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.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3
Description
Despite similar climate, ecosystem, and population size, the cities of Hermosillo, Mexico and Mesa, USA manage their water very differently. Mesa has a stable and resilient system organized around state and federal regulations. Hermosillo, after rapidly industrializing, has not been able to cope with climate change and long-term drought conditions. Water distribution statistics, stakeholders, policy structure, and government organization were combined in an organizational framework to compare the practices of the two cities. These inputs were weighed against the outcomes and the sustainability of each system. While Mesa is part of a massive metropolitan area, Hermosillo is still developing into a metropolitan center and does not have access to the same infrastructure and resources. In Hermosillo local needs are frequently discounted in favor of broad political goals.
ContributorsMoe, Rud Lamb (Author) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis director) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Robles-Morua, Agustin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Blue Mound State Park, located in the state of Wisconsin (USA), is host to a topographic anomaly known as Blue Mound. This mound is the western of the two mounds that make up the park, and it marks the highest elevation in southern Wisconsin. Unlike its eastern sibling, Blue Mound possesses an unusual chert cap that may have protected it from erosion, thus preserving its stratigraphic integrity. Although Blue Mound's unique chert armor was noted in 1927 by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, no published work has satisfactorily explained its origin. As little was known about the formation of cherts until the mid-to-late 1900s, the Blue Mound cap was classified merely as a Silurian dolostone into which chert had somehow become integrated (Steidtmann). However, the published observations of the Blue Mound chert do not necessarily match with the classification granted by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, nor were any convincing interpretations offered regarding the presence of the chert. Since 1927, significant progress in the field of sedimentology has been achieved. There now exists knowledge that may fill the gaps between observation and interpretation in the Blue Mound survey. The observations in the 1927 bulletin correspond with modern notions of a paleokarst chert breccia, which forms a chert rubble or residuum. A chert breccia is formed when existing clasts, or pieces, of chert become cemented together by further chert deposition (Kolodny, Chaussidon and Katz). This can form large boulders of chert rubble that resist erosion. Accumulation of chert rubble has been documented to form along old weathering surfaces as an insoluble residue in environments similar to Blue Mound (Kolodny, Chaussidon and Katz). The purpose of this investigation was to verify the observations within the 1927 survey of the Blue Mound chert, and determine through field observations and sample study if the Blue Mound chert fits the model of a paleokarst chert breccia.
ContributorsGalarowicz, Calley (Author) / Knauth, Paul (Thesis director) / Semken, Steven (Committee member) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Large, violent storms come through the Phoenix area during monsoon season, and currently, the best ways to predict them are not very accurate. The primary goal of this investigation is to see if a mechanism can be developed for the prediction of these storms in Phoenix during monsoon season. In order to answer this question, two data sets (a remote sensing satellite imagery and a ground-based weather information set) will be used and their measurements will be compared against one another using a corresponding time as the related variable. The goal is to try and identify some type of correlation or explanation of correlation. Events known as moisture surges (from the gulf surge \u2014 which comes from the California Gulf) will be identified and then compared in some detail. These chutes of moisture surge through Arizona, primarily up through Yuma in a northeasterly direction. The point of the investigation is to prove or disprove that satellite imagery can be used as an analog for dew point measurements in areas where ground measurements are not available. If this can be demonstrated, then, because of the high temporal resolution of the remote sensing data, satellite imagery could be used as an identifier of oncoming storms.
ContributorsCarter, Shaylina Rae (Author) / Christensen, Phil (Thesis director) / Cerveny, Randall (Committee member) / Hagee, Warren (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2013-05