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This project study addressed the problem of alcohol and binge drinking at a local rural college campus in the Northeast United States and the lack of an effective long-term academic intervention program to address the problem. The purpose of this research study was to determine the prevalence of the problem of the alcohol abuse problem and to develop a long-term program that would respond to the problem of repeat alcohol offenders. Guided by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, which holds that transformational learning causes changes in a learner that significantly shift the pattern of a learner’s future experiences, this study examined the awareness by participants of the prevalence of alcohol abuse on the college campus and explored alcohol intervention programs. A qualitative, instrumental case study research design was used and involved interviews with 6 key professional stakeholders and 5 students. Interview transcripts were color coded and thematically analyzed. The themes that developed from the interviews revealed discrepant perspectives regarding the prevalence of the problem, and the discovery that no long-term intervention is available to students who are repeat offenders. The analysis of the data revealed the need for an increased awareness of the problem, as well as the development of a long-term program that contained an academic curriculum that addressed the problem of alcohol abuse and binge drinking for the repeat offender. This project study has the potential to revise to alcohol abuse programs and may spawn an awareness of the problem of heavy alcohol consumption. Student participation in the long-term program may offer greater student academic success and the avoidance of academic expulsion, thereby creating an important social change for those students who are repeat alcohol offenders.

The world is becoming a global place in which science, technology, engineering and mathematics hold a key to a successful future. To help secure this future it is important to engage students early with relevant curriculum that sparks interest and success in STEM fields. However, education reform occurs slowly, so this paper looked at a potential paradigm that can help to bring about change in a middle school environment that harnesses the long standing strengths of learning and education with the integration of technology to create changes in the pedagogy of learners and teachers. The study implemented a transmedia STEM book and evaluated the impact it had on student perceptions of STEM, school attitude, academic achievement, and preferred activity types, providing an example vehicle for change that can be adopted over time. The main findings showed that students who used a 3-Dimensional printer had higher math achievement and a more positive perception of math.

Where do beginner readers read in the English, mainstream primary school and where could they read? Emma Jane Dyer This thesis explores design for the beginner reader in Year One by evaluating existing spaces in the English primary school and imagining new ones. Three significant gaps identified in the literature of reading, the teaching of reading and school design are addressed: the impact of reading pedagogies, practices and routines on spatial arrangements for beginner readers inside and beyond the classroom; a theoretical understanding of the physical, bodily and sensory experience of the beginner reader; and the design of reading spaces by teaching staff. The study uses a design-oriented research methodology and framework proposed by Fällman. A designed artefact is a required outcome of the research: in this case, a child-sized, semi-enclosed book corner known as a nook. The research was organized in three phases. First, an initial design for the nook was created, based on multi-disciplinary, theoretical research about reading, school design and architecture. Secondly, empirical research using observation, pupil-led tours and interviews was undertaken in seven primary schools to determine the types of spaces where readers read: spaces that were often unsuitable for their needs. Thirdly, as a response to the findings of phases one and two, the nook was reconceived to offer a practical solution to poorly-designed furniture for reading in schools and to provoke further research about the ideal qualities of spaces for the beginner reader. The study demonstrates how the experience of the individual reader is affected by choices made about the national curriculum; by the size of schools and the spaces within them where readers can learn; by the design of classrooms by teachers; and by regulatory standards for teaching and non-teaching spaces. In developing a methodology that can stimulate and facilitate communication between architects, educators, policy-makers and readers, this thesis offers a valuable contribution to the ongoing challenge of improving school design for practitioners and pupils.