Most introductory courses are held in large lecture halls, with students typically sitting in either the front, middle, or back of the classroom. In a mixed-methods study of student attendance, performance, and seat choice, we found that students who chose to sit behind their peers performed nearly a full grade level worse than their peers who sat…

Bridges and Fowler (2022) collected survey data regarding grocery shopping attitudes and behaviors prior to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and followed up by collecting similar data during the pandemic. This allowed for comparisons of grocery shopping habits before and during COVID-19; in addition, survey respondents were asked how they…

Purpose/Objectives: Individuals in rural areas experience higher food insecurity. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) reduce food insecurity. Yet, SBP participation remains lower than NSLP participation. This study aimed to examine differences in parental perception relative to the NSLP and the SBP in…

There is a teacher shortage, and many teachers entering the profession are not from a traditional preparation program. The fastest-growing new teacher population is alternatively certified, and they are also the fastest group of teachers exiting the profession. Factors such as the work environment, personal choices, and new teacher behaviors…

The current educational workforce is made up of baby boomers, Generation Xers, millennials, and Generation Zers. Research on generational theory reflects variations in characteristics, work preferences and values among generations, yet there is little known whether teachers from these various generations need differing leadership practices to…

Every student deserves a college education that provides a welcoming environment regardless of demographics. For adult students and students with autism, academic environments may not contain the needed protective support interventions for these populations to be successful. This study seeks to address the gap in literature that exists regarding…

Objective: College student populations are considered at greater risk of contracting influenza due to their close living conditions. Despite this increased risk, college students are reluctant to obtain annual vaccination. This pilot study sought to determine perceptions of students on a college campus who received the annual influenza vaccination…

With the rise in popularity of social media and e-commerce platforms, "discrete math" is at the heart of our online experiences, playing a front-end role in the recommendation of what to click, watch, or buy, or who to follow or friend, as well as a back-end role in data storage, access, and transfer. This thesis focuses on two such…

Children's storybooks often contain fantasy elements, from dragons and wizards to anthropomorphic animals that wear clothes, talk, and behave like humans. These elements can impact children's learning from storybooks both positively and negatively, perhaps due in part to their ability to capture children's interest and attention. Prior research…

This study investigated whether familiarity and expertise of a dissenter would lessen the trust of a three-person majority among preschoolers in a Chinese sample. The results indicated that preschoolers preferred to trust a majority rather than a stranger dissenter. However, when familiarity and expertise of the dissenter were manipulated in the…

Matching job tasks to the individual's preferences improves job performance. Preference assessments, including paired stimulus (PS) and multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (MSWO) procedures, can be used to identify preferred vocational tasks for individuals with disabilities. However, there are few direct comparisons of the efficacy and…

In the literature, STEM identity tends to be characterized either as students' relationship with the STEM field "as a whole," or their relationship with a particular STEM area, such as science. With this study, we add to the existing scholarship by characterizing the profiles of students who identified themselves as "STEM…

Wearable devices are a popular class of portable ubiquitous technology. These devices are available in a variety of forms, ranging from smart glasses to smart rings. The fact that smart wearable devices are attached to the body makes them particularly suitable to be integrated into people's daily lives. Thus, we propose that wearables can be…

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice science teachers' favorite scientists. This study was conducted according to a screening model. The study group consisted of 199 volunteer preservice teachers who were studying in the science education department at a state university in Turkey. Of the total preservice science teachers, 56…

Adults often prefer things that they believe are natural, including natural foods. This preference has serious implications, such as the rejection of cultured meat and other sustainable technologies. Here we explore whether children also prefer natural foods. We conducted two preregistered studies with 374 adults and children from the United…