Seeking ‘Collective Solitude’ in the Pacific: An Ethnography of Wave-Riding in Encinitas, California

For centuries, the practice of surfing has mystified the novelist, the missionary, the thrill-seeker, and the proximate spectator, alike. Though it has its roots in Polynesia, this wave-riding eventually globalized – spreading to and adapted by coasts worldwide. Through observation, interviews, and participation, this study examines the co-existence of supposedly competing notions of individuality and community as they manifest in the Encinitas (California) surfer, their community, and their pursuit of the waves. The study finds that while the individual surfer inscribes their own personal meaning on the pursuit, they (in the context of a ‘surf town’) are tied to other local surfers and the larger community by their shared passion for the pursuit and the sense of primacy for the pursuit in their lives. This cooperative duality is also found to be present in the practice itself. This project attempts to shed light on the value of supposedly peripheral (and trivial) pursuits and implicitly argues for greater attention given to them in social science research. Further, it attempts use the practice of surfing to explore larger ideas of self, togetherness, and community cohesion

The Quest to Increase Student Academic Outcomes: Actions of Two Charter High Schools

This study examined how two charter high schools located in the Phoenix area with a large population of low-socioeconomic students were able to assist students with academic success as measured through accomplishment on standardized achievement tests. Analysis of two Title 1 Reward high schools with grades 9 – 12 during the 2014 school year to determine what actions were implemented to attain high levels of student success on standardized achievement tests. Results were gathered through qualitative means from teacher, administrator, and other staff interviews and classroom observations. Findings from the study revealed how students were successful on standardized tests, how a culture of trust amongst teachers and administrators was implemented, identification of a specific set of academic commonalities was outlined that allowed for student interaction, support, and increased communication amongst between parents, teachers, and school administration, and other areas

Environmental Urgency: Apocalyptic Undercurrents In Appalachian Literature, Including All Places Thou: An Experimental Novella

Apocalyptic imagery and rhetoric appears across a variety of Appalachian literature and literature with Appalachian settings; however, comparatively little scholarly attention has been dedicated to exploring this trend, despite its provocative ecological implications. Using an ecocritical lens, I will first examine the apocalyptic undercurrent in Appalachian literature by analyzing its thematic significance to Ann Pancake's Strange as this Weather Has Been (2007) and Louise McNeill's Paradox Hill: From Appalachia to Lunar Shore (1972). I will then apply original narrative, verse, and selected artwork to a creative examination of these same thematic and symbolic trends. Ultimately, both critical and creative methodologies will indicate that apocalypticism - particularly in its contextualization of crisis in past, present, and future - provides a way for Appalachian literature to negotiate the ecological destruction and exploitation so prevalent in many parts of the region

Validating a Building Performance Simulation Model of a naturally ventilated Double Skin Facade

Double Skin Facades (DSF) are regaining popularity as a way to increase the climate resilience of buildings. Building Performance Simulation (BPS) is commonly used for their assessment, but modelling DSFs with BPS is challenging due to their complex thermophysical behaviour. Several research works have evaluated the capabilities and limitations of BPS for modelling specific DSF configurations. This work presents a validation study based on experimental data from a full-scale naturally ventilated double-skin façade, compared against results from the BPS software IDA-ICE. The study found that in periods with low solar irradiation, the different modelling strategies had a minor influence on the results, with a high agreement between measurements and simulation. In contrast, periods with solar irradiation showed a higher sensitivity to the modelling strategy, with more significant deviations from the measurement results