I have been going through my articles and books that I found my initial information to see which information will help in answering my research question. I have found an interesting point of view from the book, Teaching for the Commons: Place, Pride, and the Renewal of Community. As my focus has shifted slightly from studying a teaching style purely created for this research to place-based education, I have been looking more for articles  that describe a more local approach to educating students.

In this book, written by Paul Theobald, I have found information about schools that implement a place-based education in their own classrooms. This is supposed to help the students to revitalize their eagerness to learn, but also to renew the surrounding community as it mentions in the title. Place-based learning is all about involving the whole community, to bring together the different resources that are offered and show students how they can help and apply knowledge that they learn in school to the outside world. This is not incredibly new to me however, so the most interesting aspect for me in utilizing this text is to research and study the way that the surrounding community also benefits from this kind of educational implementation. My research question is solely about the community building and academic success of the students. However, I believe that the information I could learn from this text about how a place-based education not only benefits students and the classroom community, but also the outside community, will give my work more of a persuasive tone. This is to convince schools and communities about the true worth of a place based education so that my work will not just be read, it will be analyzed and accepted, hopefully, into other communities and classrooms.

The next articles I would like to find will be more about statistics and documented information about different factors that researchers have found to help boost the test scores and academic success of elementary school students.

Citation:

Theobald, Paul. Teaching the Commons: Place, Pride, and the Renewal of Westview                       Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301-2877., 1997. Print.

The journal article I found this week that relates to my research topic is titled “Gender and Violence Risk Assessment in Prison” written by Janet Warren, James Wellbeloved-Stone, Park Dietz, and Sara Millspaugh. The study examines “violence perpetuated during incarceration by female and male inmates”. They looked into 3 types of violence: threatened, physical, and sexual. They measured these types of violence in 2 ways: inmate self-report and formal institutional fractions. This study also seeks to assess the risk of prison violence for future references and either prevent it from happening or reduce the occurrence of it. This is especially true in the case of sexual assault in prisons in an effort to prevent, detect, and respond to prison rape. The study design  examines the effect of gender on violence risk assessments. They researched the perpetration of violence by male and female inmates at low-, medium, and high security prisons across 2 states in the United States. The study participants were collected through a random sample of male and female prisoners. The inmates who were interested in participating in the research were provided with an explanation of the study and asked to sign consent forms. After this, the investigators interviewed the selected inmates. These interviews took about 3.5 hours each. The other data that the investigators collected came from either self reported physical fights by the inmates themselves, or through surveys/ questionnaires that asked about sexual violence. They used statistical analysis and input it in a chart to analyze the data. However, race was not taken into account when they collected this data. I think the research was conducted well, however it would have been interesting and possibly more enlightening to intersect race and gender in the study.

Warren, J. I., Wellbeloved-Stone, J. M., Dietz, P. E., & Millspaugh, S. B. (2017, November 27). Gender and Violence Risk Assessment in Prisons. Psychological Services. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ser0000217

I was not able to find an article in a printed scholarly journal that directly related to my topic (birthing decisions), but I found an article in The Journal of Educational Psychology that seemed appropriate enough since it is about parenting.  The article is titled “The Differential Impact of Early Father and Mother Involvement on Later Student Achievement”, and it is by Brent A. McBride, W. Justin Dyer, Ying Liu, Geoffrey L. Brown, and Sungjin Hong. The topic of the article is student success. The article explains a study that was conducted in order to determine if there is a relationship between parenting in the early stages of a child’s life and their success in the future, as well as parents involvement in their child’s future schooling. The first part of the study was to understand how involved parents were in their children’s life, and the second part of the study analyzed test scores from the schools. The type of data needed for the first part of this study was reports of acts, behavior, or events, and it was collected through questionnaires. The type of data that was needed for the second part of the study was organizational data, which was collected with private and public records. All of the data was analyzed with a program called Mplus to see if there was a correlation between parental involvement and student success.

In the questionnaires, parents were asked how often they engage with their children and their activities, the limits they set for their children, how affectionate they are with them, as well as how often they participate in school activities (e.g. volunteering, parent-teacher meetings, etc.) on a 0-5 point scale. Data about student success was gathered from the CDS (Child Development Services) standardized test scores. All of the gathered data was compared in tables. The study concluded that parental involvement in early life and school life does effect student success.

I think the study was fascinating, however I wish there was more information from the parents. Instead of having the parents answer the questionnaires on a 0-5 scale, it would have been interesting to have more detailed information. However it would be difficult with the amount of people that were involved in the study.

This article is primary literature.

Citation:

Mcbride, Brent A., W. Justin Dyer, Ying Liu, Geoffrey L. Brown, and Sungjin Hong. 2009. “The Differential Impact of Early Father and Mother Involvement on Later Student Achievement.” Journal of Educational Psychology volume 101(2). 498-508.

Sine I have decided to focus my study on mental illness, I thought it would be interesting to read an article focused on learning disabilities and anxiety. The article I found is titled, “Learning Disabilities and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis” that came from the journal “Journal of Learning Disabilities” on page 3-7. The contributing authors were Jason M. Nelson and Hannah Harwood.

Nelson, Jason M., and Hannah Harwood. “Learning Disabilities and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Learning Disabilities44, no. 1 (2010): 3-17. Doi:10.1177/0022219409359939.

This article is studying kids with learning disabilities compared to those who do not have learning disabilities to see if there is a difference in their anxiety levels. The researched 58 studies out of 533 and their results proved that students who had a learning disability had a higher level of anxiety. The articles research question is “Does having a learning disability effect ones anxiety level?” The type of data needed to conduct this study in order to answer the question is reports of acts, behaviors, and events. The type of data gathering method used by the researches was using private and public records. They researched several different databases throughout libraries from 1977 (because this was the first year learning disabilities became a special education classification) to 2007. The data method analysis used would be categorical data because they are being organized into specific groups.

I think this research was done well because they compared several different reports over a span of 30 years. They were also precisely specific with the forms of data they used. After a series of looking through hundreds of databases and articles they found 58 that met their criteria. For example, if they found a study that had used people from a previous study they would exclude it. Also if they found one that did not use a control group they excluded the study. They wanted to be sure what they were researching from past studies would be able to properly answer their research question. Something I found interesting was that they looked at students with learning disabilities and their anxiety levels to see their informant type. They wanted to know whether it was self-report, teacher, hospital, parent, ect. making the report. I found this interesting because I never thought how the answers could change because each person, including yourself sees you in a different setting. Your teacher does not see you in the same setting as your mom, but a doctor is not going to see you in the same setting as your teacher causing some answers and levels to vary.

Continuing with my topic of the challenges facing today’s American ranchers and farmers, I revisited the journal Rural Sociology and discovered yet another relevant article. In the June 2016, Volume 81, Number 2 print I found an article titled, “Environmental Harm and ‘the Good Farmer’: Conceptualizing Discourses of Environmental Sustainability in the Beef Industry” written by Anna Kessler, John R. Parkins and Emily Huddart Kennedy. In this piece, the authors analyze the struggle of producing beef while being environmentally conscious. Kessler et al. pose three research questions: “(1) What are the discourses that producers draw on to support their self-perceptions as stewards of the land, (2) how are these discourses used by producers to negotiate and reconcile their involvement in a system that contributes to environmental degradation, and (3) what are key elements to interpreting these discourses of sustainability?” (Kessler et al. 2016: 174).

In order to answer these questions, the authors analyze secondary sources while also conducting their own in-depth interviews, utilizing reports of acts, behaviors and events and focused ethnography. The secondary sources come in the form of reports of interviews and focus groups made of farmers (specifically calf and cow producers). When conducting their own personal interviews, Kessler et al. used referral sampling and accumulated a sample of 17 cow and calf producers in Alberta, Canada with whom they conducted semi-structured interviews. They assigned pseudonyms to the participants in order to remain ethical. After collecting their data via personal interviews, Kessler et al. used thematic analysis to look at repeated patters. The interviews were coded then categorized into themes.

This article provided some very interesting insights into the struggles many farmers and ranchers face when it comes to producing beef while also trying to help the environment. Focus is placed on the use of biotechnology and the debate surrounding its positive effects on the environment but negative effects on farming practices and animal welfare. Kessler et al. write on the turmoil facing farmers who want to be seen as the ‘good farmer’ and act in environmentally conscious ways while still having high levels of productivity. Many farmers are trying to find a balance and a way to be both because without a healthy environment, there would be nothing to produce. While this study focused on farmers in Canada, this is a very relevant issue in the United States as well. As people are becoming more environmentally conscious and more aware of where their food is coming from and how it is being raised, farmers and ranchers are needing to keep up with the changing demands of consumers.

Kessler, Anna; Parkins R. John; Kennedy Huddart Emily. 2016. “Environmental Harm and ‘theGood Farmer’: Conceptualizing Discourses of Environmental Sustainability in the Beef Industry.” Rural Sociology81(2):172-193.

Fairclouth, Susan C., Farkas, George, Hibel, Jacob, “Unpacking the placement of American and Alaska Native Students in Special Education Programs and Services in the Early Grades: School Readiness as a Predictive Variable” Harvard Educational Review: Fall 2008, Vol, 78, No 3, pp 498-528

Susan Fairclouth, George Farkas, and Jacob Hibel investigated the question of whether or not Alaskan Natives and American Indians were placed into special education classrooms at higher rates than other ethnic groups. Fairclouth, Farkas, and Hibel interrogated the prior research which showed Alaskan Natives and American Indians to be placed consistently in special education classrooms and special education schools at higher rates when compared to other ethnic groups. However, they found that Alaskan Natives and American Indians were actually just as likely to be placed in special education classrooms as non-Hispanic white students. The information Fairclouth, Farkas, and Hibel needed to conduct this research is organizational data to find out the ethnic backgrounds of students placed in special education classrooms within schools. They compared national data for students in kindergarten and third grade. The data-gathering method used was public and private records. They found their data in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study which was public data. They used interval/ratio data to analyze results and compare numbers of students ethnic backgrounds in schools. This research seems well done. The researchers dug deep into pre-existing research to discover that Alaskan Natives and American Indians were placed into special education at higher rates than other ethnic groups, and then challenged that by doing their own research. Their findings did not in fact mimic that of the researchers who had previously explored the topic. They also seemed to account for many confounding factors. Some of these factors included socio-economic status and test scores. It was only when these factors were controlled that they found their results. They concluded that “the strongest predictor of special education placement is a student’s academic readiness on entering kindergarten as measured by the student’s pre-reading and pre-mathematics scores”.

A second article I found related to groundwater quality was printed in the March 2013 Journal of Environmental Health, Volume 75, Number 7. The article, titled “Private Drinking Water Quality in Rural Wisconsin,” discusses a water quality study conducted of approximately 4,000 privately owned wells. Between July 1^st, 2007 and December 31, 2010, Wisconsin health department officials tested these wells for coliform bacteria, nitrate, fluoride, and 13 metals. This study was performed as part of a program that provides assistance to low income families. It is estimated that 940,000 Wisconsin homes obtain their drinking water from privately owned wells. These wells are not regulated under the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act and most of these wells have never been tested for bacteria and other toxic metals. Some homeowners are unaware of the need to conduct these tests; as a result, nearly one million families are at risk of acute and chronic illnesses that can be cause by toxic chemicals and bacteria in the water. The study found the following: (1) 21 percent of the wells had iron that exceeded safe limits; (2) 18 percent of the wells had the coliform bacteria that exceeded safe limits; (3) 10 percent of the water samples from the wells were high in nitrate; and (4) 11 percent of the wells had elevated results for aluminum, arsenic, lead, manganese, or strontium. The authors concluded that because groundwater is vulnerable to a wide variety of contaminants due to human activities such as large-scale groundwater withdrawals, mining activities, industrial pollution, chemical fertilizers, and weed killers, it is critical that private drinking water wells should be monitored regularly. They further state that local water quality specialists and public health experts need to work together to provide guidance to private well owners regarding regular testing. The goal is to protect the health of these families that are at risk due to polluted groundwater wells.

Christenson, Megan, and Gorski, Patrick, and Knobeloch, Lynda. 2013 “Private Drinking Water Quality in Rural Wisconsin.” Journal of Environmental Health Volume 75(7): 16-19.

After scouring the periodical section of the library looking for any journal article about coral reefs, I came across “Bright spots among the world’s coral reefs.” This article is about the 39 researcher who came up with new approach of finding the best coral reef conservation methods that involve studying the unusually prosperous and the much-degraded coral reef sites, and the relationship socioeconomic drivers have with those sites. This is a correlational study. The researchers obtained data from over 2,500 sites and discovered 15 bright spot sites that are two standard deviations above the expected, and 35 dark spot sites that are two standard deviations below the expected. The Bayesian hierarchical model was used to compile all the data together. Interestingly, not all the bright spots were where the researcher expected. I believed that the flourishing coral reefs would be in isolated with strict fishing laws and little human interactions, but I am wrong because the places where bright spots and humans interact have solid sociocultural institutions which involves cultural taboos and marine tenure, above average local engagement in the maintenance and management of the coast and depend on coastal resources. Also, those areas have good environmental conditions, like deep water refuges. All that was discovered using statistics and surveying local experts at many different locations and surveying data providers. Out of the 18 socioeconomic drivers, the most influential are high compliance reserve, local population growth and human development index. The places with higher human development index have better maintained reefs because those locations are wealthier. All of this is shown on stacked bar graphs for different categories involving bright, average and dark spots using p-values. What can be taken away from this research is using the data found about the relationship between socioeconomic drivers and these outlier spots can inform governments, NGOs and investors the best ways to conserve coral reefs in the most populated by humans and the least. Also, which socioeconomic drivers need to be decreased to positively influence the shape of coral reefs.

Cinner, Joshua E, Cindy Huchery, M. Aaron MacNeil, Nicholas A.J. Graham, Tim R. McClanahan, Joseph Maina, Eva Maire, John N. Kittinger, Christina C. Hicks, Camilo Mora, Edward H. Allison, Stephanie D’Agata, Andrew Hoey, David A. Feary, Larry Crowder, Ivor D. Williams, Michel Kulbicki, Laurent Vigliola, Laurent Wantiez, Graham Edgar, Rick D. Stuart-Smith, Stuart A. Sandin, Alison L. Green, Marah J. Hardt, Maria Beger, Alan Friedlander, Stuart J. Campbell, Katharine E. Holmes, Shaun K. Wilson, Eran Brokovich, Andrew J. Brooks, Juan J. Cruz-Motta, David J. Booth, Pascale Chabanet, Charlie Gough, Mark Tupper, Sebastian C. A. Ferse, U. Rashid Sumaila & David Mouillot. “Bright spots among the world’s coral reefs.” Nature 534, no. 3 (July 2016): 416-419.

The conference proceeding, Enhanced Biodegradation of Pesticides in the Environment written by Kenneth D. Racke and Joel R. Coats, is a secondary source because the authors use results from a variety of literature articles in order to reach a general conclusion on the effects of pesticides in the environment. This book also had an advisory board made up of 16 editors.
Pesticides in the soil ecosystem are not as effective in pest control as was first assumed. According to Racke microbial ecosystems are capable of rapid breakdown of any foreign organic or chemicals materials. This means the soil can clean itself from any pesticide rather rapidly, however this has caused an increased failure in pest control. Do to the resilience of the soil pesticide applicators have to apply more chemicals more often and maintain the toxicity levels in the soil for a longer period of time in order to be effective in killing pests. But furthermore, much of the pesticides that represents direct application to the soil are lost in the atmosphere. Considerable amounts of pesticides reach soils because of spray drift, runoff, or wash-off. Overall, pesticides become tangles with degradation processes that affect all abiotic organics added to the dynamic ecosystem.
This book chapter ties into my topic well, which is the effects of agrochemicals on humans. In order to understand why pesticides are causing harm, I must first understand why pesticides are widely used at such high quantities. It turns out pesticides are terrible at staying in the soil, much of it is lost to the atmosphere and a small portion of it is broken down by UV light. This is why so many pesticides are needed, because a small amount of the pesticides used are actually working. This also helps me understand that much of what is laid down is lost into the atmosphere, this means it is easy for pesticides to move through the air and end up in another location, causing unwanted effects or disease there.

Racke, Kenneth D., and Joel R. Coats. Enhanced Biodegradation of Pesticides in the Environment: Developed from a Symposium Sponsored by the Division of Agrochemicals at the 198th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Miami, Florida, September 10-15, 1989. American Chemical Society, 1990.

Jamie Nord

The article I discovered in the current periodicals section, titled “Integration of Tribal Consultation to Help Facilitate Conservation and Collections Management at the Arizona State Museum,” illustrated the action research process of updating a museum’s conservation efforts of its cultural objects.  The Arizona State Museum contains 20,000 pottery pieces, but their preservation has proven difficult and concerning for the collection managers.  Therefore, their research question was “How can the Arizona State Museum assess and execute the preservation needs of its Native American pottery collection?”  The museum submitted a grant proposal to the NAGPRA Grant Program, since approximately 5,000 of the ceramic works of art were potentially eligible for repatriations.  The proposal funded the consultation efforts with members of the local tribal communities.  The goal of these consultations was to reevaluate the museum’s curation and preservation practices and to facilitate any repatriation requests that arose during the process.  They also conducted a condition survey of the pottery and compiled it into a database.  It allowed them to determine the different needs of the objects on a large scale, such as failing adhesive joins and required storage supports.  Thus, their data took the form of expert and cultural knowledge and shallow opinions and attitudes, which incorporated both categorical and respondent-centered data analysis.  The collection was moved into its new climate-controlled storage facility with greater visibility and access to the public.  However, the NAGPRA-eligible objects did not undergo any adhesive repairs, based on the opinions voiced in the tribal consultations. These objects were placed in archival storage until any official repatriation claims are processed.

Moreno, Teresa, Chris White, Alyce Sadongei, and Nancy Odegaard. “Integration of Tribal Consultation to Help Facilitate Conservation and Collections Management at the Arizona State Museum.” Society for American Archaeology 9, no. 2 (March 2009): 36-40.