Sul, I. D., Santos, I. R., Friedrich, A. C., Matthiensen, A., & Fillmann, G. (2011). Plastic pollution at a sea turtle conservation area in NE brazil: Contrasting developed and undeveloped beaches. Estuaries and Coasts, 34(4), 814-823. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12237-011-9392-8

http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/pqrl/docview/869817789/926B58CC9EE74EB5PQ/3?accountid=14729

The journal article that I found is titles, “Plastic Pollution at a Sea Turtle Conservation Area in NE Brazil: Contrasting Developed and Undeveloped Beaches,” by Juliana Assunção Ivar do Sul & Isaac R. Santos & Ana Cláudia Friedrich & Alexandre Matthiensen & Gilberto Fillmann.  This article is about how much beach debris were on developed and undeveloped sea turtle nesting beaches in Brazil.  Their prediction was that the plastic would be a major problem in coastal environments such as Brazil.  Their final and study question / hypothesis was that developed beaches are more contaminated by marine debris in the summer season and the types of items are directly related to local sources, such as tourism, and undeveloped beaches are less contaminated and the types of items are related to non-local sources, such as fishing and domestic activities.  They needed to collect the amount of pollution found on both types of beaches in order to compare them.  First they used region-wide sampling to characterize marine debris distribution patterns in the area.  Their next step was targeted sampling on the beaches.  After all their data was collected, they analyzed with tables and graphs to compare the pollution sources and to figure out which type of beach contained the higher amount of area covered in pollution.  Their final results was that domestic and fishing activities were accounted for 70% of debris on undeveloped beaches, and tourism activities accounted for 70% of debris on developed beaches.  I found this article helpful because I was planning on research numerous beaches and how much trash is on them.  Then figure out how many animals were affected by the pollution.  I wish this journal article went into further detail about how the debris affected the turtles.

The course blog for the University of Redlands EVST 399 / SOAN 300 course on Research Design and Methods has now reopened for the Spring 2016 Semester begins.  Students will post weekly about their literature searches, research proposals, etc.

The article “Quantifying the Presence of Written Materials and the Use of Outside Texts in Nature Centers for Environmental Education” was published in the Journal of Applied Environmental Education & Communication in September 2013. As its title suggests, the study and surrounding literature encompassed in the article focus on the availability of text books and written materials in environmental education. This is particularly interesting to me because many environmental education programs that focus on outdoor education tend to focus more on experiential education rather than using texts.
In this well-conducted study, researchers from Duke University sent questionnaires to representatives of more than 1800 nature centers nationwide. The survey asked questions about various aspects of the nature center programs, including those pertaining to location, setting, audience and goals of the nature center. The analysis focuses more on what kind of written materials are available, as well as how often outside texts are cited in those materials.
There was a thirty-one percent response rate for the questionnaires, meaning 563 individual responses were sent in to be evaluated. There were representatives from each state, leaving researchers with the following demographic: 17% from the Northeast, 34% from the Midwest, 34% from the South and 16% from the West.
The survey results concluded that 91% of nature centers carry brochures, 88% carried handouts, 85% carried books and 82% had permanent information displays. An analysis of variance concluded that region and setting (urban to rural) had to affect on what kind of resources each nature center possessed. 66% of those surveyed reported that outside sources were cited, referenced or quoted in the materials provided.
In conclusion, most nature centers provide some kind of written material for visitors, although a large amount of them (34%) do not reference, cite or quote outside materials. My personal theory is that providing some kind of textual material may help nature centers, and outdoor educators in general, reach out to a broader audience by catering to those with different learning styles. I believe it is imperative to incorporate as many outlets for learning as possible, as every person has a different preference for how to learn.

The article opens up by introducing Environmental Education as a subject. It explains the perceived importance of environmental education and the influence of a teacher’s environmental views on their students’ learning.
This article follows a cohort of sixth grade teachers in Nova Scotia who instruct environmental education. The teachers discuss their views on environmental education and its challenges. They are evaluated through interviews and a thematic analysis test. The sample size was significantly smaller than intended, however the goal of the study was to gain insight to relevant, consistent and transferrable issues that come with teaching environmental education, regardless of study population or grade level. The interviews with teachers were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.
The analysis made apparent four themes: key challenges to teaching environmental education, how environmental education is integrated into the curriculum, professional and personal environmental education values, and general understanding of environmental education.
Key challenges in teaching environmental education fell into categories of resources, time, outcome, other, knowledge and finances, in the order of perceived relevance. Having insufficient resources was the biggest obstacle for these teachers by far.
As far as integrating environmental education into the curriculum, teachers tended to agree that it should begin as early as kindergarten (which supports a good deal of literature regarding the subject) as well as integrated with other studies such as social science and social science.
The study exemplified that the teachers held high-ranked values of the importance of the environment and educating children properly regarding the world around them.
The study surprisingly found that there was a weak general understanding of environmental education among the teachers. When asked to describe it, the teachers mainly emphasized recycling, which is a very small, over-traditionalized part of environmentalism.
This article poses many relevant questions: Does this point to the idea of specialized teacher trainings on the environment? How can more money be garnered for more environmental education resources? Is it time for education reform regarding environmental curriculum? It is clear that if this study in any way mirrors modern-day teachers, change for environmental education is definitely in order.
Online link to article:
http://0-ejournals.ebsco.com.books.redlands.edu/Direct.asp?AccessToken=7DRTDT3B3ODFMMMNTI5NNRX5XLRLB3L9JN&Show=Object

Who Researched:
Sean T. Carroll, Robert H. Riffenburgh, Timothy A. Roberts, Elizabeth B. Myhre
When Researched:
Received for publication July 9, 2001
Accepted January 8, 2002
Published June 1, 2002
Research Methods Used:
-Survey- 58 questions based on the 1997 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey. These surveys were distributed to all adolescent beneficiaries that came to the Adolescent Clinic.
The survey included questions regarding eating behavior, violence, drug abuse, sexual behavior, suicide, tattoos and body piercings.
What Was Found:
Adolescents with tattoos and body piercings were found to be more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors (disordered eating behavior, gateway drug use, hard drug use, sexual activity and suicide) than those without either.
Specifically:
–Males having tattoos and females having body piercings tended to be more violent.
–Gateway drug use was associated with both tattoos and body piercings of both sexes.
–Hard drug use was associated with the number of body piercings.
–Suicide was associated with both sexes getting tattoos and body piercings at a younger age; however, it was more strongly associated with females having tattoos.
–Overall tattoos and body piercings were more common among females than males.
Body modifications can be an indication of risk-taking behaviors in adolescents. As seen above, risk-taking behaviors (as defined by the CDC) include eating disorders, gateway drug use, hard drug use, sexual activity, violence and suicide. If an adolescent is seen to have tattoos and body piercings at a young age, preventative measures (e.g. counseling) can be taken to decrease the chance of further risk-taking behaviors.

Background: Possibly the most pressing aspect of decreased biodiversity for the remaining life on earth is the potential alteration, impairment, or failure of ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem functioning refers to the total biogeochemical processes occurring within an ecosystem and is essentially, the cycling of nutrients, matter and energy. It has been hypothesized that the amount of relevant biotic traits in a community, or its functional diversity, is the most appropriate “tool” to be used when investigating ecosystem functioning, as this is the biological aspect that directly relates to the functioning of an ecosystem. One of the most commonly cited definitions of functional diversity is that of Tilman (2001) “…the values and range in the values, for the species present in an ecosystem, of those organismal traits that influence one or more aspects of the functioning of an ecosystem.” Therefore, the greater the number of species in a particular functional group, the greater the functional redundancy of the group (assuming the species within the group differ to some extent), be it an effect or response group. Functional diversity can also be used as a tool to estimate the ecological interactions occurring in an ecosystem, and the potential changes in these interactions due to changes in assemblage species composition.

Research Aims:

1) Functional traits- statistical significant functional groups of Western Australian fishes can be creates both a priori and post- hoc, based on relevant functional traits. This section includes in- depth methods and predicted outcomes

2) Changes in functional diversity within and among regions-  Functional diversity and functional groups of western Australian marine fishes will differ among regions with respect to environmental conditions and anthropogenic impacts. Also has in-depth methods and predicted outcomes.

3) Temporal variability in functional diversity- temporal variability in fish species biomass will not be observed at the functional group level; instead the relative biomass contributions of species to a functional group will fluctuate. Methods and Predicted outcomes.

4) The influence of fishing upon functional diversity- marine fish functional diversity and the relative biomass contribution of marine fishes to functional groups at the Abrolhos Islands will be altered with respect to fishing intensity.

5) Comparison of geographically isolated marine fish assemblages utilizing functional diversity- functional diversity and functional groups of marine fishes will not differ among geographically separated comparable ecosystems.

6) Predicting the effects of climate change upon fish assemblage through functional diversity- The poleward distribution change of species will be able to be predicted through the use of changes in functional response groups, and the potential regional change in ecosystem functioning approximated through the resulting changes in functional effect groups. Methods and Predicted Outcome and then references.

A Candidature Plan was formed and so was an outline of the budget. A description of fieldwork was presented and the supervisors as well.

Reference: Research Proposal for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Western Australia, 2009. Title: Environmental and Anthropogenic Influences upon Western Australian Marine Fish Functional Diversity and Functional Groups.

Dated 2007, Rush University Medical Center proposed a proposal to the Retirement Research Foundation which intended to provide physicians resource to improve their assessment of capacity of older persons. The research aimed to train physicians through an on-line curriculum. The proposal explained that an online curriculum would allow to a quick and easy access. The on-line curriculum also aims to train medical students as well, though the proposal gave the impression that physicians are the main emphasized target. With a total cost of $382,149 for the project, the requested amount came to $302,240 and the proposed length of the project was determined to be 2 years long.

The proposal holds high significance because, at least for the time that the paper was proposed, no training research existed for physicians and medical students for access to in-depth knowledge of legal, medical, psychological, and social work regarding patient capacity. The project would encompass work expertise accumulated from 130 years of experience regarding people with disabilities. The first step in the procedure of the project is to accomplish an “Environmental scan” which, as stated in the name, would scan for existing resources on capacity assessment.

The online resource would include the draft curriculum, video clips, electronic handbook, and laminated reference card. After piloting the draft curriculum, telephone focus groups will be conducted to analyze the feedback given by physicians. The feedback would serve as useful information on aspects of the training that was valued and also possible problems with the training.

The proposal explained the two objectives of the project. The first goal was stated, “Develop training for physicians on the clinical and legal aspects of capacity to improve their ability to assess patient capacity.” The second goal was stated, “Inform the national health care community that capacity training exists and easily accessible. Encourage physicians to access curriculum.” The project not only aims to enhance the assessment ability of the physicians that would take part in the training, the project also aims to expand the awareness that such training exist and that it is available on-line. The encouragement to use this training would hopefully combat the increasing issue to assess patient capacity.

This sample grant proposal was created by Kurzweil Education Systems as a guide for non-profits looking to obtain funding. It is a very thorough document that encloses a Cover Letter and Cover Page in addition to the Grant Proposal itself. One of the most pleasing things about the proposal (besides its thoroughness) is that it is divided up into sections, which I plan to utilize for my project.

(Page 1) The cover letter serves to introduce the organization, the amount requested and what the organization intends to do with the money. It serves as an introduction to engage the reader, as well as giving the basic information so that the reader knows immediately what and who the money would be going to.

(Page 2) The cover page then says the name of the organization, thorough contact information of the requestor, and date submitted. It gives the proposal a professional look and helps to spread out some of the information that would have otherwise been included in the cover letter or grant proposal.

(Pages 3-5) The proposal is then split up into sections:

Project Abstract: Provides a brief description of the organization and the specific project that the money would be going to.

Statement of need: Explains exactly why and what the money is needed for.

Program Description: Provides a more in-depth description of the program that requires money,

Description of Assistive technology: Describes the technology the grant would be helping pay for and why it is necessary for the program.

Goals & Objectives: Explains the “big picture” goals that the project aims to accomplish and why they are important

Timeline: Gives a month-by-month estimate from when the organization is notified of the (hopeful) grant until the project is completed.

Thorough Budget: An exact chart breakdown of what funds will be allocated where.

Evaluation: An explanation of how effectiveness of the project/ accomplishment of goals will be tested

Appendix: Any relevant supporting literature, supporting statements from those a part of the program, etc.

LINK TO DOCUMENT: https://www.kurzweiledu.com/files/proof_resources_grant1.pdf

Jennifer Rudgers (project leader), Kenneth Whitney and Calvin Trostle of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department of Rice University are requesting $200,000 for a 2-year research project on the ecological and evolutionary impacts of pollinator sharing between cultivated and wild sunflowers. Through a combination of observational and experimental field studies, they hope to examine the interactions between cultivated and wild sunflowers. More specifically, the research aims to study the interaction of pollinators (more often than not bees) with wild and crop sunflowers:
–Does close proximity of wild sunflowers alter behavior, composition or abundance of pollinators visiting crop sunflowers?
–Does close proximity of wild sunflowers alter sunflower crop yield?
–Does close proximity of cultivated sunflowers alter behavior, composition or abundance of pollinators visiting wild sunflowers?
–Does close proximity of cultivated sunflowers alter natural selection of floral traits of wild sunflowers?
Research will be conducted at four different locations in Texas:
–The city of Corpus Christi in collaboration with a local farmer, Charles Ring
–The city of Temple in collaboration with two local farmers
–The city of Lubbock in collaboration with local farmers
–Texas A&M facilities
These principal investigators have recruited 7 students (1 graduate and 6 undergraduate) to help with the project as well as provide a learning opportunity. These students will be given the opportunity to present their findings in the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium and at national meetings.

International Institute of Social Studies, “Education and Development in Low Income Countries: How to Improve the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Education Policies.” Accessed April 5, 2014. http://www.iss.nl/fileadmin/ASSETS/iss/Student_profiles/PhD/PhD_foto_s_pdf_s/Education_Policies_in_Ecuador.pdf.

The 1980s and 1990s were a time of social reforms in Ecuador. However, in the 80s, educational achievement worsened. Test scores fell and repetition and dropout rates rose. In the1990s the government began focusing more on education and implemented several programs in schools toward the end of the decade. Due to a changing economy, education is very important in Ecuador.

This article’s research topic is educational performance and its tie to economic development. The researchers ask “whether access to education is a sufficient condition for improvement of social well-being and economic growth, or whether further importance should be given to more educational quality.” The researchers ask three additional questions: (1) “What are the most cost-effective policies to improve school enrolment [sic]?” (2) “What type of education policies are most cost-effective to improve educational quality, both in terms of school efficiency (internal and external), and school effectiveness?” (3) “What is the political feasibility of most cost-effective educational policies?”

This study will use household capabilities and supply-side factors to answer the research question. The study will also look at student test scores. Finally, the study will look at the attitudes and opinions of important actors in the education system. The authors will create econometric models to analyze the data. In addition, they will analyze test scores by looking at test scores of a control group and a group participating in the programs that are meant to be improving the school system. While analyzing test scores, the authors will use standardized tests and control for innate abilities, family background, sample selection, etc. Lastly, the authors will take a qualitative analysis approach to analyze the attitudes and opinions of important educational actors. To analyze school enrolment [sic], the authors will use the most recent living standards measurement survey. A follow-up survey will also be used.

This research proposal did an excellent job of providing a literature review and discussing the shortcomings of that review. Then, the authors demonstrated how they planned to address these shortcomings with their research and improve upon research that is already published. Additionally, the authors did a wonderful job explaining the importance of their research, and why they felt passionate about it. This particular proposal did include a hypothesis, but it was very broad and did not address some of the detailed questions the researchers were proposing to ask. The description of the methodology could have been a little more clear and explained in more detail. The concluding section, which explained the specific contributions the authors hoped to make with this research, was a great way to conclude the proposal.