The Evaluation of the Use of a Simulated Environment and Other Pedagogies In the Development of Critical Thinking, and the Effectiveness of Curricular Interventions in the Development of Critical Thought

Student: William Keaton, students involved: those students who consented to participate in all 6 units of IDST 2305.

This research’s purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of varying pedagogies for the instruction of critical thinking. In the body of knowledge on the development of critical thinking, specific course interventions have largely been found to be ineffective in the development of critical thinking. In this research offers an analysis of the effectiveness of pedagogies currently used in the instruction of critical thinking units offered at Schreiner University.

Particular attention is given to the experimental active learning pedagogy, using a virtual simulation used by the Logon to Logic project, in comparison other pedagogies. This research serves as the beginning of further projects, evaluating the pedagogy, and offering methods for how to in the future evaluate the results in inter and intra course differences. Based on these results, recommendations are made for further development and research.

Muhammad and Celebrities and Bear Costumes, oh my!: A Semiotic Analysis of the South Park 201st Episode Controversy

Student: Josh Shudra

On April 2nd, 2010, South Park aired their controversial 201st episode in which the prophet Muhammad was kidnapped and taken hostage.  The episode garnered controversy for its censorship because of a perceived threat against the South Park creators by Muslim group, Revolution Muslim.  My research uses a Semiotic analysis of the South Park episode and the response by Revolution Muslim from their now defunct website.  My goal is to show and explain the reasons that drove the controversy in regards to the depiction of Muhammad.

Computer Forensics Demonstration

Students: Chris Machicek, Cody Bates

We will be preforming data recovery on a flash drive that has had critical documents like programs, projects and term papers accidentally deleted or written over.  We will provide an instructional demonstration on how to do data recovery with free software and save you a big headache if something was to happen to your files become deleted. Also provide the audience with a printout containing step by step instructions on how to preform data recovery.

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By R. Garza Showcase Blogger

Computer Forensics:

So you think you lost all of you hard work. Feel like Gibbs just slapped you in the head?

The guys  in J Jackson’s IS2270 showed an amazing display with a USB drive!

It looked blank, and with a click of a few buttons, BAM! The photos were back, the word files were back!

Then they explained how people can transfer hidden information to each other.

        Let’s say you’re a criminal, or a just love computers and can’t stop learning everything they can do, and you want to send a message to a friend but you don’t want anyone to “happen” upon it. Well you can hide it in a photo without changing the photo.

• jpeg photos with an entire word document inside of it
• colors are represented as 0′s and 1′s and just by changing some of the last, insignificant, numbers you can put the document in the photo
• no noticable change of color occurs
• and as long as who you are sending it to has the extraction program, they can retrieve the information

WOW! What these guys learned is extremely valuable. Man, I want to take this class!

The Scandalous Cowboy Named Herman Cain

Student: Taylor Salaz

On October 30th  Herman Cain was approached by various news sources about 2 women who received monetary settlements after complaining that they were sexually harassed by Cain when he was head of the NRA (National Restaurant Association).

Political cartoon theory analyzes how political cartoons use graphic and comical images to change the audience’s public perception of the character in the cartoon. In order to find these persuasive elements, this study will look at the pathos, ethos, and logos appeals of rhetorical criticism used by public speakers.

Some Basic findings from cartoon A, which is analyzed in more depth later. The ethos appeal is that Cain has no credibility because he is being held back from the microphone by the secret service. The Pathos appeal is that Cain is showing the emotion of fear because he doesn’t want to say anything else into the microphone that can further ruin his reputation. The logos appeal is that Cain cannot be trusted because the statements that he said about the harassment were continually changing and not logical. Implications to this study are that each author portrays Cain in a different light thus the persuasive criticism appeals may be different from one cartoon to the next.

This Week in the Civil War

Students: Casey Wyatt, Lacey LeBleu

Texas Public Radio has recently worked with the history department here at Schreiner University on a project known as “This Week in the Civil War,” in which both Dr. Huddleston and Dr. Roethler provide daily accounts of events that took place during the American Civil War. A few students, including the two presenters, were lucky enough to become involved with this remarkable opportunity.

In our exhibit, we look at two pivotal weeks during the Civil War, specifically, September 1, 1862 through September 8, and September 16, 1862 through September 22. The American Civil War was a time of immense polarization within our own borders, so we hope to illustrate a detailed and scholarly account of fourteen particular days that shaped this collision.

Educating Students in the 21st Century

Students: Cindy Mangold, Austin Loza, Jody Rendon, Abigail Guarnero, Michelle Walton

Education EC -6  Student teachers will present panel discussion on the principles of 21st century education based on the ACOT Apple Classroom of Tomorrow , Imaginative Education, and Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs. The six member panel will address the following: 21st century skills Relevant curriculum Informative assessment Creativity and innovation Social and emotional connections Technology tools for the classroom  Students will provide theory and application for each principle and speak from the experience of working in the field for their teaching internship. Presentation will require ability to display slides and demonstrate technology.

Competition Between Tadpoles and Invasive Sailfin Mollies

Student: Jamie Burns

For my presentation I will be testing the effects of competition between Sailfin Mollies and Tadpoles in the local creeks.

Hills Like White Elephants: A One Act Interpretation

Students: MaryFrancis Benning, Ashley Jemison, Christopher Fuqua, Melony Padrone, Erin Jeffers

Abstract and Photo missing

Interdisciplinary Literacy RDNG 3309

Students: Norma Hernandez, Susie Richards

We will be presenting a poster on disciplinary literacy. As education majors we were interested in interviewing a science expert and investigating how they read content material.

 The constant comparative method was used to organize our information. The display poster will include an introduction, the method we used, the results, and the conclusion we came to, as well as strategies we developed based on the results. We will explain the process we went through to gather our information and explain how we categorized our results.

The Schreiner Youth Ecology Program

Students: Jasmine Jones, Jana Dejesus, Reyes Montes, Derek Draper, Stefany Baker

This program was designed to facilitate field surveying and research for Schreiner students on the local ecosystems in the surrounding area. From the research, an ecology based field biology program was designed targeted at middle school children of the community. Each researcher adopted a subject area or attribute of an ecosystem and developed curriculum and activities to lead eight sessions throughout the semester.

 

In the Aquatics area, students will learn about environmental processes associated with aquatic ecosystems such as predation, competition, deposition, flooding, drought, erosion, and the diversity of aquatic ecosystems and wetland types found locally. In the Entomology area, students will study the morphology of local bugs and their specialized adaptive structures. They will learn about the phylogeny of insects and interactions with other bugs, plants, and animals and take recordings in a field journal. They will observe predation, competition, metamorphosis and other life cycle concepts as they develop an understanding of the ecological niche of different insects.

In the Megafauna area, students will discover megafauna as well as the relatively minor roles these species play in ecosystems compared to much smaller individuals. We will discuss how rural faunas are augmented by domesticated, feral, and invasive species. The role of white-tailed deer as abundant megafauna in this part of Texas will also be addressed. In the Botany area, students will also design and plant a student garden, and we may also include using variables as a manipulative experiment. The students will also learn developmental processes of plant, physiology and morphological concepts, and explore the local plant life.

In the Habitat area, students will design and build a new, small-scale habitat at Schreiner University to monitor over the sessions as all of the subject area concepts come together. The students will colonize this habitat, take field notes and make observations.