Evaluating the Impact of Intersecting Research and Outreach Marine Science Programs on Elementary and Undergraduate Students

Climate change is one of the most destructive forces our ocean is currently experiencing. Despite this, many students are not taught the basics of climate change science and ocean literacy in public school systems. My work seeks to combat these deficits through educational experiences in marine science for undergraduate and local elementary students through three studies incorporating marine-science based research and outreach. (1) Through undergraduate marine science research and outreach, students enrolled for long durations or with positive mentorship increased their conceptual understanding of marine science concepts, altered their attitudes towards climate change and science, and were more likely to pursue STEM careers. (2) In an online marine science, project-based learning (PBL) setting, undergraduates increased their conceptual understanding and developed vital research and communication skills, although their attitudes towards science and climate change did not change. (3) Finally, elementary students engaged in citizen science did not exhibit any changes in their science identity or conceptual understanding, although more data is needed to fully interpret these findings. Collectively, these studies show that experiential learning can be an effective way to integrate students into marine science and help them understand the impacts of climate change. However, further research is needed to understand if PBL and citizen science specifically can be used to change student understanding and attitudes

Applying an employee-motivation model to prevent student plagiarism

A new, management-oriented model for the prevention of student plagiarism is described. The model, which was derived from Vroom\u27s expectancy theory of employee motivation, postulates that instructors can best prevent plagiarism by ensuring that students (a) understand the rules of ethical writing, (b) expect the writing assignment to be manageable, (c) expect ethical writing to lead to personally important benefits, (d) expect plagiarizing to be difficult, and (e) expect plagiarizing to lead to personally important costs. Included are descriptions of many specific strategies for each part of the model

Predictors of external whistleblowing: Organizational and intrapersonal variables

Research on whistleblowing has not yet provided a finite set of variables which have been shown to influence an employee\u27s decision to report wrongdoing. Prior research on business ethics suggests that ethical business decisions are influenced by both organizational as well as intrapersonal variables. As such, this paper attempts to predict the decision to whistleblow using organizational and intrapersonal variables. External whistleblowing was found to be significantly related to supervisor support, informal policies, gender, and ideal values. External whistleblowing was not found to be significantly predicted by formal policies, organizational tenure, age, education, satisfaction, or commitment

The perception of the glass ceiling in high technology companies

In recent years, there has been increasing concern that gender bias has prevented women from advancing as rapidly and as frequently as men into management positions. Although the number of women managers has increased, they may experience difficulty moving into upper management positions. The purpose of our research was to study employee gender and the positions held in high technology companies. A number of variables were considered which were tested to uncover the perception of a glass ceiling which may affect female employees\u27 opportunities for advancement. Using a sample of 318 full-time employees from seven different high-technology companies, the results indicated that position held was significantly different for male and female employees. The results also indicated that neither male nor female employees appeared to notice the apparent glass ceiling within their companies. Implications are discussed and recommendations provided. Key Words: Gender Bias in Position, Glass Ceiling, High Technology Compan

A Cross-cultural comparison of managers’ whistleblowing tendencies

In a global marketplace, managers often face major difficulties when it comes to handling ethical problems within a different cultural context. Whistleblowing is one possible response to ethical problems. This study considers the differences in culture between a United States sample of managers and a Jamaica, West Indies sample of managers using Hofstede\u27s (1991) theory of International Cultures. The study explores how those cultural differences may help in our understanding of the differences in reported whistleblowing tendencies