Utilizing the Touch Point Math Strategy to Increase Math Proficiency

This Capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies that were integrated throughout a math intervention unit with a student receiving special education services. The capstone reports the effectiveness of four instructional strategies and two assessment strategies that were integrated into a math unit that focused on the effectiveness of touch point math as an intervention. The unit had eight lessons taught over two weeks. I will elaborate on the instructional strategies and assessment strategies and the effects they had on the students\u27 learning. I collected data throughout the implementation of lessons and found that the Touch Point math strategy, modeling, think-alouds, math manipulatives, observations, and exit tickets were effective instructional strategies. I also found that the assessment strategies positively impacted students\u27 learning and growth

Developing a Social Marketing Plan for Direct to Consumer Agricultural Operations

Since the 1980 farm crisis, the agricultural economy has continued to decline with United States farmers receiving less than 16 cents per dollar spent on food (Dunnum, 2017). As a way of combatting decreased profitability, agricultural producers are turning to direct marketing (Rainey, et al., 2011). Direct marketing exists as a social marketing in which producers develop a personal relationship with their customers (Rainey, McGraw, & Popp, 2011; Weinreich, 2011). In order to be successful in social marketing, the audience with which they are trying to reach must be determined as well as the most effective way to meet the audience’s needs (Weinreich, 2011). Focus groups is a method through which qualitative data is collected and used for marketing analysis (Weinreich, 2011). This research project involved conducting two focus groups for a direct marketing dairy farm, Creamy Hills Dairy (CHD), in order to identify the audience demographics and determine the audience preferences for marketing. Nvivo 11 was used to analyze focus group transcripts and emergent themes were identified. Within the focus groups, questions regarding consumer needs, product pricing, branding, communications efforts, and customer service were presented. Analysis of the focus group data revealed direct market consumers prefer simple, transparent marketing which allows individuals to connect with their food source and the individuals who grow that food. While budget was a concern, nutrition and quality came before price in purchasing decisions. These results indicate that CHD should include an integrated marketing plan focused on building consumer relationships with the CHD family in a way that simplifies the lives of the CHD customers. Information regarding food quality and nutrition should be shared in marketing material as a means of strengthening consumer ties to CHD

Evaluation of Energy Conservation Measures by Model Simulation

Numerous energy conservation measures are being implemented into the air handler units of today's commercial buildings. The economizer cycle has proven potential, and has become increasingly more common. Work has also been done demonstrating that hot and cold deck reset schedules, optimized according to outside air temperature, can result in significant energy savings. This paper presents a case study of these energy conservation control schemes in a dual duct VAV building on the Texas A&M campus in College Station, the Harrington Education Tower. The current system was simulated and the model used to investigate the effects of economizer cycles and optimization of the hot and cold deck reset schedules

Teaching for Career Success: An Agricultural Industry Perspective of Preparedness Needs for Diverse Workforce Development

This research examined agricultural graduate preparedness needs through the lens of agricultural industry professionals. In the rapidly changing industry environment, continual review of agricultural curriculum needs provides relevant curriculum recommendations for academic programs. This study came at a time when agricultural curriculum was in need of review. Methodology for this study involved a qualitative mixed methods approach employing survey and interview responses. A total of 121 industry professionals, identified through the University of Arkansas Bumpers College Career Development Center, were contacted with the survey link. A total of eighteen individuals completed the surveys, and of those eighteen survey respondents, eight individuals participated in one-on-one interviews as a follow up to the surveys. Over 50% of the industry professionals were graduates of agricultural programs, and the respondents represented 12 academic disciplines. The Program Systems Model served and the Human Capital Theory created the framework for this research. The agricultural graduates served as the input and output of the program system. The industry professionals provided their perspective, influencing the academic programs as a means of preparing graduates to enter the industry environment, and the educators, as the individuals who can implement curriculum recommendations, served as the target audience for this study. The research objectives for this study included determining changes in the agricultural industry impacting incoming agricultural employees, determining challenges incoming agricultural employees will face, cross comparing APLU employability needs with industry perspectives, and determining agricultural curriculum recommendations in terms of employability needs. Data was coded into themes based on the research objectives, and then emergent coding took place to identify themes within industry professionals’ excerpts. Although some variation occurred between survey responses and the one-on-one interviews, for the most part responses remained consistent across both data instruments, and the interviews further validated the survey responses. In summary, communications and leadership were at the core of curriculum recommendations, and other concern areas such as career perseverance, ambiguity, pace and change, and conflict management can be mitigated through those two-curriculum focuses. Building culture through cross-functional opportunities and building real world applications through industry interactions create ways to successfully teach prepare individuals for diverse workforce development

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Freedom and equality in democracies: is there a trade-off?

In political philosophy, economic theory and public discourse, there is a seemingly endless debate on what the essence of equality and freedom is and what relation between the two is essential to a good political order. Views range from the conviction that too much socio-economic equality jeopardises freedom to the position that a certain level of equality is necessary for the proper realisation of freedom. Building on these conflicting normative claims, we look at data from more than 50 established and emerging democracies for a period of more than 20 years to investigate whether there is indeed a trade-off between freedom and equality or whether they are mutually reinforcing. In the process, we distinguish between two types of equality – political and socio-economic. Our findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between freedom and both types of equality – even if we control for the level of economic development

A Study Designed to Investigate the Effects of Motivational Orientations and Environmental Conditions Upon Bargaining Behavior

The purpose of this study was to determine some of the possible differences in three different types of motivational orientations and two different environmental conditions in behavior in a bargaining game. Sixty undergraduates enrolled in General Psychology at Fort Hays Kansas State College were used. The three different motivational orientations were: 1) cooperative, 2) competitive, and 3) individualistic; and the two different environmental conditions were: 1) face-to-face, and 2) behind-the-screen. The subject’s task was to make one of the two choices which could be either a cooperative or a competitive choice. Significant differences were obtained in comparing responses given in the three different motivational orientations, but significant differences were not obtained between responses in the two different environmental conditions. A cooperative orientation led to more cooperative behavior than the individualistically or competitively oriented groups and the competitively oriented was least cooperative of all

Patterns of participation: political and social participation in 22 nations

"Während viele Studien auf der Individualebene eine fragmentierte, mehrdimensionale und nicht-kumulative Struktur politischer Partizipation aufzeigen, kommt dieser Vergleich von 22 Nationen Europas auf der Makroebene zum Ergebnis, dass verschiedene Formen politischer und sozialer Beteiligung sowohl kumulativ als auch eindimensional sind. So können im Hinblick auf die Partizipation Länderfamilien definiert werden. Da diese weitgehend mit jenen Länderfamilien übereinstimmen, die sich aus anderen Studien ergeben haben, eröffnet sich die Möglichkeit einer weiter reichenden Generalisierung, die vielfältige soziale, ökonomische und politische Ländercharakteristika umfasst. Darüber hinaus werden verschiedene theoretische Ansätze zur Erklärung von Ländergruppen und Partizipationsmustern überprüft mit dem Ergebnis, dass dies am besten mit einem Netz eng verwandter Indikatoren gelingt, namentlich der demokratischen und ökonomischen Entwicklung, der Regierungseffizienz, niedriger Korruption, hohen öffentlichen Ausgaben in den Bereichen Bildung und Gesundheit sowie Rechtstaatlichkeit. Diese Faktoren bilden ein sich gegenseitig verstärkendes System von Ursache und Wirkung, das in einer engen Verknüpfung mit dem Ausmaß an Beteiligung in verschiedenen Bereichen steht." (Autorenreferat)"Many studies show that political participation at the individual level is fragmented, multidimensional and non-cumulative, but comparison of 22 nations in Europe shows that different kinds of social and political participation at the country level are cumulative, unidimensional. The result is a set of country families of participation. Since these generally correspond with the country families found in studies of public policy, it raises the possibility of still higher-level generalizations covering an even broader range of social, economic, and political country characteristics. Finally, this study explores various theories explaining country patterns and families of participation and concludes that this is best done by a reference to a single syndrome of country characteristics covering democratic and economic development, government effectiveness, low corruption, high public expenditure on public personal services, and the rule of law. These factors seem to act as a mutually reinforcing system of cause and effects that are closely associated with country levels of participation of many different kinds." (author's abstract

Shifting Welfare Policy Positions: The Impact of Radical Right Populist Party Success Beyond Migration Politics

Political parties respond strategically to the electoral success of radical right populist parties (RRPPs). While previous research has focused on programmatic responses on cultural conflict issues, we are expanding the research on policy position adaption to the economic left-right issue of welfare-state politics. Actual and potential supporters of RRPPs do not only feel threatened by migration or liberal conceptions of society but are also often confronted with real or perceived socio-economic decline. Therefore, we argue that established parties do not only react by changing their socio-cultural policy offers but also by adjusting their welfare state policy positions. Based on parties' voter potentials and issue ownership theory, we investigate whether such changes are especially pronounced for left-of-center parties. Analysing data from 18 West European countries since 1985, we find that non-RRPPs indeed advocate more leftist positions on welfare state policies in response to increasing electoral support for RRPPs. This effect is especially pronounced for economically left-of-centre parties as these parties might consider this to be a promising strategy to win back voters from the populist radical right