In this study food webs and a case study are used to investigate concepts which university students and high school pupils hold about ecology and the degree to which concept development has taken place at particular educational levels. The sample was drawn from first year zoology students and biology pupils in standards eight and ten. Present data indicate that students and pupils could solve problems involving the interactions of populations only if they were simple enough to be answered using strategies based on the food chain concept. Very few subjects could succesfully determine all the interacting pathways along which effects may be transmitted within a food web. The ability to determine all the pathways along which the effects of a change in population numbers within a community are spread, and to analyse the possible net manifestation of sometimes conflicting forces, requires a clear understanding of the concept of food web. An immature understanding of the food web concept by the subjects of this study is suggested as, in most cases, they identified alternate pathways within the food web when explicitly asked to do so, but did not apply this strategy when asked to solve problems based on the same principle. The case study also revealed immature ecological concepts. Responses by standard eight pupils indicate that the opportunity exists at this level to develop a clear and mature understanding of the concept of food web, while comparison of data provided by the three age groups suggests that if clear conceptual development regarding food webs does not take place at school, misconceptions are likely to persist among first year university students.

Veganism is a growing dietary trend in the U.S. and scientific evidence is showing that it may be necessary for more people to make the lifestyle change in the near future. However, previous research shows predominantly negative attitudes toward vegans among omnivores. The purpose of the present study was to measure attitude change in millennials after viewing a documentary about the environmental and ethical implications surrounding veganism in order to see if documentaries are an effective tool in changing the stigma of veganism. The study utilized a questionnaire with seven scales measuring attitude change toward vegans, animal welfare, and the environment. In addition, the questionnaire included the new ecological paradigm scale, behavioral beliefs, control beliefs, in-group meat eating identification, and perceived threat of veganism. The study implemented a pretest-posttest experimental design with two treatment groups. Each group was shown a different 35-minute segment form the documentary “Cowspiracy”. The study showed positive attitude change after watching the documentary for attitudes toward vegans and the environment. There were statistically significant results between attitudes toward veganism, the environment and animal welfare based on political affiliation. Democrats had more positive attitudes about each of the topics compared to republicans after viewing the documentary. This research is significant because it shows a possibility for creating more positive attitudes toward veganism after showing a documentary such as “Cowspiracy” to non-vegans. The results lay a solid foundation for future research in this area by establishing that attitudes have the possibility of changing after watching the documentary “Cowspiracy”. There is an opportunity for further research to take what we’ve learned about changing attitudes to apply toward behavior change with the implementation of qualitative research. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 19, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Patrick Merle, Professor Directing Thesis; Brian Graves, Committee Member; Jay Rayburn, Committee Member.

This dissertation summarizes two related research projects concerning ecology education. The first is a questionnaire survey of the topics treated and methods used in the teaching of ecology in 240 different United States colleges and universities. The questionnaire asked questions concerning subject matter content, instructional staff and teaching techniques employed in the laboratory and lecture components of Introductory Ecology courses. The second part of the research involves writing and testing a programmed book treating areas of ecology which many instructors of ecology indicated by their questionnaire responses were insufficiently dealt with in traditional ecology textbooks. These topics, which were receiving inadequate coverage, were then related to the underlying ecological facts and theories.

The purpose of this study was to determine if one hour of field instruction by a specialist would significantly increase fifth graders' knowledge and understanding of the concepts of ecological succession in abandoned fields at the Trumbull Area Land Laboratory in Trumbull County, Ohio.The research included the development of educational objectives and a curriculum to teach these objectives. An evaluation instrument was administered to a sampling of six classes before and after instruction. The results were analyzed to determine each question's discrimination index and difficulty level. A control group was utilized to measure the test's reliability.Data proved the test to have high reliability, but too high a degree of difficulty. A positive discrimination was shown on all items, but five were less than satisfactory. Three questions were shown to be invalid and none of the objectives were completely achieved. The conclusion reached was that the topic "Ecological Succession in Abandoned Fields" is too difficult to effectively convey in one hour to fifth graders at the level of understanding which the objectives were written.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Air pollution is a very critical non-natural hazard that adversely affects human health as well as the environment itself in the context of climate change. One of the biggest contributors to air pollution is the transportation industry. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation is the second leading source for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing to GHG emissions by 28%. Researchers and practitioners have been working on developing techniques to estimate and reduce transportation-related emissions by the help of various types of technologies. As such, this study aimed to investigate the effect of vehicle operating modes (i.e., constant running, idling, accelerating, and braking) on vehicle exhaust emissions in order to highlight the importance of occasionally disregarded factors that exacerbate the transportation-related air pollution problem. In order to accomplish this goal, this study adopted an approach involving two frequently used software for estimating emissions, namely VISSIM (a microscopic traffic simulation software) and EPA’s Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES). The input data required for these software was collected, processed, and introduced into the models in order to estimate the emissions. First, a corridor was simulated within the VISSIM. This corridor is located in the City of Tallahassee, Florida, which is highly congested during the peak hours, and approximately 7.7 miles long, with 22 signalized intersections. Next, the outputs of VISSIM were collected and provided to MOVES by developing an integration tool. First, average speed and volume data were provided to MOVES only for the whole corridor, and VISSIM and MOVES emissions for carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were compared. Note that VISSIM provides only emissions for CO and NOx. After observing the massive difference between VISSIM and MOVES emissions, the importance of using operating mode distribution file in MOVES was pointed out. To meet this end, the integration tool was enhanced to compute the vehicle operating mode distribution file based on second-by-second vehicle trajectory output. This was provided to MOVES in order obtain more accurate emission estimation results since only average speed and volume data could not provide accurate emission values disregarding the different vehicle operating modes. For this purpose, an algorithm, named as operating mode calculation algorithm (OMCA), was developed in Python 3.0 to create operating mode distribution input by using second-by-second vehicle trajectory data of VISSIM. This type of analysis focusing on the emissions of individual vehicles provided more accurate emission results. Now that these results were obtained, the focus of the thesis shifted towards analyzing the impact of vehicle connectedness on the air pollution. Two intersections of the selected highway corridor were modelled and simulated with a connected environment using one of the widely used vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication application called Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA). The GLOSA was implemented on the major leg of these intersections only with different Connected Vehicle (CV) penetration rates. One of the selected legs was the most congested link of the corridor. After extensive simulations, second-by-second VISSIM trajectory data were provided to OMCA, which converted them to MOVES operating mode distribution input files. Finally, MOVES was run in order to estimate carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), primary exhaust smaller than 2.5 micrometer (PM2.5) and primary exhaust smaller than 10 micrometer (PM10) emissions. Findings of the study can aid researchers in understanding the effect of different operation modes on the exhaust emissions, understanding the effect of smoother and lower number of stop-and-go driving operations in the context of the connected vehicle impact on the exhaust emission, and quantifying the potential operational and environmental benefits of connected vehicles (CV’s). / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 27, 2019. / Connected vehicle, Emission, GLOSA, MOVES, Simulation, Traffic / Includes bibliographical references. / Eren Erman Ozguven, Professor Directing Thesis; John O. Sobanjo, Committee Member; Ren Moses, Committee Member.

Many states within the U.S., including Florida, have seen steady population growth since the 1950s. While population growth can lead to economic growth, excessive growth of urban areas can lead to negative externalities such as road congestion, air and water pollution, decreased access to open space, habitat loss, and habitat fragmentation. This realization has led to increasing political and stakeholder pressure to more comprehensively assess impacts of land-use planning projects on human-natural systems. The Ecosystem Services Assessment (ESA) approach is a relatively new approach which is described in the peer-reviewed literature as comprehensive and holistic. This dissertation study researched the potential of an ESA approach as a planning tool in Florida by addressing the following research questions: 1) What are the guidelines for best practices in ESAs from the literature? 2) How are ESAs currently used in land-use planning projects in Florida? 3) How is the traditional approach used in land-use planning projects in Florida? 4) What are key differences between the ESA approaches used in the case studies and the guidelines for best practices in ESAs? 5) What are key differences between an ESA approach and a traditional approach as they are currently used in Florida? The research questions were investigated through the use of an online survey, in-depth interviews, and analysis of three Florida case studies. Experts in the field of ecosystem services research were interviewed to assess how ESAs are used in Florida and to gather background information for the online survey and case studies. The target group for the online survey included respondents working for local, state, regional, federal and tribal government agencies, non-profit organizations, research institutes, universities, and other relevant persons who had been involved in projects in which ecosystem services were valuated, quantified, or described. The case studies that were assessed for this research are the Central Everglades Planning Project, the Florida Conservation Lands study, and the Tampa Bay Project. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2015. / May 19, 2015. / Ecosystem Services, Integrated Systems Analysis, Natural-human Systems, Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Development, Valuation / Includes bibliographical references. / Timothy Chapin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Keith Ihlanfeldt, University Representative; Christopher Coutts, Committee Member; Jeffrey Chanton, Committee Member.

Since the start of the 21st century—and mostly in the past five years—Sigur Rós, Dan Deacon, Sō Percussion, and Nick Zammuto actively investigated their homes and found them to be inspiring, if sometimes difficult to confront or articulate. They wrote music resulting from their individual investigations. Certain albums, like Sō Percussion's Where (we) Live (2012) and Dan Deacon's America (2012), candidly explored place, while Nick Zammuto's Anchor (2014) obliquely referenced his family's homestead. In the case of Sigur Rós, Iceland undoubtedly has been an influence, although the band finds place-based descriptions of its music to be problematic. By identifying the musicians' senses of place—their psychological and emotional attachments to specific places—I contextualize the role that place plays in their lives and explore strategies of listening for locality within their music. Using these four groups as case studies, this dissertation explores the relationship of music and place. It also draws parallels between the groups' music and a recent ascendancy of place and public concern for the environment. I argue that the musicians in this study are producing work that coincides with an invigorated attention to location—examples of which include digitization of place, the migration of younger generations away from suburban living, and anxieties regarding anthropogenic climate change. Sigur Rós, Dan Deacon, Sō Percussion, and Nick Zammuto are thus part of both a cohort of place-conscious citizens and a bevy of contemporary musicians and composers who are exploring place. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 18, 2016. / Dan Deacon, Music, Nick Zammuto, Place, Sigur Ros, So Percussion / Includes bibliographical references. / Denise Von Glahn, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris Coutts, University Representative; Frank Gunderson, Committee Member; Margaret Jackson, Committee Member.

Many environmental campaigns use threatening messages that feature the severity of the problem and the irreversible consequences to encourage pro-environmental behaviors. However, individuals tend to respond to threatening information defensively. Defensive message processing strategies help people distance themselves from the uncomfortable feeling without actually changing the existing attitudes and behaviors. As a result, people will likely to reject the message, deny the problem, or engage in biased processing of the message instead of changing their behaviors. Thus, how to reduce defensive processing of the message is one of the major tasks in environmental communication. Self-affirmation theory suggests that by affirming alternative sources of self-integrity, individuals will be able to reduce defensive processing of messages and evaluate risks more objectively. Past research has attempted to use individual-level values to achieve self-affirmation manipulations. This dissertation examined the self-affirmation framework at a group level by investigating whether affirming the group that an individual belongs to increases the acceptance of threatening information, risk perception and behavioral intention among college students. By using the group resources, the ultimate goal of this project is to design more practical interventions that can be used in public communication campaigns. The first study tested a new manipulation with group values incorporated into the pro-environmental public service announcements (PSA). Participants were randomly assigned to view either a PSA with group values highlighted or a control PSA. Results demonstrated that exposure to information about group values could influence participants' self-efficacy, but not other variables, such as attitudes toward the PSA, perceived message strength, risk perception, or behavioral intention. Participants' environmental concern moderated the effect of affirmation on perceived message strength. For participants with low environmental concern, affirmed participants reported a significantly higher perceived strength of the message than non-affirmed participants; but for participants with medium or high environmental concern, the group affirming message did not influence participants' perceived strength of the message compared to the control message. The second study tested a more visual-based manipulation. Participants were randomly assigned to view in-group beautiful photos, out-group beautiful photos, in-group not beautiful photos, or out-group not beautiful photos, before they were exposed to view an environmental risk message. Results demonstrated that participants who viewed in-group photos had more positive attitudes towards the message and reported greater on perceived message strength, compared with participants who viewed out-group photos. But the photos' aesthetic quality did not make a difference in the outcome variables. Instead of traditional manipulations, such as essay writing, this dissertation explored two affirmation manipulations, which require no writing from audiences but achieve the goal of affirmation. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as the suggestions for future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / January 23, 2017. / environmental behaviors, group identity, public communication, risk perception, self-affirmation / Includes bibliographical references. / Laura M. Arpan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Betsy Becker, University Representative; Juliann Cortese, Committee Member; Mia Liza A. Lustria, Committee Member.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education