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- All Subjects: Alternative Energy
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Description
Meteorology is an uncommon term rarely resonating through elementary classrooms. However, it is a concept found in both fourth and sixth grade Arizona science standards. As issues involving the environment are becoming more pertinent, it is important to study and understand atmospheric processes along with fulfilling the standards for each grade level. This thesis project teaches the practical skills of weather map reading and weather forecasting through the creation and execution of an after school lesson with the aide of seven teen assistants.
ContributorsChoulet, Shayna (Author) / Walters, Debra (Thesis director) / Oliver, Jill (Committee member) / Balling, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Plants are essential to human life. They release oxygen into the atmosphere for us to breathe. They also provide shelter, medicine, clothing, tools, and food. For many people, the food that is on their tables and in their supermarkets isn't given much thought. Where did it come from? What part of the plant is it? How does it relate to others in the plant kingdom? How do other cultures use this plant? The most many of us know about them is that they are at the supermarket when we need them for dinner (Nabhan, 2009) (Vileisis, 2008).
ContributorsBarron, Kara (Author) / Landrum, Leslie (Thesis director) / Swanson, Tod (Committee member) / Pigg, Kathleen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
DescriptionBased on previous research and findings it is proven that a non-profit class to create awareness will be beneficial in the prevention of eating disorders. This analysis will provide significant research to defend the proposed class.
ContributorsAllen, Brittany (Author) / Chung, Deborah (Author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Mazurkiewicz, Milena (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
There is a serious need for early childhood intervention practices for children who are living at or below the poverty line. Since 1965 Head Start has provided a federally funded, free preschool program for children in this population. The City of Phoenix Head Start program consists of nine delegate agencies, seven of which reside in school districts. These agencies are currently not conducting local longitudinal evaluations of their preschool graduates. The purpose of this study was to recommend initial steps the City of Phoenix grantee and the delegate agencies can take to begin a longitudinal evaluation process of their Head Start programs. Seven City of Phoenix Head Start agency directors were interviewed. These interviews provided information about the attitudes of the directors when considering longitudinal evaluations and how Head Start already evaluates their programs through internal assessments. The researcher also took notes on the Third Grade Follow-Up to the Head Start Executive Summary in order to make recommendations to the City of Phoenix Head Start programs about the best practices for longitudinal student evaluations.
ContributorsArmfield, Jessica Ann (Author) / Duggan, Mary Anne (Thesis director) / Dumka, Larry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Solar energy is a disruptive technology within the electricity industry, and rooftop solar is particularly disruptive as it changes the relationship between the industry and its customers as the latter generate their own power, sell power to the grid, and reduce their dependence on the industry as the sole source provider of electric power. Hundreds of thousands of people in the western United States have made the decision to adopt residential rooftop solar photovoltaic technologies (solar PV) for their homes, with some areas of western cities now having 50% or more of homes with solar installed. This dissertation seeks to understand how rooftop solar energy is altering the fabric of urban life, drawing on three distinct lenses and a mixed suite of methods to examine how homeowners, electric utilities, financial lenders, regulators, solar installers, realtors, and professional trade organizations have responded to the opportunities and challenges presented by rooftop solar energy. First, using a novel solar installation data set, it systematically examines the temporal, geographic, and socio-economic dynamics of the adoption of rooftop solar technologies across the Phoenix metropolitan area over the decade of the 2010s. This study examines the broad social, economic, and urban environmental contexts within which solar adoption has occurred and how these have impacted differential rates of solar uptake. Second, using survey and real estate data from the Phoenix metropolitan area, it explores how solar energy has begun to shape important social and market dynamics, illuminating how decision-making in real estate transactions, including by buyers, sellers, agents, lenders, and appraisers is shifting to accommodate houses with installed solar systems. Lastly, the study explores patterns of rooftop solar adoption across major electric utilities and what those can tell us about the extent to which corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting have affected the practices of investor-owned electric utilities (IOU) within the western US.
ContributorsO'Leary, Jason (Author) / Fisher, Erik (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Clark (Thesis advisor) / Dirks, Gary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This research will utilize the energy and poverty alleviation framework to investigate a sustainable energy ecosystem for the Wakapoa indigenous community of Guyana. Five questions guide the research – 1) Is there an energy access-development nexus? 2) Can the relationships and trends between key development indicators and electricity access guide policymakers on development activities? 3) Can small-scale concentrated solar and biomass systems provide adequate electrical power to meet the Wakapoa community's domestic and commercial loads economically? 4) What added social value could be generated from the energy system as per Wakapoa context? and 5) What governance systems can be considered to facilitate a sustainable energy ecosystem? In addressing questions 1 and 2, the research collected secondary data on selected countries' key development indexes from the World Bank and Our World in Data. Datasets include the human development index, human capital index, gross domestic product per capita, gross national income per capita, and electricity access. In addressing questions 3 to 5, the research utilized the convergent research design methods, where an inclusive data collection process targeted fifty (50) community residents as survey participants. Statistical analysis of the survey data proved useful in identifying the community needs for the renewable energy system design options utilizing system advisor model (SAM) software, identifying key economic activities that can add social value to the community, and giving key insight into governance practices preferred by the community. Key findings reveal that electricity access exerts a strong and moderate influence on key development indicators, the concentrated solar power and biomass hybrid system can satisfy the electricity demand of the community at the Tier-5 level that can support many traditional and non-traditional economic activities, while key governance support functions such as the community financial aid fund and community management committee can enhance the sustainability of the various operations as well as residents' well-being and livelihood. Future research can address project financing, community productive capacity, and the marketing of goods and services to promote a sustainable energy ecosystem.
ContributorsKanhai, Mahendra N. (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Thesis advisor) / Dirks, Gary (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Clark (Committee member) / Stechel, Ellen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The Energiewende aims to drastically reduce Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions, without relying on nuclear power, while maintaining a secure and affordable energy supply. Since 2000 the country’s renewable-energy share has increased exponentially, accounting in 2017 for over a third of Germany's gross electricity consumption. This unprecedented achievement is the result of policies, tools, and institutional arrangements intended to steer society to a low-carbon economy. Despite its resounding success in renewable-energy deployment, the Energiewende is not on track to meet its decarbonization goals. Energiewende rules and regulations have generated numerous undesired consequences, and have cost much more than anticipated, a burden borne primarily by energy consumers. Why has the Energiewende not only made energy more expensive, but also failed to bring Germany closer to its decarbonization goals? I analyzed the Energiewende as a complex socio-technical system, examining its legal framework and analyzing the consequences of successive regulations; identifying major political and energy players and the factors that motivated them to pursue socio-technical change; and documenting the political trends and events in which the Energiewende is rooted and which continue to shape it. I analyzed the dynamics and the loopholes that created barriers to transition, pushed the utility sector to the brink of dissolution, and led to such undesirable outcomes as negative wholesale prices and forced exports of electricity to Germany’s European neighbors. Thirty high-level energy experts and stakeholders were interviewed to find out how the best-informed members of German society perceive the Energiewende. Surprisingly, although they were highly critical of the way the transition has unfolded, most were convinced that the transition would eventually succeed. But their definitions of success did not always depend on achieving carbon-mitigation targets. Indeed, Germany jeopardizes the achievement of these targets by changing too many policy and institutional variables at too fast a pace. Good intentions and commitment are not enough to create economies based on intermittent energy sources: they will also require intensive grid expansion and breakthroughs in storage technology. The Energiewende demonstrates starkly that collective action driven by robust political consensus is not sufficient for steering complex socio-technical systems in desired directions.
ContributorsSturm, Christine (Author) / Sarewitz, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Clark (Committee member) / Anderies, John (Committee member) / Hirt, Paul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The deficiency of American primary and secondary schools as compared to schools worldwide has long been documented. The Teaching Gap highlights exactly where our problems might lie, and lays out a plan for how to deal with it. Progress would be slow, but tangible. Our country, however, seems to prefer vast and immediate overhauls that have historically failed (see: New math, etc.). If we had implemented the changes in The Teaching Gap in the decade in which it was written, we would be seeing results by now. Instead, every change we make gets reverted. The Common Core State Standards will prove over the next few years to be either another one of these attempts or a large step in the right direction. It might finally be the latter, as its creation was informed by practices that work best in every state in the US, as well as high- performing countries around the world.
ContributorsMcKee, Emily (Author) / Sande, V. Carla (Thesis director) / Ashbrook, Mark (Committee member) / Schroeder, Darcy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Visual aides, such as PowerPoint slides, hand-outs, and lecture notes on whiteboards, are often used in classrooms to convey important content to learners, especially in high school and college. When using these visual learning aides, it is important to consider which qualities of these presentations can affect learning— positively or negatively—and how those qualities interact with individual student characteristics. In the present study, we examine the overlap between audio and text and how the effects of overlap potentially interact with reading comprehension abilities. The examination of these potential influences on learning in this study is inspired by Cognitive Load Theory, the Dual-Channel Assumption, and prior research.
ContributorsHarry, Danielle (Author) / McNamara, Danielle (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Jackson, Tanner (Committee member) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12