A Program Evaluation of the Marilyn Friend Co-Teaching Models

This study was prompted by the continuous rise in expectations for students with disabilities to have access to the general education curriculum within the general education classroom. This study was a program evaluation on the Marilyn Friend co-teaching models that utilized Stufflebeam’s (1960) Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) program cycle at three middle schools in one upstate South Carolina school district (Social Science Space, 2017). Data were collected via teacher surveys and follow-up interviews with general education and special education teachers, middle school administrators, and appropriate district office personnel. The survey population included 31 middle school general education and special education teachers. The survey consisted of 11 questions: four multiple-choice, one Likert scale question, one check all that apply question, and five open-ended questions that addressed co-teaching training, planning, professional development, and the overall implementation of the Marilyn Friend co-teaching models. Follow-up interviews with five middle school administrators, one director of special education, and 19 general education and special education teachers helped to complete the program evaluation. Their perceptions of the Marilyn Friend co-teaching models revealed that teachers found co-teaching was beneficial for all students, but additional time was needed for planning purposes with their co-teachers. This study was grounded in Bandura’s (1994) self-efficacy theory. Findings from the survey and the interviews brought about common themes centered around the overall implementation and sustainability of the co-teaching program. The co-teaching program needs some improvements in regard to the initial training offered, professional development/coaching throughout implementation, scheduling, and co-planning to make the program most effective

Using Social Media to Assess the Impact of Weather and Climate on Visitation to Outdoor Recreation Settings

When people post photos on social media, these photos often contain information on the location, time, and date the photo was taken; all of this information is stored as metadata and is often never seen or used by the individuals posting the photos. This information can be used by researchers however, to understand the total number of visitors to parks and protected areas, as well as specific places people visit within those parks and protected areas. The first study in this dissertation reviews all the ways social media has been used to understand visitation and visitors’ experiences in parks. Researchers can connect the photo locations from social media to other datasets to understand how different factors, such as the weather or climate, influence park visitation. Weather refers to the conditions, such as temperature or precipitation, at any given place and time; climate refers to the long-term weather averages at a location, often over a period of 30 years or more. The second paper explores how weather affects where visitors go within 110 U.S. National Parks. Daily temperature and precipitation influence visitors’ elevation and distance to roads, parking areas, buildings, and bodies of water. However, the effect of weather varies in parks with different climates and landscapes. Visitors in some parks may be more able to adapt to adverse weather conditions by visiting park areas with preferable weather. In the third study, I examine how the climate of federal and state-managed public lands impact visitation by season. Across the conterminous U.S., visitation was higher in places with warmer average temperatures in the fall, spring, and winter. However, visitation was higher in places with relatively cooler average temperatures in the summer. Climate has a larger effect on visitation to public lands in the summer and winter, and in the Western U.S. Collectively, these studies provide insight into how visitation to and within parks, protected areas, and public lands in the U.S. may change due to weather conditions and climate change

The Influence of Weather on the Spatial Behavior of Visitors within Utah National Parks

Social media has been increasingly used to understand visitor use in parks and protected areas (Wilkins, Wood, & Smith, 2020). When people post photos on social media, these photos often contain information on the location, time, and date the photo was taken; all of this information is stored as metadata. Using geotagged images from Flickr, we explored how summer visitors to Utah’s national parks may vary their locations within the park based on the daily weather. We specifically looked at the elevations visitors went to within the parks, as well as their distances from roads, waterbodies, parking areas, and buildings

Bears Ears and Outdoor Recreation in San Juan County

The creation and subsequent downsizing of Bears Ears National Monument has been one of the most publicized and politicized land management decisions within the state over the past decade. However, relatively little research has been conducted to determine if, and to what extent, the creation of the monument impacted outdoor recreation and recreation-related industries. Now, more than three years after the monument was created, there are sufficient data to take a retrospective look at the influence of the monument. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the influence of Bears Ears National Monument on outdoor recreation and its related industries in San Juan County, Utah

Climate Change at Utah Ski Resorts: Impacts, Perceptions, and Adaptation Strategies

Utah sees over four million skier visits per season, which has substantial economic impact across the state. However, climate change may affect the operability of these ski resorts, which could also impact local businesses and communities. With warming temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, the future of Utah\u27s ski resort industry may be uncertain. We conducted an interdisciplinary study to understand how past weather has changed at the resorts and what climate may be like in the future. We studied this using publically available weather data from PRISM, Daymet, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and climate change projection data from NA-CORDEX. We then conducted semi-structured interviews with resort managers across Utah to understand their perceptions of climate change impacts, their adaptation strategies, and barriers to adaptation. Results show that temperatures have increased significantly at all resorts from 1980 to 2017, and that there are fewer days per season where the temperature is below 23 degrees Fahrenheit, which is needed to make snow. Additionally, snowpack is becoming more variable during the skiing season. However, many resorts in Utah are already adapting to these changes. Adaptation strategies vary by resort, with larger resorts often having more capacity to adapt. While climate change will impact all Utah ski resorts in some way, the effects will be different depending on resort characteristics and their ability to adapt

Risk perceptions and experience in child protection decision-making: a comparative study of student social workers in Wales and Aotearoa New Zealand

Decision making in child protection is the product of interacting factors between workers, organizations, families, and macro social structures. Individual perceptions of risk, safety, and harm, as one piece of this complex puzzle, are important to understand. This article reports on a comparative study of social work students in two countries: Wales and Aotearoa New Zealand. Using a mixed methods survey and a staged vignette (in which the situation becomes progressively more serious), we found there were similarities between respondents from the two countries in their perceptions of risk, safety and harm, and their reasoning processes. Beneath this broad consensus, respondents from Wales rated the level of harm to the children lower at earlier stages but were more likely to say the case should meet the threshold for statutory intervention. Risk-averse respondents were more likely to conclude the children experienced serious harm and also that the case should meet the threshold for statutory intervention. These differences largely disappeared by the concluding stage. Qualitative analysis shows that the reasoning processes used to explain risk, safety, and plan goals were similar between the two countries. Some nuanced differences emerged in relation to a risk-averse group from Aotearoa New Zealand emphasizing the importance of continuing engagement with professional services as a sign of change. Implications are discussed, particularly for workforce development and the needs of newly qualified social workers

Enhanced Retention In The Passive-Avoidance Task By 5-HT1A Receptor Blockade Is Not Associated With Increased Activity Of The Central Nucleus Of The Amygdala

The effect of blockade of S-HT1A receptors was investigated on (1) retention in a mildly aversive passive-avoidance task, and (2) spontaneous single-unit activity of central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) neurons, a brain site implicated in modulation of retention. Systemic administration of the selective S-HT1A antagonist NAN-190 immediately after training markedly-and dose-dependently-facilitated retention in the passive-avoidance task; enhanced retention was time-dependent and was not attributable to variations in wattages of shock received by animals. Systemic administration of NAN-190 had mixed effects on spontaneous single-unit activity of CeA neurons recorded extracellularly in vivo; microiontophoretic application of S-HT, in contrast, consistently and potently suppressed CeA activity. The present findings-that S-HT1A receptor blockade by NAN-190 (1) enhances retention in the passive-avoidance task, and (2) does not consistently increase spontaneous neuronal activity of the CeA-provide evidence that a serotonergic system tonically inhibits modulation of retention in the passive-avoidance task through activation of the S-HT1A receptor subtype at brain sites located outside the CeA

Communicating Information on Nature-Related Topics: Preferred Information Channels and Trust in Sources

How information is communicated influences the public’s environmental perceptions and behaviors. Information channels and sources both play an important role in the dissemination of information. Trust in a source is often used as a proxy for whether a particular piece of information is credible. To determine preferences for information channels and trust in various sources for information on nature-related topics, a mail-out survey was sent to randomly selected U.S. addresses (n = 1,030). Diverse groups of people may have differing communication preferences. Therefore, we explored differences in channel preferences and trust by demographics using regression models. Overall, the most preferred channels were personal experience, reading online content, and watching visual media online. The most trusted sources were science organizations, universities, and friends/family. Channel preferences varied the most by education level and age, while source trust was most influenced by education, race, age, and size of current residence (rural-urban). The influence of demographics varied depending on the individual channel and source, with some groups preferring certain channels or sources but not others. Results are useful to consider when disseminating information on nature-related topics to a general public audience. More broadly, results also suggest spreading information using different channels and sources depending on the specific audience being targeted