High school science teachers require increased skills in science research literacy, so that their students develop research competencies in the classroom (Evans, Warning, & Christodoulou, 2017; Udompong, Traiwichitkhun, & Wongwanich, 2014). For teachers to promote a scientific atmosphere, literature points to training that fosters…

Physics education research to date has predominantly focused on the undergraduate level. This has left critical avenues of research in graduate education relatively understudied and has motivated much of my research. Numerous studies across the education research landscape have analyzed undergraduate admissions practices, but few have critically…

Remote scientific research settings embody a long-term combination of extreme conditions, physical boundedness, and blurred boundaries among work, play, and sleep that challenge traditional notions of how individuals perceive and interact with infrastructure. In such settings, individuals often use creative outlets to form social bonds with…

Identification of novel fermenting yeast is beneficial to the brewing industry to develop innovations in flavor or processes. In addition, there is a growing interest in sour beers, which are traditionally produced with bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. Here, we characterize a novel yeast, lab strain 'GY7B', and its ability to…

One way to bring about change in higher education is to introduce professional development programs for higher education, however these programs have been found to be ineffective at promoting positive change for individuals and departments. To address the need for better programs, I worked on two projects: one project attempts to identify a way to…

Argumentation is a central epistemic process contributing to the generation, evaluation, and application of new scientific knowledge. A key challenge for science educators and researchers is to understand how important social dimensions of argumentation, such as collaborative sense-making discourse, can be implemented in learning environments in…

"I Wonder...Gaining Wisdom and Growing Faith Through Scientific Exploration" is an intergenerational science curriculum designed to be used in congregations. The goal of this curriculum and the theoretical work underpinning it is to counter the perception that people of faith cannot also be people who possess a scientific understanding…

Limited information exists in the Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) field regarding teachers' intent to accept brain-based teaching (BBT). The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of motivational beliefs on secondary teachers' intent to accept BBT through the lens of Social Cognitive Theory and the Technology Acceptance Model. The…

This thesis describes how intellectual boundary spanning can be identified in the written ideas of millions of scholars, and finds that such efforts encounter translational problems which can hinder faculty careers. In particular, the work presented develops textual metrics of intellectual boundary spanning (interdisciplinarity) and field…

There have been calls by the Federal government and policymakers for improvements in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education through the development of excellent teachers with the content knowledge and skills to teach and motivate students. A shared goal among teacher professional development (PD) programs is to improve…

Quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular docking methods are used to probe systems of biological and synthetic interest. Probing interactions of nucleobases within proteins, and properly modeling said interactions toward novel nucleobase development, is extremely difficult, and of great utility in RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. The issues in…

This dissertation is the result of research which examined the implementation of professional learning communities in a primary school. Professional learning communities or PLCs are groups of educators coming together collaboratively in a process of inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. While there were…

America's adult populace has failed to keep pace with the rapid inundation of science-centric advancements affecting nearly every facet of personal and public life. With deficiencies in areas of science knowledge, America's adult populace is characterized as civic science illiterate. This research constructed and employed the renewed citizen…

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders among adults in the United States. For men, SUDs have the highest lifetime prevalence (33-35.4%) of any psychiatric disorder, and, for women, the lifetime prevalence is 17.9-20% (Conway et al., 2006; Kessler et al., 1994). There are many effective treatments for SUD…

This dissertation was designed to explore the impact of the identified responsibilities of the principal, as an instructional leader, within the professional development model of Reading First. Specifically, the research focused on the principals' use of the Observation and Constructive Feedback Processes as well as five specifically defined…