Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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Description
Engineering education has long sought to incorporate greater diversity into engineering programs to prepare the profession to meet the engineering challenges of society. Increasing or retaining the conative diversity of engineering programs may help extend other kinds of diversity in the profession as well (Marburger, 2004). One measure of conation is the Kolbe ATM index.
Kolbe ATM is an index developed by Kathy Kolbe to measure the conative traits on an individual. The index assigns each individual a value in four categories, or Action Modes, that indicates their level of insistence on a scale of 1 to 10 in that Action Mode (Kolbe, 2004). The four Action Modes are:
• Fact Finder – handling of information or facts
• Follow Thru – need to pattern or organize
• Quick Start – management of risk or uncertainty
• Implementor – interaction with space or tangibles
The Kolbe A (TM) index assigns each individual a value that indicates their level of insistence with 1-3 representing resistant, preventing problems in a particular Action Mode; 4-6 indicating accommodation, flexibility in a particular Action Mode; and 7-10 indicating insistence in an Action Mode, initiating solutions in that Action Mode (Kolbe, 2004).
To promote retention of conative diversity, this study examines conative diversity in two engineering student populations, a predominately freshmen population at Chandler Gilbert Community College and a predominately junior population at Arizona State University. Students in both population took a survey that asked them to self-report their GPA, satisfaction with required courses in their major, Kolbe ATM conative index, and how much their conative traits help them in each of the classes on the survey. The classes in the survey included two junior level classes at ASU, Engineering Business Practices and Structural Analysis; as well as four freshmen engineering classes, Physics Lecture, Physics Lab, English Composition, and Calculus I.
This study finds that student satisfaction has no meaningful correlation with student GPA.
The study also finds that engineering programs have a dearth of resistant Fact Finders from the freshmen level on and losses resistant Follow Thrus and insistent Quick Starts as time progresses. Students whose conative indices align well with the structure of the engineering program tend to consider their conative traits helpful to them in their engineering studies. Students whose conative indices misalign with the structure of the program report that they consider their strengths less helpful to them in their engineering studies.
This study recommends further research into the relationship between satisfaction with major and conation and into perceived helpfulness of conative traits by students. Educators should continue to use Kolbe A (TM) in the classroom and perform further research on the impacts of conation on diversity in engineering programs.
Kolbe ATM is an index developed by Kathy Kolbe to measure the conative traits on an individual. The index assigns each individual a value in four categories, or Action Modes, that indicates their level of insistence on a scale of 1 to 10 in that Action Mode (Kolbe, 2004). The four Action Modes are:
• Fact Finder – handling of information or facts
• Follow Thru – need to pattern or organize
• Quick Start – management of risk or uncertainty
• Implementor – interaction with space or tangibles
The Kolbe A (TM) index assigns each individual a value that indicates their level of insistence with 1-3 representing resistant, preventing problems in a particular Action Mode; 4-6 indicating accommodation, flexibility in a particular Action Mode; and 7-10 indicating insistence in an Action Mode, initiating solutions in that Action Mode (Kolbe, 2004).
To promote retention of conative diversity, this study examines conative diversity in two engineering student populations, a predominately freshmen population at Chandler Gilbert Community College and a predominately junior population at Arizona State University. Students in both population took a survey that asked them to self-report their GPA, satisfaction with required courses in their major, Kolbe ATM conative index, and how much their conative traits help them in each of the classes on the survey. The classes in the survey included two junior level classes at ASU, Engineering Business Practices and Structural Analysis; as well as four freshmen engineering classes, Physics Lecture, Physics Lab, English Composition, and Calculus I.
This study finds that student satisfaction has no meaningful correlation with student GPA.
The study also finds that engineering programs have a dearth of resistant Fact Finders from the freshmen level on and losses resistant Follow Thrus and insistent Quick Starts as time progresses. Students whose conative indices align well with the structure of the engineering program tend to consider their conative traits helpful to them in their engineering studies. Students whose conative indices misalign with the structure of the program report that they consider their strengths less helpful to them in their engineering studies.
This study recommends further research into the relationship between satisfaction with major and conation and into perceived helpfulness of conative traits by students. Educators should continue to use Kolbe A (TM) in the classroom and perform further research on the impacts of conation on diversity in engineering programs.
ContributorsSmith, Logan Farren (Author) / Seager, Thomas P. (Thesis director) / Adams, Elizabeth A. (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Over the past several years, there has been growing concern regarding concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in all levels of sports. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that occurs from a blow to the head. When a concussion occurs, the brain knocks against the walls of the skull. A concussion causes temporary loss of brain function leading to cognitive, physical, and emotional symptoms, such as confusion, vomiting,headache, nausea,depression, disturbed sleep, moodiness, and amnesia. Although the short-term effects of concussions are limited, the long-term effects of concussions, if untreated, can be devastating and even life-threatening. Concussions are having detrimental ramifications on society and it is important to know what these ramifications are. Concussions are a common occurrence in traditional physical sports such as soccer, basketball, and football. However, due to the violent nature of football (American football), concussions are more prevalent and the effects are more severe. Changes to rules and equipment, specifically helmets, have been made to reduce head impacts in football but there is not currently enough evidence to conclude that they significantly lessen the frequency and severity of concussions.
ContributorsLaughlin, Riley James (Author) / Squires, Kyle (Thesis director) / Shrake, Scott (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
A robotic exploration mission that would enter a lunar pit to characterize the environment is described. A hopping mechanism for the robot's mobility is proposed. Various methods of hopping drawn from research literature are discussed in detail. The feasibilities of mechanical, electric, fluid, and combustive methods are analyzed. Computer simulations show the mitigation of the risk of complex autonomous navigation systems. A mechanical hopping mechanism is designed to hop in Earth gravity and carry a payload half its mass. A physical experiment is completed and proves a need for further refinement of the prototype design. Future work is suggested to continue exploring hopping as a mobility method for the lunar robot.
ContributorsMcKinney, Tyler James (Author) / Thangavelautham, Jekan (Thesis director) / Robinson, Mark (Committee member) / Asphaug, Erik (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis investigates the viability of a solar still for desalination of a personal water supply. The end goal of the project is to create a design that meets the output requirement while tailoring the components to focus on low cost so it would be feasible in the impoverished areas of the world. The primary requirement is an output of 3 liters of potable water per day, the minimum necessary for an adult human. The study examines the effect of several design parameters, such as the basin material, basin thickness, starting water depth, basin dimensions, cover material, cover angle, and cover thickness. A model for the performance of a solar still was created in MATLAB to simulate the system's behavior and sensitivity to these parameters. An instrumented prototype solar still demonstrated viability of the concept and provided data for validation of the MATLAB model.
ContributorsRasmussen, Dylan James (Author) / Wells, Valana (Thesis director) / Trimble, Steven (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05