Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The effects of guiding climate change education through a social justice lens(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2023) Arnold, John Francis; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. John GravesClimate change is one of the largest environmental and justice issues facing our world. Many young people are listening to the science and taking action, but many more are not. This project addressed climate change through exploring consequences on society, addressing public health, and impacts on societal infrastructure and stability. The social inequality of climate impacts was highlighted throughout to better engage students. Baseline, survey data was collected before we addressed climate change. After learning about public health concerns, students took the survey again and completed a short reflection. Students finished the study, after learning about impacts on societal infrastructure by taking a third survey, completing a second reflection, and with an interview. Results varied due to inconsistent participation throughout the study. Many students demonstrated an increase in understanding of climate change, but evidence to demonstrate their depth of understanding examples of people most disproportionately affected by climate change was inconsistent. Finally, students underreported eco-anxiety in survey results compared to interview results.Item Something in the Water: On the Minneapolis Music Scene(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024-05) Kennedy, JonathanMinneapolis is a paradoxical place. Despite its rich and vibrant arts community, the city has some of the worst racial disparities in the country. It’s also cold and it’s isolated, and an unlikely location for one of the best music scenes in the United States. My claim is that the tension between the city’s forward-seeming politics and its conservative reality helps to foster new and eclectic music scenes in Minneapolis year after year. I also argue that its music community remains one of the only threads keeping the city together, especially as it still recovers from the protests after George Floyd’s murder. Studying the history and the impact of Minneapolis’s music through its artists, songs, and venues reveals a traceable lineage from one music scene to the next. This reciprocity helps to explain Minneapolis’s improbable place in the larger history of modern music. I will incorporate my own experiences, living as a musician in Minneapolis from 2002-2018, alongside the experiences and the songs of other Minneapolis musicians including Bob Dylan, Prince, The Replacements for an exploration that’s both introspective and retrospective. This reveals how the indefinable “sound” of Minneapolis continues to evolve through its fluid movements and scenes, rather any stagnant periods in its history.Item Architecture's ecological footprint(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2007) Tharp, Sean Patrick; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Tom WoodA word that has become mainstream to members of the architectural community is Sustainability; but what does this word mean and why is it so popular? The root of this word is 'sustain,' which by definition means: to give support or relief to, to supply with sustenance, to support the weight of. Still, what does this mean to the architectural community? This thesis project will explore an alternative approach to design, in order to create an environmentally responsible high school, located in El Centro California. It will do more than just be "less bad." Like McDonough's approach to design, this thesis project will use nature as an example of how to design. Using strategies that allow this high school to function more like nature and strive to the ideal of a, "living building," a building that exists as if nature itself created it. These strategies will be as important to the design of this high school as other building components. They will create an outline from which the building will be designed. Using environmentally friendly strategies, systems, and technologies as the form generator for this high school will allow the building to become part of a solution to environmental issues facing architecture today, not just prolonging its destruction. This high school will be at least 30 percent better than California's energy code. It will provide enough daylight so that every classroom will function without the need for electric lights during school hours, run completely on clean energy from renewable resources. As well as convert waste or byproducts from one system into resources for another. Testing, modeling, calculations, and computer analysis will be used to prove that the design of this high school meets these goals.Item Teaching for social justice in the writing classroom : exploring possibilities(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2011) Bullard, Lisa Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Lisa EckertThis project attempts to answer one tiny part of a life-long question: how do people influence others to care about social justice? To narrow this question down, I focused on the classroom as a potential site for change, and researched pedagogical practices and classroom materials that could help teachers achieve a goal of teaching for social justice. Using Action Research, I examined the effect of using learner-centered teaching methods and relevant social justice themed content with my Writing 101 students, to assess if they would be influenced to care about a specific social justice issue. Students examined the dominant use of "Standard English" in the classroom, and the effect that can have on students who do not speak "Standard English" as their home language. I asked students to question whose language is allowed in the classroom, whose is not allowed, and who decides whose language gets to be spoken. I administered a pre and post survey, collected student writing, and used my observations to assess results. I found that many students in the course did shift their opinions. It appeared that using "adult learning centers" along with a variety of other teaching methods contributed to students' shifting opinions. This study adds to the small body of knowledge about teaching practices and materials that work towards social justice, but also points to the need for more qualitative research in this area.