As a senior in Environmental Studies I have chosen to complete my service learning capstone project at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) since I am one of the co-directors managing the non-profit organization. CCAT is a student run sustainable living demonstration site that utilizes appropriate technology. While at CCAT I have analyzed and critiqued how social systems and natural systems overlay one another creating a sustainable relationship. Living lighter and in tune with the local environment is not only doable but rewarding and beneficial. My service learning project has helped to fill part of the gap between where I am now and where I aim to be professionally.

Community preparedness for extreme geophysical events (floods, wildfires, etc.) is essential, especially since such events are projected to increase in terms of frequency and intensity due to climate change. For my spring 2018 capstone project I have partnered with the Red Cross to engage with their local preparedness programs. Our collaboration has allowed me to apply my GIS skills and participate in mapping their supply trailers and shelter locations, which I will overlay with additional data such as flood zones, wildfire prone areas, etc. The maps I will complete throughout the semester will provide insight regarding possible emergency scenarios and contribute to their effective planning.

Cannabis legalization in the U.S. is associated with greater usage, new cultivation methods, increased THC potency, and new modes of ingestion. Inconsistent edibles labeling and dosage control resulted in a spike in cannabis edible related emergency room admissions. This study examined negative user experiences with edibles. We conducted in-depth interviews with a nonrandom sample of 45 medical and recreational cannabis users in California and Colorado. We asked interviewees about their prior use, negative edible experience, and short and long-term responses to their bad edible experience. We coded interviews for the sources and behavioral implications of negative edible experiences.

Psychological disorders are prevalent in college students, but fewer than 25% of students with mental disorders seek treatment. One factor important in predicting help-seeking is stigma. We looked at self-stigma and public stigma as related to formal and informal help-seeking. Self-stigma is conceptualized as internalizing feelings of prejudice toward oneself while public stigma represents prejudice about mental health held by others. We hypothesized that students with higher self-stigma would be less likely to seek both formal and informal help. We further hypothesized that higher public stigma is related to lower formal help-seeking, but have no relationship with informal help-seeking.

Northern Kentucky University conducted a study in which alcoholic drinks mixed with soda & diet soda were drunk, then participants had their BAC measured with a breathalyzer. When the diet soda mixer was used, a higher BAC was measured, indicating faster metabolism. The enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, breaks down ethanol, turning it into acetaldehyde with the use of NAD+. If biochemical pathways such as glycolysis are active, the NAD+/NADH ratio will be offset and will limit the process. Since sugar substitutes don't activate glycolysis like sugar, they are essentially inert. I am in the process of determining if the sugar interacts directly with the enzyme to cause this inhibition.

This case study took place in a diverse school setting. We implemented critical multicultural literature to 3rd and 4th graders. Our question is: How do students respond to critical multicultural pedagogy and literature? We used dialogue journals, literature circles, critical dialogue, and art to build community and raise consciousness. We found that the single story approach is prevalent in schools and that multiple stories have fostered an understanding and empathy towards the diversity of struggles people face in this world. In conclusion, critical multicultural literature helps build community and empower students to be able to make changes in their community.

World of Warcraft is a story-based fantasy adventure massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which players customize characters and play through game content individually or in a group. Guilds in WoW are semi-permanent groups of players that come together with a common in-game agenda. Through participant observation and interviews, this project studies one guild within WoW, focusing on personal and group identity formation, and the relationship between perceived value and monetary/time investment. Examination of these topics builds reality within a fictional, virtual setting, and seeks to provide insight into the formation of structured subgroups within a larger society.

Given the significant increase in the production of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports within the private sector, the demand for quality information has become paramount for stakeholders. As quality assurance professionals, the accounting profession serves in the unique position to become stewards and standard-setters in the deployment of such data. This research explores the contribution academic accounting, within the research realm, can make towards addressing perfecting reporting practices within the sustainability field.

The researcher believes that using self-determination theories of autonomy, competence and relatedness will intrinsically and extrinsically motivate the study participant to achieve a predetermined goal. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of SDT on the number of jumps completed with a jump rope with a student diagnosed with phonological processing and visual motor coordination deficits within a general education class. The participant displayed incremental improvements in Intervention Phases 3, 4 and 5 but did not reach their goal during any of the five intervention phases.

Our project's goal is to utilize the Adobe Illustrator Program with artifact analysis. Using artifacts obtained from the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology project headed by Dr. Marisol Cortes Rincon. We will learn to use Adobe Illustrator to build digital images of the artifacts and create a database for them to be observed for present and future studies. We hope that our work will inspire continued use of this technique so others may be able to study artifacts in a digital and hard copy form so that artifacts can be better preserved and researched in multiple mediums and easily accessible to other scholars. This will allow for a stronger collaboration and interpretation.