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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- Creators: School of Public Affairs
- Creators: School of Earth and Space Exploration
- Creators: O'Flaherty, Katherine
Description
Geology and its tangential studies, collectively known and referred to in this thesis as geosciences, have been paramount to the transformation and advancement of society, fundamentally changing the way we view, interact and live with the surrounding natural and built environment. It is important to recognize the value and importance of this interdisciplinary scientific field while reconciling its ties to imperial and colonizing extractive systems which have led to harmful and invasive endeavors. This intersection among geosciences, (environmental) justice studies, and decolonization is intended to promote inclusive pedagogical models through just and equitable methodologies and frameworks as to prevent further injustices and promote recognition and healing of old wounds. By utilizing decolonial frameworks and highlighting the voices of peoples from colonized and exploited landscapes, this annotated syllabus tackles the issues previously described while proposing solutions involving place-based education and the recentering of land within geoscience pedagogical models. (abstract)
ContributorsReed, Cameron E (Author) / Richter, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Semken, Steven (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Accurately predicting local ranges of isotopic signatures in human populations is essential for answering questions about past migrations and mobility. While local ranges of δ18O can be estimated using modern baseline samples and precipitation models, there are many environmental and anthropogenic drivers that can cause these ranges to deviate from the ranges seen in human populations. This study performs a geostatistical meta-analysis on a large dataset (n = 1,370) of spatially contextualized archaeological δ18O samples from 30 publications in order to generate a predictive model of local human δ18O ranges in the Central Andes. Two models were generated, one using archaeological samples of both humans and fauna, and the other using only humans. The model using only human samples makes more accurate predictions, cautioning against the incorporation of faunal δ18O samples in studies of human provenance. The models are also compared against a model of δ18O values found in precipitation across the study area, and significant differences lead to the conclusion that precipitation models are insufficient for predicting local human δ18O ranges.
ContributorsHatley, Camden Miller (Author) / Knudson, Kelly (Thesis director) / Scaffidi, Beth (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
DescriptionThis project is designed to generate enthusiasm for science among refugee students in hopes of inspiring them to continue learning science as well as to help them with their current understanding of their school science subject matter.
ContributorsSipes, Shannon Paige (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Gregg, George (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
In this study, the packaging and labeling of milk and coffee was compared between Walmart and Sprouts. The pricing, the sourcing, the certifications and the overall shelf presence of the items was taken under consideration. After studying the packaging of both, a new design incorporating the applicable labels, customer appeal and appropriate green marketing was created for both the commodities.
ContributorsBhatt, Rashi Hitesh (Author) / Collins, Shari (Thesis director) / Keahey, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This thesis project examines the likely factors that cause students to drop out of Barrett, the Honors College. Honors literature regarding retention and attrition suggests four areas encompassing individual student attributes and honors program characteristics which may impact a student's decision to stay or leave an Honors College. The primary question in focus is, "Why do students leave the Honors College?" followed by the tertiary questions of, "what can be done to mitigate this occurrence?" and, "how does this affect the quality of an honors education?" Assessing attrition can be broken down into biographical, cognitive-behavioral, socio-environmental, and institutional-instrumental components. Students who graduated with honors and those who did not graduate with honors were assessed on these four components through survey methods and qualitative interviews to investigate specific reasons why students leave the honors program. The results indicated a wide array of reasons impacting student attrition, the most significant being negative perceptions towards (1) honors courses and contracts, (2) difficulty completing a thesis project, and (3) finding little to no value in "graduating with honors." Each of these reasons reflect the institutional-instrumental component of student attrition, making it the most salient group of reasons why students leave the Honors College. The socio-environmental component also influences student attrition through peer influence and academic advisor support, though this was found to be within the context of institutional-instrumental means. This project offers solutions to ameliorate each of the four components of attrition by offering standardized honors contracts and more mandatory honors classes, mandatory thesis preparatory courses instead of workshops, and emphasizing the benefit Barrett gives to students as a whole. These solutions aim at increasing graduation rates for future honors students at Barrett as well as improving the overall quality of an honors education.
ContributorsSanchez, Gilbert Xavier (Author) / Parker, John (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Social entrepreneurship has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Scholars constantly debate of the meaning of the term and the direction of the field. This paper explores literature written between the years 2010 \u2014 2015 in an effort to understand the current state of social entrepreneurship and gain insight as to the direction it is headed. This paper looks at definitions, characteristics, geographical differences, legal designations, and major themes such as social enterprise, social innovation, & social value as well as the implications for performance measures in an attempt to understand the broad concept that is social entrepreneurship.
ContributorsTalarico, Anthony (Author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / Hayter, Christopher (Committee member) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Einstein's theory of special relativity has been used by accomplished science fiction authors since its discovery in 1905, allowing intrepid adventurers to reach far away worlds without having to fear time's passage. By traveling near light speed, these fictional travelers experience a different passage of time as the universe ensures the commonality of the speed of light in all reference frames. In the here and now, this method of travel has been proposed to assist in interstellar and interplanetary exploration. This paper will investigate the practicality of this method of travel by proposing a mission utilizing a craft with this type of velocity.
ContributorsWaaler, Mason Duran (Author) / Jacob, Richard (Thesis director) / Covatto, Carl (Committee member) / Foy, Joseph (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This project explores the promise and peril of networked self-portraits, focusing on comparisons between artists Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman, celebrity and reality star Kim Kardashian, Democratic presidential candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton, and artists Rafia Santana and Alexandra Marzella. I defined selfies as networked self-portraits using a front-facing camera. My introduction is more or less a literature review of photographic theory and art history texts, but all the significant themes brought up in that are relevant to the rest of my arguments. The arguments draw from feminist visual theory including Laura Mulvey, art history texts, as well as critical race theorists like Franz Fanon. While I chose four artists in my examination, I used them as a jumping off point to talk about how identity can be networked and what it means for small slices of life to be photographed and spread via social media. I decided to include feminist visual theory to inform my exploration of female bodies, especially how mediation sets up normative behaviors and representations. I used race theory to talk about visibility of people of color, especially in contrast to the white artists I talked about in my thesis. By way of Kardashian and Clinton, I explored the idea of celebrity and visual culture, as well as motherhood and what femininity could look like in the 21st century. I tend not to make any sweeping conclusions about the best way to network femininity using selfies, but rather explore the different challenges that women face when they place historically-policed bodies into what could be a digital utopia online.
ContributorsNorthfelt, Peter (Author) / Dove-Viebahn, Aviva (Thesis director) / Thornton, Leslie (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The giant green sea anemone, Anthopleura xanthogrammica, hosts two different endosymbiotic algae. One is a unicellular chlorophyte, Elliptochloris marina; the other is Symbiodinium muscatinei, a dinoflagellate. Hosting these different symbionts influences the life history strategy of A. xanthogrammica's congener A. elegantissima, directly impacting its reproductive strategy (asexual vs. sexual). My study sought to examine whether the type and density of symbiont also affects the reproductive condition of A. xanthogrammica, which reproduces only sexually. Gonad development was measured in anemones from Slip Point, Clallam Bay, WA and Tongue Point, WA along with symbiont type and density per mg of anemone protein. The results indicate a trend towards brown anemones having more developed gonads, especially in males. This may mean that A. xanthogrammica anemones that host zooxanthellae are more reproductively fit than zoochlorellate anemones. Thus, it may be favorable for anemones to host zooxanthellae. This is especially true in summer months when the high temperatures and mid-day low tides coincide with the period of most rapid gonad development.
ContributorsGasbarro, Ryan Patrick (Author) / Neuer, Susanne (Thesis director) / Rutowski, Ronald (Committee member) / Bingham, Brian (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Based upon personal involvement from August 2010 to July 2014 as a Marine Option Midshipman within the ASU Naval Reserves Officer Training Corps (NROTC), being a student of leadership training within my degree plan, and gender difference research I conducted, this creative project addresses potential issues that reside within the ASU NROTC and the ways in which the program overall can be changed for the Marine Options in order to bring about proper success and organization. In order to officially become a Marine within the Unites States Marine Corps, it is necessary for Marine Option students to fulfill Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Quantico, Virginia. As the first female to go through OCS as a midshipman from the ASU NROTC, I found that there is an inadequate amount of preparation and training given in regards to the gender differences and what is to be expected for successful completion. I will offer a brief history regarding the NROTC across the Unites States and the ASU NROTC itself. These subjects will cover the program layouts as well as the leadership training that is required and provided within it and the ways in which this is conducted. I will then compare and contrast this to the leadership training given to me within my study of Leadership and Ethics regarding the transformational leadership, gender-based leadership, and coercive leadership. Finally, I end my thesis with a reflection of personal experiences taken away from these avenues and offer recommendations to better equip the ASU NROTC program in having successful retention and success of the female Marine Option midshipman.
ContributorsCamarena, Leonor Jimenez (Author) / Lucio, Joanna (Thesis director) / Warnicke, Margaretha (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor)
Created2014-12