Myths, misinformation, and sensationalism. These are common enemies that directly inhibit the public understanding of science. In particular, the media is often responsible for mishandling or otherwise misrepresenting scientific information, historically and presently speaking. Many sources can combat the public understanding of science through pseudoscientific means. This includes but is not limited to religion, the media, politics, or just simple hearsay. For example, Young Earth creationism is deeply rooted in Christian theology, but the beliefs hold no scientific basis. Yet, almost half of Americans still believe in Young Earth creationism. Another such example is anti-vaccination campaigns due to fears of autism-spectrum related disorders. In this case, falsified claims were given illegitimate credibility through the media, and the claims are widely and erroneously contentious to this day. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between an individual's ability to dictate science from pseudoscience and their exposure to sensationalized media. Through means of surveying the university level population, relationships were drawn between how many pseudoscientific beliefs an individual may have versus how they interact with science and the media. The results of the survey showed a general lack of interest or care for science with more pseudoscientific beliefs, yet failed to draw a relationship between pseudoscientific beliefs and a sensationalized media.

This study explored interdisciplinary studies students‟ academic and social engagement. As the review of literature demonstrated, student engagement and satisfaction are important to retention and institutions can adopt policies and practices to foster student engagement. Because interdisciplinary studies programs often struggle to maintain relevance, fostering student engagement is one way to ensure maximum student satisfaction and retention. This study identified factors of student engagement that were positively related to satisfaction and confirmed that requiring core interdisciplinary studies courses had a positive impact on engagement. A quantitative instrument, the Interdisciplinary Studies Student Engagement Survey, was adapted from the National Survey of Student Engagement questionnaire to collect self-reported responses. The following eight factors of student engagement were found to be relevant: (a) diversity-related activities, (b) shared understanding and experiences, (c) interaction with peers, (d) interaction with faculty members, (e) active and collaborative learning, (f) integrated learning, (g) out-of-class experiences, and (h) academic challenge. Respondents reported the most frequent participation in integrated learning and the least frequent participation in out-of-class experiences. It was determined that students with nontraditional characteristics tended to participate more frequently in academic engagement, whereas students with traditional characteristics tended to participate more in social engagement. In addition, enrollment in mandatory interdisciplinary core courses was found to positively influence engagement in seven of the eight identified factors. Enrollment in core courses was also positively iv related to satisfaction. Finally, all eight engagement factors positively correlated with satisfaction to some degree.

Driven by individual influences such as beliefs, attitudes, personal norms, and abilities, as well as by social influences like community norms, mandates, and the market, suburban homeowners are motivated to select and maintain a turf grass landscape. In many areas of Florida, effective suburban lawn maintenance requires regular inputs of nitrogenous fertilizer, some of which is lost to the environment, contributing to water quality degradation and ecosystem dysfunction. Reducing nitrogen inputs to aquatic systems requires a better understanding of the links between residential landscape management and the potential for fertilizer loss. This dissertation examines the linkages between the human behaviors contributing nitrogen to the suburban landscape and the resulting environmental impacts. Framed in socio-psychological theory and social marketing research, the outcomes of this dissertation contribute much needed information to the growing realm of interdisciplinary science that expands integrative theory, develops mixed methods, utilizes spatial and temporal analyses, and conducts actionable research. Using a suite of research tools, this dissertation examines relevant urban ecology questions:  What behavioral and socio-demographic variables most strongly influence individual residential landscape design and management practices?  What types of communities are more likely to contribute more nitrogen inputs?  What social constraints prevent homeowners from implementing a more sustainable residential landscape? iv  What outcome measures can be used to evaluate the environmental impact associated with landscape maintenance behaviors? Social and environmental data were collected over five years from three distinct projects to advise environmental marketing strategies and targeted communications. The research questions provided important information for water quality stakeholders and environmental marketers to prioritize strategies and target audiences based on the power of forces that are influencing landscaping behaviors. The research drew on the methods of urban ecology to understand nutrient dynamics by spatially integrating social and environmental data. It used social-psychology theory to define influences that can motivate or deter landscape management behaviors and preferences. It applied the methods of social marketing to advise implementation strategies. Completing this research involved ethnographic, social survey, and environmental quality data collection. Suburban homeowners were recruited as research participants to collect important qualitative information about individual and social forces of suburban landscape management and the perceptions of environmentally-friendly landscaping. Questions were developed to operationalize the dimensions of individual and social influences and quantitative data were collected at two different scales, regional and statewide. Homeowners were defined in terms of their polluting potential, influences and mandates as well as their potential for adopting a more sustainable landscape. The research mapped behavioral and environmental data to understand human-ecosystem linkages and recommended environmental quality indicators to continue building future outcomes. This dissertation research was conducted in three distinct projects. v The Landscape Exchange project collected telephone survey data, interview data, and ethnographic information from project participants for three years in a subdivision in southwest Florida. In the Wekiva Basin of Central Florida, the Land-water Connection (LWC) project studied sources of nitrogen by examining the linkages between human behaviors, community land use patterns, and environmental quality. In the LWC project, patch dynamics of a suburbanizing watershed were mapped to link residential fertilizer frequency with water resource impacts. By collecting socio-economic information key to understanding the households and neighborhoods within the watershed, LWC attempted to better understand and characterize polluting potential and impact. This investigation of the human-ecosystem connection provided valuable insight to the potential source contributed by residential landscape management while demonstrating a tool for visualizing human-environment interactions. Integrating data and understanding processes that are being carried out at different spatial and temporal scales requires research that crosses interdisciplinary boundaries and extends beyond simple models to understand complex causal relationships (Young et al 2006). The LWC project integrated socio-demographic data like housing age and property values, household and lifestyle behaviors, and individual application rates with environmental data such as soil nutrients and groundwater NO3 - concentrations. Results demonstrated that significant relationships existed between structural features like Homeowners Associations (HOA) and golf courses and high fertilizer frequency, but that these areas did not consistently show patterns of elevated nitrogen concentrations in ground and surface water. vi Confounding geophysical features, limited data availability, and a temporal lag between land-based fertilizer activity and groundwater nitrogen concentrations are likely. In the Predicting Maintenance Intensity (PMI) project, I collected statewide survey data from Florida homeowners and used multivariate analyses to determine if the same variables that predicted landscape maintenance intensity also influenced the odds of adopting an environmentally-friendly landscape (EFL). The purpose was to see how landscape maintenance and EFL adoption related and which human psychological or socio-economic variables predicted them. I used the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Normative Action Theory to measure the extent that individual beliefs or community influences predicted landscape maintenance intensity. Although most of the alternative hypotheses that I posed in the research were significantly related to landscape maintenance intensity and EFL adoption in the predicted direction, the findings were somewhat unexpected. This was particularly the case when comparing household’s position on environmentally-friendly landscaping (EFL) adoption and landscape maintenance intensity. I found that those who adopted EFL practices had similar landscape maintenance intensity scores as those who did not intend to ever change their landscape practices and that those who intended to do more EFL had the highest landscape maintenance intensity score. This indicated that landscape maintenance intensity was a useful measure of product inputs but did little to explain individual attitudes about EFL adoption. Similar to the findings of the Land-Water Connection in Wekiva referenced previously, the statewide PMI project also found that community norms, living in a HOA governed community and household income were significant positive predictors of high vii landscape maintenance and that environmental consciousness, awareness of consequences, and house age were significant negative predictors. Environmental consciousness and enjoying gardening significantly increased the odds of currently practicing or intending to practice EFL relative to never changing their landscape, but community norms only significantly influenced the likelihood to intend to do more EFL. Another interesting finding of this dissertation was the differences of predictive powers of variables over scales. For example, the individual scale versus the community scale of influence. EFL Adoption was related more to individual characteristics such as personal norms, attitudes about the garden, and awareness of consequences while landscape maintenance intensity was more influenced by structural differences like who was responsible for maintenance and socio-demographics like house age and income were strongly significant and community norms. The findings of this dissertation supported the concept of lawn anxiety described by Robbins (2007), regarding those who are aware of the environmental consequences, but still applied lawn care products. It would be interesting to explore the relationships further to understand why those who are environmentally aware are motivated to high maintenance regardless. From these results, it appears they are influenced by their community norms and HOA mandates. More investigation of the human dimensions of the suburban landscape is warranted. Further research on human life-history measures, perceived behavioral controls and normative influences of those who adopt alternative landscapes would help guide communications. Understanding more specifically what mechanisms are needed to enable a societal change to a sustainable landscape requires further exploration of the motives and barriers that will prevent it from happening. viii Further research is also needed to better understand suburban nitrogen system dynamics. Studies that focus at the community scale should be conducted to apply and trace residential fertilizes from the yard to the street and into aquatic systems. The use of labeled nitrogen fertilizer can be used identify fertilizer from background nitrogen. Lastly, land use planning and development must seek to rebalance the scale that promotes both environmental protection and economic growth back toward environmental protection. It has been too long tipped in favor of development pressure and short-term economic growth to the demise of our aquatic systems.

While engineering service-learning projects are seen as a favorable way for students to reinforce curricular learning while gaining cultural awareness, the outcomes of these projects center student benefits over partner community wellbeing. For these projects, and in other engineering contexts, various scholar-activists have conceptualized numerous principles and methods to center justice and equity in engineering outcomes. This research project and its associated intervention involved collecting scholarship and methods in engineering and social justice, and attempted to integrate these ideas into the practices of a local humanitarian service-learning engineering team. The collected scholarship centered around the topics of Design Justice, feminist qualitative science & technology studies, and Latin American decolonial theory. In partnership with the Engineers Without Borders Cal Poly Local projects team, following the frameworks of critical participatory action research and community autoethnography, the author spent time with the team to build relationships and facilitated presentations, dialogues, and activities around the collected scholarship. Two sets of semi-structured interviews were conducted before and after the intervention, and qualitative data was analyzed using iterative thematic inquiry. This project found that a local humanitarian engineering-service learning environment was a suitable space to advocate alternative design principles and methods, and that students expressed a desire to learn more about these topics, as well as utilize and share these resources with their friends and in other contexts such as their professional careers. Students experienced moderate amounts of success in using the collected scholarship to modify their project practices, specifically their plans for community assessment. These results imply that other spaces and organizations with an explicit focus on service or social justice may be ideal environments to attempt to implement alternative design principles, and that more efforts to enable students to learn about and share alternative principles could have lasting effects.

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This research examines how Generation Z (individuals born between 1997 and 2012) is perceived to impact the construct of societal challenges and organisational changes within the context of Western Europe. To explore their impact, the research aims to investigate their perceived role in shaping societal perspectives and organisational responses. The study is guided by Mannheim's socio-historical theory, considering shared emotional orientations, motivations, considering limitations as a result of human development. Purposive sampling was employed to select participants with specialised knowledge of Generation Z's impact. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants, including Generation Z individuals, a sociology professor, an analyst, a youth worker, an HR professional, and individuals experienced with Generation Z-related issues. Reflexivity was applied to acknowledge the researcher's potential biases due to personal context as a Gen Z member. Thematic analysis was used to extract key themes from the interview data. The study contributes to understanding how Generation Z's socio-historical context shapes their perceptions, motivations, and actions, influencing societal challenges and organisational changes. It proposes a model connecting their context to expectations and actions. The research suggests that future studies should test the theoretical framework and investigate behaviour prediction based on widespread data. The study reveals that Generation Z's impact on society and organisations stems from their emphasis on authenticity, demand for transparency, and pursuit of purpose-driven approaches. They mobilise through digital skills, transforming personal concerns into collective activism, and their integration into organisations depends on alignment with values like transparency, social responsibility, and work-life balance.

Visual information allows us to experience concepts in a way that is analogous to the real world; an image represents the semantic meaning of a concept and does so without conforming to the structural or syntactic rules of standard language. Drawing is therefore an agile form of communication, able to maneuver around barriers that impede the exchange of ideas between one profession and another where the difference in cultural dialects gives rise to translation complications. This thesis argues that the value of visual information lies not in the final, finished images, but during the creation of those images, during the action of drawing. If drawings are generally considered a form of communication, then drawing is a form of visual conversation; much like spoken language, its message unfolds as it is performed, and we make meaning from that performance. Following an exploration of the visual and cognitive systems integral to interpreting visual information, a discussion of language structure and sources of language conflict sets the stage for employing the act of drawing as a collaborative tool in cross-disciplinary settings. Proposed is a set of principles guiding this use of drawing which builds upon the research findings herein. These principles are structured to be usable by all professions, regardless of artistic background or traditional practice, and to encourage a reevaluation of drawingâ s role in the problem-solution process. / Master of Science

Background: Pediatric chronic pain is prevalent and comes with diagnostic uncertainty and biopsychosocial complexity. The literature significantly lacks evidence and clinical guidance to inform triage decisions to interdisciplinary pediatric chronic pain programs, which likely impacts timely and appropriate access to much needed interdisciplinary care. Purpose: To methodically conduct foundational investigation into triage within interdisciplinary pediatric chronic pain programs to develop a preliminary series of Clinical Decision Support (CDS) triage tools grounded in evidence to facilitate nurses' triage decision-making. Methods: A pragmatic, multi-method study was conducted and fundamentally guided by the Knowledge to Action Framework (KTA). Included studies involved: 1) A modified Delphi study to attain expert consensus on the diagnostic expectations of pediatric patients referred to interdisciplinary chronic pain programs; 2) A systematic review of multidimensional biopsychosocial tools used in the pediatric chronic pain population, guided by the Multidimensional Biobehavioral Model of Pediatric Pain; and 3) An explorative descriptive qualitative study guided by the Cognitive Continuum Theory (CCT) and the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to explore and describe the decision-making practices of and contextual influences on nurses triaging patients to interdisciplinary pediatric chronic pain programs. Findings: Following two survey rounds, the Delphi study demonstrated consensus on 84% of diagnostic items and general agreement regarding the diagnostic expectations of referred patients. The systematic review revealed six valid and reliable multidimensional biopsychosocial tools and highlighted 84 significant relationships between pain and functional interference across 11 biopsychosocial variables. The qualitative study emphasized the leading and complex triage role nurses lead in interdisciplinary pediatric chronic pain programs, and comprehensively described the triage process and determinants of the triage decision. Conclusions: Findings from the three studies have been integrated into the preliminary development of a series of CDS triage tools to be used in interdisciplinary pediatric chronic pain programs. This series offers decision guidance to accept or redirect care based on diagnostic clarity and a strategy to prioritize access to interdisciplinary care based on biopsychosocial needs. To determine clinical utility and validity of the tool, future research will target end-users to finalize tool development.

The recent abundance of data combined with the current digitalisation all over the globe has made organisations across various industries become more involved with data-driven processes. The power of data is harnessed through wrangling and analysis in order to not only create valuable insights to guide strategic decision-making but to also improve efficiency and productivity. These data-driven processes often involve combining statistical analysis with sophisticated software such as machine learning, and while it shares similarities to business intelligence or big data analytics, it truly belongs to Data Science. The field is young and ever growing with rapid developments in both the industry and in academia, but its lack of maturity has made it challenging to determine how it fares in the landscape of other fields. Academic contributions have been made towards the field's interdisciplinary nature and suggest that Data Scientists are able to extract knowledge and insights from data and turn it into action. However, the constituents of the field have seen less attention and it is still unclear what the title entails. In this thesis, the phenomenon of Data Science is explored by investigating the field's possible interdisciplinary nature and what its possible constituents might be. Further, this thesis investigated the practical responsibilities and duties of a Data Scientist. The thesis followed a qualitative approach that consisted of interviews with experts within Data Science, an extensive review of relevant literature, and an analysis of a current education in Data Science. The conclusions suggest that the practical responsibilities of a Data Scientist are best described according to the workflow that permeates Data Science projects. The claim of the field being of interdisciplinary nature is strengthened, and the results suggest that its main constituents are mathematics and practices related to computer science. It also includes elements from less technical domains. / Den senaste tidens överflöd av data tillsammans med den pågående digitaliseringen över hela världen har gjort att organisationer inom olika branscher blir mer involverade i datadrivna processer. Kraften i data utnyttjas genom bearbetning och analys för att inte bara skapa värdefulla insikter som vägleder strategiska beslut, utan också för att förbättra effektivitet och produktivitet. Dessa datadrivna processer innefattar ofta kombinationer av statistisk analys med sofistikerad programvara som maskininlärning, och även om det har likheter med affärsintelligens eller storskalig dataanalys, hör det verkligen hemma inom Data Science. Fältet är ungt och ständigt växande med snabba framsteg både inom branschen och inom akademin, men dess brist på mognad har gjort det utmanande att bedöma hur det står sig i förhållande till andra områden. Akademiska bidrag har gjorts för att belysa fältets tvärvetenskapliga natur och antyder att Data Scientists har förmågan att utvinna kunskap och insikter från data och omsätta det i handling. Dock har mindre uppmärksamhet ägnats åt fältets beståndsdelar, och det är fortfarande oklart vad titeln egentligen innebär. I detta examensarbete utforskas fenomenet Data Science genom att undersöka fältets tvärvetenskapliga natur och vilka dess möjliga beståndsdelar kan vara. Dessutom undersöker avhandlingen de praktiska ansvar och uppgifter som en Data Scientist har. Avhandlingen följde en kvalitativ metod som bestod av intervjuer med experter inom Data Science, en omfattande granskning av relevant litteratur och en analys av en aktuell utbildning inom Data Science. Slutsatserna tyder på att de praktiska ansvar som en Data Scientist har bäst beskrivs utifrån arbetsflödet som genomsyrar Data Scienceprojekt. Påståendet om att fältet är tvärvetenskapligt stärks och resultaten tyder på att dess huvudsakliga beståndsdelar är statistisk matematik och metoder relaterade till datavetenskap. Det inkluderar också element från mindre tekniska områden.

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