Creating a Nature-Based Environmental Connection to At-Risk EBD Students in a Self-Contained Classroom

Research has shown that most students in conventional classrooms lack exposure to the natural world in the midst of the complete school day. Looking more specifically at students who have Emotional Behavior Disorders and being in a self-contained classroom can prevent ideal opportunities for the therapeutic benefits of exposure to what the outside environment can provide. The driving focus for this project is creating a nature-based environmental connection to at-risk EBD students in a self-contained classroom. Relying on the influence of biophilic design, this project utilizes many aspects of how natural features can benefit the students both emotionally and educationally. Studies have shown that students who feel more comfortable in their environment and have a sense of control will also have less anxiety. The use of biophilia and environmental education have been combined in this project to create a 10 lesson unit. Each lesson is created with the Understanding by Design format with adherence to Common Core State State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. As the unit progresses there is a steady progression of a classroom being transformed into a nature based educational setting. The goal of this project is to provide tools that students can use to improve their own classroom and build confidence but mainly to provide a feeling of safety when they are in their learning environment. These lessons can be modified for almost any grade level

Conditioned Reinforcement by Stimuli Correlated and Uncorrelated with a Schedule of Food Reinforcement

A conditioned reinforcer derives its function from a relation to an established reinforcer. Respondent views suggest that a stimulus acquires reinforcing properties because it is positively correlated with an established reinforcer. Alternatively, the information hypothesis suggests that a stimulus acquires reinforcing properties because it reduces uncertainty about the likelihood of an established reinforcer. Observing response procedures have been used to evaluate the function of stimuli positively correlated (S+), negatively correlated (S-), and uncorrelated (S1, S2) with established reinforcers such as food (with animals) or money (with humans). Verbal instructions have been shown to alter the extent to which correlated and uncorrelated stimuli reinforce responding in human subjects (Perone & Kaminski, 1992). The present experiment assessed the reinforcing function of these stimuli with subjects not susceptible to instructional control – pigeons. The pigeons earned food reinforcers by pecking a key on a compound schedule: A variable-interval 60-s schedule of food reinforcement alternated irregularly with extinction. On each side of the food key was an observing key. Observing pecks produced, intermittently, brief displays of the stimulus correlated or uncorrelated with the ongoing component of the food schedule. The reinforcing function of the correlated and uncorrelated stimuli was assessed by manipulating the consequences of responding on the two observing keys across three comparisons: (a) S+ and S- vs. S1 and S2, (b) S+ vs. S1, and (c) S- vs. S2. Consistent with respondent accounts of conditioned reinforcement, S+ functioned as a conditioned reinforcer in that is maintained responding, and S-, S1, and S2 did not

Fear of Crime and Women: an Analysis of a Paradox (Louisiana).

Research indicates that sex is the most powerful predictor of fear of crime and that women have a higher level of fear than men. A paradox arises because women have a higher level of fear but are victimized less. This dissertation examines: (1) the underlying dimensions of fear and the specific offenses that evoke fear in men and women; (2) selected social and demographic characteristics and their relationship to a criterion variable; and (3) the effect the fear of rape contributes to the differences in the level of fear between men and women. The data was taken from a larger study of victimization, fear, crime, and attitudes toward crime conducted in Louisiana during the summer of 1984. The sample was statewide and derived from drivers\u27 license holders in Louisiana. Of the number delivered, 1850 questionnaires, or 49.8 percent, were returned. Factoring the 15 offenses produced an underlying dimension of fear of crime consisting of two factors, composed of property crimes and personal/violent crimes. The first factor reflects a more generalized notion of fear. The second factor consists of variables which can be strongly associated with personal crime and are identified as crimes of personal, unavoidable harm. The criterion variable (Factor 2) was the dependent variable in a regression equation with age, income, race, education, community size, marital status, and previous victimization, controlling for sex. Age was associated with the dependent variable for both sexes. Income, community size, education, and previous victimization were associated at the .05 level for women. To determine the difference in the level of fear between men and women, a MCA controlling for sex, indicated that when the fear of rape was introduced as a covariant, there was no difference between men and women. Because fear of rape interacts with the dependent variable, each offense composing the dependent variable was examined separately using a MCA and compared with the fear of rape. The results indicated that while the fear of murder and burglary while at home explain more variance, the fear of rape shows a greater change in attitude. Implications of the findings are elaborated, and needed directions for further research are discussed

Effects of Human-Animal Interactions on Affect and Cognition

Human-animal interaction has clear positive effects on people’s affect and stress. But less is known about how animal interactions influence cognition. We draw parallels between animal interactions and exposure to natural environments, a research area that shows clear improvements in cognitive performance. The aim of this study is to investigate whether interacting with animals similarly enhances cognitive performance, specifically executive functioning. To test this, we conducted two experiments in which we had participants self-report their affect and complete a series of cognitive tasks (long-term memory, attentional control, and working memory) before and after either a brief interaction with a dog or a control activity. We found that interacting with a dog improved positive affect and decreased negative affect (in one of the two experiments), stress, and anxiety compared to the control condition. However, we did not find effects of animal interaction on long-term memory, attentional control, or working memory. Thus, we replicated existing findings providing evidence that interacting with animals can improve affect, but we did not find similar improvements in cognitive performance. These results suggest that either our interaction was not of sufficient dose or timed appropriately to elicit effects on cognition or the mechanisms underlying effects of human-animal interaction on cognition differ from effects generated by other cognition-enhancing interventions such as exposure to nature. Future research should continue to increase knowledge of the connection between nature exposure and human-animal interaction studies to build our understanding of cognition in response to animal interactions

Vorticity and divergence in the high‐latitude upper thermosphere

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95126/1/grl5327.pd

Effects of live-bait shrimp trawling on seagrass beds and fish bycatch in Tampa Bay, Florida

The use of live shrimp for bait in recreational fishing has resulted in a controversial fishery for shrimp in Florida. In this fishery, night collections are conducted over seagrass beds with roller beam trawls to capture live shrimp, primarily pink shrimp, Penaeus duorarum. These shrimp are culled from the catch on sorting tables and placed in onboard aerated “live” wells. Beds of turtlegrass, Thalassia testudinum, a species that has highest growth rates and biomass during summer and lowest during the winter (Fonseca et al., 1996) are predominant areas for live-bait shrimp trawling (Tabb and Kenny, 1969). Our study objectives were 1) to determine effects of a roller beam trawl on turtlegrass biomass and morphometrics during intensive (up to 18 trawls over a turtlegrass bed), short-term (3-hour duration) use and 2) to examine the mortality of bycatch finfish following capture by a trawl

I\u27d Offer Thee This Hand of Mine

I’d offer thee this hand of mine, If I could love thee less, But hearts as warm as thine, Should never know distress. My fortune is too hard for thee ‘Twould chill thy dearest joy, I’d rather weep to see thee free, Than win thee to destroy. I leave thee in thy happiness, As one to dear too love, As one I think of but to bless, As wretchedly I rove; But oh! When sorrows cup I drink, All better tho’ it be, How sweet ‘twill be for me to think, It holds no drop for thee. And now my dreams are sadly o’er, Fate bids them to depart And I must leave my native shore, In brokenness of heart; Then oh dear one when far from thee, I ne’er know joy again, I would not, that one thought of me Should give thy bosom pain

Use of ERTS-1 data in identification, classification, and mapping of salt-affected soils in California

There are no author-identified significant results in this report