Cultivating Minds Through Food and Appropriate Technology

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

In conjunction with the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology(AT), for my service learning project, I sought to share intersectional knowledge with the HSU community and beyond of self-resiliency, while being mindful of one’s impact upon the earth through appropriate technology and food sovereignty. Students and community members worked together to construct a communal garden that included AT construction techniques and promoted ecologically sound sustainable food systems that are beneficial to the entire community. It was my goal to empower individuals to become agents of change within our global community and invoke values that promoted the well being of the environment and people.

Deconstructing political morale: The development of the political demoralization scale (PDS)

College of Professional Studies

Minimal research combines the dimensions of political morale to develop a scale that broadly measures political demoralization. Political demoralization can be described as experienced discontentment and distress within the current political system, wherein some people may feel powerless to enact change. (Clark & Kissane, 2002). The current study is the development of a scale of political demoralization, which tests its relationship between political hopelessness, political efficacy and social desirability. Analyses of the PDS demonstrate the scale's reliability and validity.

Del Norte County: A Look at Educational Achievement

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Rural communities like Del Norte County face additional challenges in obtaining a quality education compared with urban areas. According to the Rural Families Data Center, this achievement gap is due to excessive absence and truancy, low socioeconomic status, poverty, and high school dropout rates. Archival data from the last ten years was obtained from the CDE DataQuest website and analyzed to inform a report created by the California Center for Rural Policy for dissemination throughout the community. Generally test scores were lower for Del Norte and low-income students. These results show that more attention must be paid to education systems in rural communities to improve outcomes.

Designing a Measure of Academic Help Seeking

College of Professional Studies

Existing studies on academic help seeking suggest that students only seek help if they are already academically confident. To examine these findings, The Humboldt Academic Help Seeking Scale (HAHSS) was developed in order to assess student's academic help seeking motivations and behaviors. The HAHSS was found to be reliable, and provided evidence for validity with criterion, convergent, and discriminant measures. It was also found that high scores on the HAHSS were significantly correlated with higher grade point averages. Real-world applications are discussed, such as implementing more effective online help programs in order to aid students intimidated by seeking in-person help.

Detection of Trace Metals in Seawater: The Importance of UV-Oxidation

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

According to oceanographic research, trace metals are essential in life of marine phytoplankton, since many trace metals are micronutrients that are essential for biological processes. However, due to extremely low concentrations of trace metals in seawater, it is difficult to measure their concentrations; therefore, specific analysis methods must be performed in order to determine the concentrations of trace metals. Preliminary data on the effectiveness of UV irradiation to the recovery and analysis of cobalt and copper will be presented.

Developing a Database to Understand Cannabis Compliance and Quantifying California's Certified Testing Labs Preliminary Results

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

The purpose of this research was to develop an understanding of the cannabis testing regulations in the state of California. Research was conducted identifying all Certified Cannabis Testing Labs currently doing product tests. We hoped to understand what these labs were discovering in their product safety tests. Because this was the first year of regulated certification and testing the research conducted was meant to create a baseline standard from which we can judge future years' progress against. This research will also hopefully be able to be utilized by growers in the future to find out which contaminants are most common and thus identify suitable alternatives to increase compliance.

Development and Psychometric Properties of the Mobile Device Dependency Scale

College of Professional Studies

Communication through cell phones is increasingly prevalent in our society and places individuals at risk of developing a mobile device dependency (Salehan, & Negahban, 2013). The purpose of this study is to develop a measure of psychological and social dependence on mobile communication. Also, this research aims to provide reliability and validity of the Mobile Device Dependency Scale (MDDS). Participants completed four self-report surveys that showed high reliability and validity of the MDDS. This scale may provide valuable information about dependency in regard to technological advancements and the societal pressures associated with device usage.

Digitizing Stratigraphic Maps

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This project is aimed at digitizing hand-drawn stratigraphic maps of excavations from the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao (DH2GC) archaeological project in northwestern Belize. Archaeological illustration is a form of technical illustration that graphically records material derived from an archaeological context. Illustration is a powerful medium for disseminating knowledge, as it demonstrates the excavation process and captures history as it is unearthed. We use Adobe Illustrator CS3 software for the digitization process. Finished maps are used in the annual report for the Institute of Archaeology (IoA) in Belize.

Does Juvenile Life History Affect the Marine Survival Rate of Coho Salmon?

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

I created a full life cycle model for Coho Salmon in Freshwater Creek in an effort to estimate separate overwinter and marine survival rates for two distinct juvenile life history strategies.

Dymaxion Projection

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

An exploration of various spatial phenomena using the Dymaxion Projection (aka Fuller Projection).