This dissertation presents an innovative approach to examining the keying method, wording method, and construct validity on psychometric instruments. By employing a mixed methods explanatory sequential design, the effects of keying and wording in two psychometric assessments were examined and validated. Those two self-report psychometric…

Flooding is the most frequently occurring natural hazard on Earth; with catastrophic, large scale floods causing immense damage to people, property, and the environment. Over the past 20 years, remote sensing has become the standard technique for flood identification because of its ability to offer synoptic coverage. Unfortunately, remote sensing…

This study represents a research validating the efficacy of Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by pairing it with the Organizational Change Readiness Theory (OCRT) to develop another extension to the TAM, using the medical Laboratory Information Systems (LIS)--Electronic Health Records (EHR) interface as the medium. The TAM posits that it is…

The purpose of this study is to find out what students in the first chemistry course at the undergraduate level (general chemistry for science majors) know about the affordances of instrumentation used in the general chemistry laboratory and how their knowledge develops over time. Overall, students see the PASCO(TM) system as a useful and accurate…

This dissertation studies clouds over the polar regions using the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on-board EOS-Terra. Historically, low thin clouds have been problematic for satellite detection, because these clouds have similar brightness and temperature properties to the surface they overlay. However, the oblique angles of MISR…

Early math skills are the strongest predictors of later math achievement in school. This two-wave study addressed three research questions about the role of families in fostering these skills in preschool-aged children. First, how do families talk about math at home? Second, how do these conversations vary across families with different…

A formative intervention was employed to expose children to a variety of words to increase the breadth, or size of their vocabularies, and to repeatedly and supportively expose children to words to increase the depth, or semantic understanding of vocabulary. Science content words were selected since they are less likely to be included in an…