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.
Vasectomy is one of few widely available methods of contraception for people with male reproductive systems aside from condoms, abstinence, and the withdrawal method, and it is the only one of those options that can be permanent (Amory 2016). The procedure’s prominence has led me to investigate the history of vasectomy and particularly the evolution in vasectomy technique over time. Since its introduction in the late nineteenth century, the procedure has had a variety of impacts on many people across the world. In this research project, I have sought to analyze what the technical evolution of vasectomy reveals about the changing priorities of the medical systems that use it. In particular, I point to ways the eugenics movement’s attempts to control individual reproduction have led to both vasectomy’s efficacy and its restrictiveness.
Simplifying science means more than just making science understandable for people of lower chronological age, it also encompasses making science more accessible to people with a lower educational age. Through their “Embryo Tales,” Ask a Biologist discusses topics such as fetal alcohol syndrome, ectopic pregnancies, polio, etc. and the science behind them in an easy-to-understand manner. The Ask a Biologist materials are directed at a younger audience in terms of educational age compared to most textbooks and other sources, which allows them to communicate information to people who otherwise may not comprehend the science at hand. As Ask a Biologist states, their main goal is to “increase communication between scientists and the public” (Ask a biologist). They increase the cognition of the public by using a readability level checker to keep each sentence easy to understand, implementing well thought-out analogies throughout the article, incorporating helpful pictures, and including an engaging, related story at the beginning of each article. This thesis explains studies both for and agains those techniques aiming to make science-related topics more understandable. The thesis encompasses some of my own Embryo Tales with an analysis of them, highlights my role in shaping Embryo Tales into what they are today, and also details how I will apply what I learned to my career as a future physician.
This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on telemedicine-prescribed controlled substances by discussing the opinions of pharmacists holding an Arizona pharmacy license. To accommodate the rapid changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government adapted pharmacy laws to better support the healthcare community. The use of remote healthcare services such as telemedicine visits and online pharmacy services dramatically increased during the pandemic, so regulators waived tele-health restrictions like the Ryan Haight Act. This study involved structured interviews with 3 participants. The interviews revealed a positive outlook on the future of telehealth and the possibilities of modernizing healthcare and pharmacy. The study suggests that the waiving of the Ryan Haight Act was perceived somewhat positively by pharmacists, although they still had concerns regarding abandoning parts of the Act from a patient safety standpoint. The study concludes that certain pharmacy and telemedicine regulations are outdated given the positive and negative outcomes of these laws during the global pandemic. While this study offers insights on bringing various healthcare and law arguments together, the small sample size results in limited scope. The study still provides points of discussion to offer recommendations for implementation of the Ryan Haight Act and other similar tele-health and online-pharmacy regulations.