Orphan Eye

These are poems written by M. M. Wilson between the dates of August 2015 and March 2018. These poems were written in Belchertown, MA and Amherst, MA

Increasing Student Engagement and Success In Reading: a Reading Workshop Unit For Grade 7 ELA

The goal of this capstone project was to design and implement a digital reading workshop unit that is based on the Investigating Characterization: Author-Study Book Clubs (Calkins, Ehrenworth, & Wischow, 2018). This project sought to answer the question Can student-selected texts and the use of a reading workshop model improve student reading engagement and success? My early teaching experiences inspired me to consider whether or not traditional reading instruction methods were resulting in student reading engagement and success. The research studied in this capstone revealed that increasing student engagement in reading is highly reliant upon building student motivation, including student interest, allowing for student choice, and presenting literature of relevance to students. This increase in student engagement can then inspire an increase in student reading success. One model of teaching reading encompasses all of these qualities: the reading workshop. Therefore, this capstone project was designed to provide seventh grade ELA teachers with a digital reading workshop unit that will allow students to grow as independent readers and improve their academic engagement in reading, even through distance learning. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a growing demand for high-quality, online curriculum materials. As school districts nationwide have been forced to offer online learning, it is a certainty that the demand for easily adaptable, online curriculum options will continue

A Damned Set of Rascals the Continental Army vs. the Continental Congress: tensions among revolutionaries

As delegates gathered in Philadelphia in May 1775 for the start of the Second Continental Congress, many of the gentlemen present understood that independence was one possible solution to the growing problems with Parliament and King George III. Congressmen in the summer of 1775 created new revolutionary institutions to address the political crisis and they turned to the eighteenth-century culture of honor to provide guidelines for their conduct and decision-making during those turbulent times. The legislative structure of the Continental Congress and the hierarchy of the Continental Army were shaped by the honor code. The eighteenth-century culture of honor constituted a system of defining cultural assumptions and behavior that helped to create social identity, structure social interactions, and govern behavior in the political and military spheres. Although there was no consensus in the 1770s on the exact definition of honor and its role in American society, the idea of honor did provide the “social glue” that held the colonists together as they contemplated and fought for independence. I argue that personal constructions of honorable behavior caused many of the problems between Congress and the army because gentlemen in those two institutions operated under different interpretations of the honor code. When difficulties arose between Congress and the army over promotions, pensions, or congressional privilege, revolutionaries in both institutions turned to the guidelines of the honor code to resolve the disputes. The honor culture provided three options to address the tensions between the Continental Congress and the Continental army: meditation, resignation, or affairs of honor. Mediation was the most commonly used option and reveals the large friendship networks that developed between Congress and the army. A concern for honor helps to explain why disputes involving people’s intentions and reputations occupy a significant proportion of the official records of the Continental Congress. Moreover, the honor code and its application by soldiers and politicians had a profound influence on the course and ultimate success of the Revolution

An Analysis of Policies and Conservation Techniques to Reduce the Accidental Deaths of Sea Turtle Hatchlings due to Light Pollution in Broward County, FL.

Light pollution is any excessive or obtrusive man made light source which disrupts the natural environment. Hatchling marine turtles are adversely affected by light pollution and therefore unlit nesting beaches are essential habitats for all marine turtle species. In Broward County, the most significant conservation issue facing nesting and hatchling marine turtles is the amount of light pollution present on urban sea turtle nesting beaches. The reduction of hatchling mortality from light pollution is an ongoing conservation goal of the State of Florida, Broward County, and the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Project (BCSTCP). Conservation techniques and policies intended to reduce hatchling mortality due to light pollution in Broward County have included: mass nest relocation using restraining and self release hatcheries, limited individual relocation of nests, and lighting ordnances in coastal municipalities. Until the 2006 sea turtle nesting season the BCSTCP utilized a mass relocation scheme which removed nests from unsafe and well lighted beach areas to other hatching areas which were not as severely impacted by light pollution. In 2006 the use of hatcheries was phased out and only limited relocation continued. Along with limited relocation, municipalities were strongly encouraged to reduce light pollution. Comparisons will be made based on the 2003-2008 nesting seasons determine which policies and conservation tools were the most effective at reducing hatchling mortality due to light pollution. This study tested the following hypotheses: (1) there has been no significant decrease in light pollution in Broward County, (2) there has been no significant decrease in disoriented hatchlings on Broward County beaches, (3) recent changes to relocation techniques have not improved hatchling production with in Broward County. Results showed that the despite efforts by municipalities no overall reduction in light pollution has occurred. Initially hatchling disorientation events and the number of disoriented hatchlings increased after the policy change but have decreased during the most recent nesting season. Limited relocation yields a higher hatchling success rate then mass relocation. Although some improvements have been made light pollution control and reduction is still needed in order to reduce the accidental deaths of hatchlings due to disorientation

Luther and the Jews: An Exposition Directed to Christians on Martin Luther\u27s Anti-Semitism, Defense, and Legacy

This thesis is an analysis of the historical relations between reformer Martin Luther and the Jewish people. Its primary purpose is to defend Luther’s image as a prominent figure in Christian history while considering the possibility of his anti-Semitic views. This thesis focuses particularly on a number of Luther’s written works in order to achieve this goal, with a secondary concentration on historical and incidental defenses that can be used to exonerate him. This thesis also serves to inform contemporary Christians of the controversy surrounding these views and the result of his legacy in more recent centuries

Understanding the transition from dispersive larva to benthic adult: A study of the environmental factors that impact Kelletia kelletii larval settlement

There is a paucity of information concerning the growth, development, and behavior of early life history stages of Kelletia kelletii, a marine predatory gastropod and emerging fisheries species. This is a significant barrier to our current understanding of the population dynamics of this species, as the early life stages are responsible for the dispersion of individuals. For this project, Kelletia kelletii specimen were collected and spawned, their egg capsules incubated, and their larvae reared in a laboratory setting. We measured the size of individual larvae at each developmental stage within the capsule, and fit several growth functions to the data. We analyzed the fit of these functions and selected the best-fit function to represent the intra-capsular growth of the ‘veliger’ developmental stage. I disseminated our results as an educational poster for K-12 students at the Central Coast Aquarium, and I am writing up this project for my senior thesis. I also aim present our results at the COSAM Undergraduate Research Conference. The protocol, equipment, experience and set of observations compiled by this project can be used in future studies which require gastropod larval culture, and our results and observations can be used to better understand the dispersal timeline of this species. Further, we established a base growth rate which can be utilized in future studies evaluating changes in growth rate in altered environmental conditions. Future directions which would expound upon this project include a more robust quantification of the incubation period, assessing veliger growth rates as a function of environmental condition, and incorporating both into dispersal and population connectivity models for Kelletia kelletii

The Feasibility of Counting Songbirds Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Obtaining unbiased survey data for vocal bird species is inherently challenging due to observer biases, habitat coverage biases, and logistical constraints. We propose that combining bioacoustic monitoring with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology could reduce some of these biases and allow bird surveys to be conducted in less accessible areas. We tested the feasibility of the UAV approach to songbird surveys using a low-cost quadcopter with a simple, lightweight recorder suspended 8 m below the vehicle. In a field experiment using playback of bird recordings, we found that small variations in UAV altitude (it hovered at 28, 48, and 68 m) didn\u27t have a significant effect on detections by the recorder attached to the UAV, and we found that the detection radius of our equipment was comparable with detection radii of standard point counts. We then field tested our equipment, comparing songbird detections from our UAV-mounted recorder with standard point-count data from 51 count stations. We found that the number of birds per point on UAV counts was comparable with standard counts for most species, but there were significant underestimates for some—specifically, issues of song masking for a species with a low-frequency song, the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura); and underestimation of the abundance of a species that was found in very high densities, the Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). Species richness was lower on UAV counts (mean = 5.6 species point−1) than on standard counts (8.3 species point−1), but only slightly lower than on standard counts if nonaudible detections are omitted (6.5 species point−1). Excessive UAV noise is a major hurdle to using UAVs for bioacoustic monitoring, but we are optimistic that technological innovations to reduce motor and rotor noise will significantly reduce this issue. We conclude that UAV-based bioacoustic monitoring holds great promise, and we urge other researchers to consider further experimentation to refine techniques

Online Mapping Tools for Geolocating Amish Settlements

This technical note demonstrates the value of using online mapping tools as a method of geolocating Amish settlements. Primarily using freely available Bing and Google maps and published lists of the addresses of Amish ministers, we geolocated 1,362 Amish households in Ohio and 1,203 in Pennsylvania, representing about 10% of Amish households in those states. From these data we were able to derive a population density map of the Amish across Ohio and Pennsylvania. We caution that our map is merely a model and based on several assumptions, but the product is a finer resolution map of Amish distribution than has previously been published. We add that the locations of Amish schools provide another promising avenue for geolocation of Amish settlements, but we were not able to locate sufficiently comprehensive lists to include them in our analysis

Transferring Writing Skills to a 3rd Grade Music Classroom

The purpose of this action research study was to examine the use of writing skills in a third grade general music classroom. Students wrote narratives based on music they heard, used an interactive notebook to reflect on musical experiences, conducted a short composer research project and wrote a biography about the composer. The study was designed to investigate the following research question: Will the use of writing in the music classroom help the students apply writing skills from their general education classes while learning music content? The duration of the study was for an entire semester and the students attended music class once a week for forty minutes. The data collected consisted of interview questions and answers, writing graphic organizers, interactive notebook entries, student writing samples, and journal notes kept by the researcher. The results of this study revealed that the students demonstrated an average growth of 10% between their pre-writing and post-writing samples. This project encouraged cross-curricular lessons and working with colleagues outside of the music content area