We introduce the "Whitehead complex", a one-complex associated to a finite regular cover of the rose and show that it is connected if and only if the fundamental group of the associated cover is generated by its intersection with the set of elements in proper free factors of the fundamental group of the rose. The Whitehead complex admits…

Dissertation objectives included investigating how environment and plant life history influence aspects of leaf vascular infrastructure that supports photosynthesis, as well as photoprotection of the photosynthetic process. Additionally, I aimed to engage students in science and plant biology through innovative teaching methods. In summer annual…

Virtual learning environments have increased in frequency in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. There are differences in the social learning structure between virtual learning environments and traditional learning environments. A growing body of scholarship has aimed to investigate the impacts of the virtual learning environment on student…

The threat of climate change makes it increasingly important for biologists and the public to understand how organisms respond to temperature. The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) predicts that temperature should affect organism performance, with implications for species interactions and ecosystems that span disciplines including mathematics,…

Medical schools in the United States have been incorporating biostatistics education as part of its core curriculum for over 75 years. During that time, while the discipline has drastically changed, the curriculum has seemingly for the most part stayed the same. Numerous national organizations have published documents of objectives and…

Academic self-efficacy has been shown to have a significant correlation to academic success in college students (Robbins et al., 2004). Additionally, research has indicated that academic success plays a large role in stress levels experienced by college students (Pedersen & Jodin, 2016). Social comparison has also been posited as a significant…

This study examines the relationship between two secondary End of Course (EOC) exams, the Biology EOC and the English I EOC exams, and their impact on Emergent Bilingual (EB) students in a small district in South Texas. This study is a mixed methods study which uses both quantitative and qualitative data to answer three research questions: (a)…

Students entering high school often bring misconceptions about the nature of science and experimentation with them from middle school. Many also bring a belief that they are not a "science kid" and, therefore, cannot be a strong student in Biology. This belief can lead to a lack of self-efficacy and of student agency in the classroom.…

This dissertation consists of two distinct bodies of work. The first leverages a unique aspect of fire ant biology to investigate a potential role for a supergene in genetic assimilation. A supergene refers to a chromosome structural rearrangement, such as an inversion, that regulates the production of an alternative phenotype within a species. In…

In recent years, modern technologies have enabled the collection of exponentially larger quantities of data in the biomedical domain and elsewhere. In particular, the advent of single-cell genomics has allowed for the collection of datasets containing hundreds of thousands of cells measured in tens of thousands of dimensions. This rapid expansion…

Estimating reliability for single-item motivational measures presents challenges, particularly when constructs are anticipated to vary across time (e.g., effort, self-efficacy, emotions). We explored an innovative approach for estimating reliability of single-item motivational measures by defining reliability as consistency of interpreting the…

Research in this retrospective cohort study compared student outcome in introductory Biology at an HBCU, and the impact of COVID-19. This quantitative study utilized introductory level student biology data collected via the institution's data reporting system to analyze changes in student achievement prior to the pandemic and after the pandemic. A…

Practical work involving laboratory experiments is agreed upon to be an essential component of secondary science education. Practical work encompasses a broad range of activity types. The different forms of practical work are not equal in terms of cognitive demand and learning benefit. Inquiry-based investigations provide experience of cognitive…

Evolution is a key feature of undergraduate biology education: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has identified evolution as one of the five core concepts of biology, and it is relevant to a wide array of biology-related careers. If biology instructors want students to use evolution to address scientific challenges…

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have become more commonly incorporated in laboratory courses in undergraduate education. Because CUREs incorporate research within the context of a course, the benefits of mentored research (self-efficacy, science identity, persistence, and more) are extended to each student enrolled. CUREs…