Brundtland’s definition of sustainability is the ability to “meet the needs of the present<br/>without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (IISD, 2021). But<br/>what if there are no future generations? Social sustainability, the sector of sustainability that<br/>foregrounds the well-being and livelihoods of people (and thereby continuation of humanity), is<br/>included in definitions within the sustainability field, but less developed in sustainability<br/>practice. In an effort to bridge this gap of knowledge, 14 U.S. cities and over 100 sustainability<br/>policies were analyzed for their social sustainability performance. An eight-item analytical<br/>framework that deals with differing areas of social equity guided the analysis. Results found that<br/>most cities’ sustainability departments fell short of truly addressing social sustainability<br/>concerns. Out of the eight items, the most frequently addressed were housing security and racial<br/>and gender equality whereas few, if any, cities addressed the more specific social concerns of<br/>immigration, technology and media, or arts/cultural preservation. Future research is<br/>recommended to gain a better understanding of the ways existing cities can improve in this area.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) can create changes within individuals and between them and their community. PB processes allow people to determine how to spend a portion of a particular budget (in the case of School PB, a portion of the school budget). These processes help address the underrepresentation of youth in the realm of civics.

I spent time with the steering committee and teacher coordinator of school PB in Carson Junior High to explore the impact of school PB on students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices in relation to civic engagement. In the study I used quantitative and qualitative components. The participants were unique in that they all had prior experience in civic engagement programs in Carson Junior High that were organized by the teacher coordinator of school PB.

The main findings suggest that the participants reported a significant amount of learning in civic knowledge. In comparison, their overall perceived growth in attitudes, practices and skills were much lower. School PB helped the participants in the steering committee to grow in different ways than their other civic engagement programs by providing them with knowledge about budgets, their school’s mechanisms and other students within their school. They also became more familiar with the democratic process of voting and more comfortable with public speaking and presenting.

Recommendations for future research on this process include compiling quantitative and qualitative data from a larger sample consisting of students who had prior civic engagement experience and students who didn’t, and students with different ethnicities from different grades. Another recommendation for future research is to conduct a longitudinal study following school PB participants to high school and beyond to explore long-term impacts.

The purpose of this research thesis paper is to provide further insight into the development of extended reality (XR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) technologies within the educational space and survey how well they are received as well as whether or not they can provide additional learning benefit in regards to other learning mediums such as reading textbooks, watching videos on the subject matter, and other such more traditional mediums. The research conducted consisted of a collaborative effort alongside the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering (SBHSE) personnel and using their provided resources in order to generate a framework with the aforementioned technology, to aid in the development of a web-based XR system which will serve primarily as a means for SBHSE students at Arizona State University (ASU) to enhance their learning experience when it comes to topics such as anatomy and physiology of the human body, with the potential of extending this technology towards other subject matters as well, such as other STEM-related fields. Information about the initial research which included an analysis of the pertinent readings that support a benefit to using XR technology as a means to deliver course content is what is first focused on throughout this document. Then, the process that went into the design and development of the base framework that was in joint collaboration with the SBHSE will be covered. And, to conclude, a case study to generate applicable data to support the argument is covered as well as the results from it, which presented a potential for a future development plan and next steps plan once the developed materials and research are handed off.