This is a series of three paintings all composed with oil paint. This series offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on gender roles and the male gaze and how they are used as forms of oppression. This series challenges traditional notions of gender and spark meaningful conversations about the ways in which society shapes and reinforces gender norms.

AIR, being short for the Arts Initiative for Refugees, is a new, self-founded organization that provides refugee youth with sessions, programs, and opportunities to help them achieve artistic and personal success through teaching and mentorship. AIR strives to offer individualized and group mentoring programs to its students designed for their unique interests in the arts fields of their choice. The immediate objective of this organization, which my thesis was founded upon, was to introduce refugee youth at a newcomer school, Valencia Newcomer School, to various new art forms utilizing direct application, to play and have fun, to create a sense of community and support, to create a safe, inclusive environment, to help the students learn more about each other's cultures and backgrounds, and to allow the students to create art work that is genuine to them and their backgrounds. The ultimate goal of AIR is to branch out to become a small-scale, national/international non-profit organization.

From steps seen on TikTok to Youtube, when examining the styles of trending current dances, it can be noted that there is a blend of different forms including modern and hip hop, the two most commonly seen styles in current pop culture. However, as the line between the two dance forms are often blurred, it can be difficult to identify the styles involved. To understand the two most seen styles in pop cultures - the qualities that distinguish them, and the qualities that allowed for the two dance styles to be smoothly integrated - a brief literature review along with an observational learning method involving courses and events focused on hip hop and modern class was conducted. It was found that despite the different backgrounds and techniques involved in both modern and hip hop, both dance styles embrace similar values of freedom, self-expression, and individuality. Since both dances embrace improvisation and freestyling with a de-emphasis on the costume or other structural restraints, they can be smoothly integrated and combined into a choreography.

Insect pheromones are crucial for survival and reproduction because they influence insect behavior, communication, and interactions within and outside the colony. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) have one of the most complex pheromonal communication systems. One pheromone, known as Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP), is released by the queen bee to regulate physiology, behavior, and gene expression in the female worker caste. The pheromone acts as a signal of queen presence that suppresses worker reproduction. In the absence of reproduction, young workers focus on taking care of the queen and larvae, known as nurse tasks, while older workers forage. In nurse bees, QMP has fundamental physiological impacts, including increasing abdominal lipid stores and increasing the protein content of hypopharyngeal glands (HPG). The HPG are worker-specific glands that can synthesize royal jelly used in colony nourishment. In workers, larger HPG signifies the ability to secrete royal jelly, while shrunken glands are characteristic of foragers that do not make jelly. While it is known that QMP increases abdominal lipid stores, the underlying mechanism is unclear: Does the pheromone simply make workers consume more pollen which provides lipids and protein, or does QMP also increase lipogenesis? In this study, I measured abdominal lipogenesis as fatty acid synthase (FAS) activity and monitored abdominal protein content and HPG size in caged, nurse-aged worker bees. In cages, workers were exposed to QMP or not, and they were provided with a lipid less diet in a full factorial design experiment. I found that QMP did not influence abdominal FAS activity or protein, but significantly increased HPG size. The data also revealed a significant positive correlation between abdominal protein and HPG size. My results do not support the idea that QMP modulates lipogenesis in worker bees, but my data can be interpreted to reflect that QMP mobilizes abdominal protein for the production of jelly in the HPG. This finding is in line with a previous study revealing a role of honey bee Brood Pheromone in mobilization of a major protein used in jelly production. Overall, my results support a fundamental role of QMP in worker metabolic processes associated with colony nourishment.

Visual presentation of information is one method of learning that has the ability to enhance STEM learning compared to learning solely through text. Educational psychology research is ongoing in the STEM field for how students can learn better through visual representations in their course material. The goal of this study was to assess student responses to visual mini-lessons related to course content in the cardiovascular unit in Animal Physiology (BIO360) at Arizona State University. Study participants completed a series of eight mini-lessons and a survey on their experience with the visual lessons. The results of the survey identify increased desire for visual learning materials in STEM courses. The study participants reported that they felt more visual aids in their STEM courses would increase their understanding of course content and that their classroom performance would improve.

Every day, the earth’s oceans are being destroyed. Pollution, fishing, sonar, and many other man-made factors have caused detrimental effects to the most crucial of the ocean’s ecosystems. While more individuals are becoming aware of these problems, additional support is needed to help protect the ocean’s many unique creatures. The purpose of this honors thesis exhibition is to continue to shine light on human negligence towards threatened ocean creatures. The three artworks in this thesis show the descent of diversity and life of these marine creatures over time. By showcasing the different ways in which whales, rays, and corals have been affected by human impact, this thesis and subsequent art pieces will help to continue to enhance one’s understanding of the importance of marine conservation.