behaviors are referred to as academic resilience, traits that are gaining increasing awareness as important to academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among social and emotional factors, home environment, academic resilience and reading achievement for third-grade students who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2004). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using Stata 14.0 (Stata Corp., 2105) was used to analyze the relationships and to answer the research questions for this study. Additionally, SEM analysis was conducted based on the third-grade model was conducted by gender, socioeconomic status, and racial groups. Social and emotional behaviors were found to have a significantly negative relationship with academic resilience and reading achievement. Home Environment was not found to be significantly related to either academic resilience or reading achievement. Academic resilience was found to mediate 33% of the total effects of negative social and emotional behaviors on reading achievement. Similar results were found for the subgroup analyses. This study highlights the importance of academic resilience behaviors for mediating the negative social and emotional factors many students struggle with every day. Results from this study suggest the inclusion of social and emotional learning in the K-12 curriculum beginning in the primary years. Such instruction can bolster behavior related to academic resilience and thus promote increased academic achievement. School administrators will need to select a curriculum that is complementary to community programs that seek to provide the same type of instruction and to meet the needs of school and community stakeholders in general. Teachers will need to reconsider instructional responsibilities to include the integration social and emotion learning into classroom instruction.Item Leadership and science achievement of afterschool students(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2016) Robinson, Jordan Ailsa; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Adolescents are driven by interactions with their peers. Social pressures can have heavy impacts on a student's academic motivation and achievement, and social development. In order to provide a space to work on having productive peer interactions, I designed a classroom research project that incorporated leadership initiatives into the enrichment activities at Teton Afterschool. Leadership initiatives used were teambuilding activities and group discussions and debriefs. Students participated in one science unit without leadership initiatives, followed by a unit where each lesson began with a teambuilder. The focus question for this project was: What are the effects of introduction leadership initiatives into enrichment time of Teton Afterschool? Data collected showed statistically significant improvements in science content quizzes and self-reported leadership confidence surveys between units. There was also a decrease in the number of disciplinary actions that had to be taken by staff during the leadership unit. Student interviews described a range of attitudes about leadership, and mainly positive attitudes about science lessons and Teton Afterschool in general. These results show that the inclusion of teambuilding in programs for upper elementary and middle school students has potentially very positive effects.Item Increasing the use of fresh, whole foods in K-12 school nutrition programs through culinary training for school food service professionals(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2015) Stephens, Lacy Nicole; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Carmen Byker; Carmen Byker Shanks was a co-author of the article, 'K-12 school food service staff training interventions: a review of the literature' in the journal 'Journal of school health' which is contained within this thesis.; Carmen Byker Shanks, Aubree Roth and Katie Bark were co-authors of the article, 'Perspectives and future directions concerning fresh, whole foods in Montana school nutrition programs' in the journal 'Journal of child nutrition and management' which is contained within this thesis.; Carmen Byker Shanks, Aubree Roth and Katie Bark were co-authors of the article, 'Montana cook fresh workshop: a K-12 school food service professional training to incorporate whole foods in school meals' submitted to the journal 'Childhood obesity' which is contained within this thesis.The purpose of this research is to develop and evaluate a hands-on culinary skills class for school food service professionals, the Montana Cook Fresh Workshop, aimed at increasing the use of whole, fresh foods in K-12 school nutrition programs. The literature indicates that scratch cooking with whole, fresh foods can help school nutrition programs meet USDA meal standards while creating healthier, more appealing meals for students. However, limited peer reviewed information exists regarding the best training approaches to provide school nutrition professionals with the necessary skills to integrate scratch cooking. To inform the development of the class, 103 Montana school food service managers and head cooks were surveyed and 12 key informants were interviewed. This formative research identified key skills and approaches necessary to integrate whole, fresh foods in school nutrition programs and specific areas to target with training. From this research, the Montana Cook Fresh Workshop was developed to address four main culinary concepts: knife skills, mise en place, use of herbs and spices, and appropriate equipment. Outcomes of the workshop were evaluated based on participant satisfaction and changes in participants' whole, fresh foods (a) cooking knowledge, (b) confidence, (c) attitude, and (d) intention to use. Participant satisfaction was evaluated with a Likert scale questionnaire and series of open-ended questions. Researchers used a pre-test/post-test design to assess participants' knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and intentions regarding whole, fresh food. For each statement assessing participant satisfaction, 96-100 percent of participants selected 'agree' or 'strongly agree,' indicating high levels of participant satisfaction. From pre to post test, participants' knowledge, confidence, and intentions to use whole, fresh food increased significantly. Attitude did not change significantly. The success and appeal of the Montana Cook Fresh Workshop supports the use of hands-on classes to address training needs of school food service professionals and overcome barriers to using whole, fresh food. With the ability to use more whole foods, K-12 school food service programs have the opportunity to offer more appealing meals that meet USDA guidelines and promote healthy food choices.Item School-based primary care : a clinic plan for Big Timber, Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 1996) Walton, Sarah L. (Sarah Lobeck); Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary K. Dempsey-NoreikaItem An interest study for a summer library program for elementary age children in Butte, Montana--1971(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1971) Griffith, Olive Marie DouglasItem Role of the classroom teacher in elementary physical education(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1960) Drew, MarianItem Dress and grooming codes of selected Iowa high schools(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1971) Robertson, John Stanley