Transformations: Research Papers

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  What's The Deal with Conspiracy Theories?

  Blake Ross

  The usage of the word Conspiracy Theory isn't anything new. In fact it is a word used widely in today's society. But what is a conspiracy theory, how are conspiracy theorists and believers viewed in the public eye, and what about conspiracy theories do people find so alluring?
  The common notion of conspiracy theories are that they are inherently wronged, that history just happens. That people are wrong for trying to connect dots that aren’t there and are a result of un-informed, ill-educated people lacking skeptical and critical thinking skills. In testing this notion I examined two conspiracy theories, one proven and the other un-proven. The proven conspiracy I examined is MK-Ultra in which I focus specifically on how it was proven to be true. The un-proven conspiracy theory I examined is the conspiracy theory of Reptilian Elites in which I focus on the tactics used by David Icke that garnered the mass following of believers it now has. Through researching these two conspiracy theories and in better understanding the people who believe in them, a new notion for conspiracy theories is discovered.

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  Treated like Aliens: An analysis of Refugee Admissions into the United States by Preferences

  Nicadamus Atkins

  From the Refugee Act of 1980 to the present, the President has had the power to create a refugee ceiling, capping the admittance of refugees into the United States. The differential impact that Republican control of the legislative and/or the executive branches has on the admission of refugees into the United States is explored in this paper. Focusing on the refugee system, I examine Presidential political parties along with those of the House of Representatives over the course of 1986 to 2019 to determine if there is a correlation between party ideologies and refugee admission caps. Analyzing data from the United States House of Representatives, the Department of Homeland Security Immigration reports, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the Migration Policy Institute from the years 1986 to 2019, allows multivariate regression analysis of sex, region of origin, and political party of political elites to be examined to see if these factors play a significant role in the refugee admission process. My research shows that individualized factors play a role, along with political party and the region of origin play significant roles in determining refugee admittance. Most of the literature regarding refugees is embedded in immigration research. Refugee literature suffers from the challenges of disaggregating the data from standard immigration statistics and is limited in scope due to the nature of the topic. Data is pulled from immigration research in addition to what data does exist for refugee admission in the United States. Miller, Holmes, and Keith (2020) argue that presidential preferences affect refugee admissions and contribute to their findings by examining individual factors of those admitted, rather than the more politicized factors.

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  Grief is love with nowhere to go

  Sara Sampson

  Outstanding Writing Award Winner. Trigger warnings: Rape, Suicide

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  Using Robots to Teach Mathematics to First-Grade Students: Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives

  Alyssa Argila and Maryssa Leventhal

  Helping preservice teachers develop positive attitudes toward using new pedagogical practices requires engaging them in professional learning and teaching practice. In this study, 16 preservice teachers engaged in an intervention that focused on integrating robots to teach mathematics to a group of first-grade students. The mathematical tasks engaged first-grade students with concepts such as counting, addition, subtraction, and identifying patterns. After the teaching experience, the preservice teachers responded to five open-ended questions that elicited their perceptions of using robots to teach mathematics to first-grade students. We conducted qualitative content analysis of teachers’ responses to identify common trends regarding teaching mathematics using robots. Results illustrated positive engagement while using robots in teaching and considerations of novel approaches to teaching mathematics. The reflections indicated their intentions to adopt or revise specific strategies in their future practice.

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  Decreasing Rates of Obesity in Onondaga County Among Older Adults

  Julianna Duca

  After an investigation of the health priorities in Onondaga County, research concludes that the mortality rates are generally higher when compared to New York State (New York State Department of Health, 2018). Currently, obesity and being overweight are the second leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States (New York State Department of Health, 2019e). Obesity is one chronic disease that shows higher rates in Onondaga County than New York State and the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019; New York State Department of Health, 2016b). The rate of obesity in Onondaga County is 32%, the rate in New York State is 25.5%, and the rate in the United States is 31.1 percent (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019b; New York State Department of Health, 2016b). Obesity among older adults is a harmful health issue that the nation has been facing for the previous six years (America’s Health Rankings, 2019). Causes of obesity have been linked to a poor diet and a lack of physical activity (New York State Department of Health, 2019b). The research for obesity among adults aged 50 years and older will focus on the behavior factors of poor nutrition and an environmental factor of community accessibility for physical activity. A plan for an intervention to decrease the rate of obesity among older adults aged 50 years old and older living in Onondaga County has been developed and the Social Cognitive Theory will be used as a guide for this intervention.

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  Restorative Practices

  Asha Faith Goldberg

  Research consistently shows that suspensions are ineffective in addressing the root causes for behavior and inequities as students of color, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and students with dis/abilities repeatedly receive high rates of exclusionary punishments for their behaviors. Different schools have implemented Restorative Practices, an alternative discipline policy in response to the troubling data surrounding suspension disparities. This policy encourages students to collaboratively address their behavior and discuss ways that they can restore relationships within their community. Through observations and faculty interviews at an elementary school, salient information emerged on the policies' definitions, implementations, and critiques. The research question is, "How does the staff at one elementary school perceive the implementation of Restorative Practices?"

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  Why a Woman Was Against Her Own Equality: Understanding Phyllis Schlafly's Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment

  Bailey Iaccarino

  This paper analyzes right-wing women’s resistance to the Equal Rights Amendment by using Phyllis Schlafly as a case study. It questions her reasoning, and by extension the anti-ERA women she represents, for opposing an amendment widely understood to make progress toward achieving gender equality. This analysis asserts that Schlafly denounced the amendment because she believed it would attack the rights of housewives, give the federal government excessive power, and hurt women already equal before the law in the ways that mattered. Books and articles about conservative women’s stance against leftist women’s movements and interviews where Schlafly discussed her anti-ERA agenda support this argument. With the ERA resurging in contemporary politics, echoes of Phyllis Schlafly’s sentiments from the 1970s can be heard. In understanding why a person might support agendas perceived to operate against them, historians can gain a deeper understanding of the past to better inform the present.

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  Strikes on Central Ave- The Closure of Brockway Motor Trucks and the End of Huskietown, USA

  Lucas Kaczynski

  My essay discusses the end of Brockway Motor Company in Cortland, New York in 1977 and the events that lead to the shutdown of one of America's most dependable and iconic brands of heavy duty trucks. The death of Brockway Trucks represented not only a tremendous loss for the Cortland community, but also trends throughout the United States of consolidation and deindustrialization in American industry in the 1970s. Through an examination of local newspapers and employee accounts of labor disputes and conflict with Brockway's parent company, Mack, this essay explains how the company that produced "the most rugged truck in the world" so quickly disappeared and left an entire community feeling slighted and uncertain of its future.

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  The Bare Bones of Paleontology

  Thomas Keely

  When discussing an occupation such as paleontology, we imagine professional people with PhDs and a knack for getting a little dirty in the pursuit of discovery. Never do we imagine cutthroat tactics and destruction for the sake of discovery. The professionalism of paleontology has gone through both of these stages from its humble beginnings as early as the sixth century B.C.E. to the modern day. “The Bare Bones of Paleontology” examines how paleontology became a professional career with distinguished scientists rather than scientists who only wanted glory. This paper examines this change in professionalism with the backdrop of “The Bone Wars”, a period in American History where cutthroat tactics were used by two scientists to ensure they would discover more fossils than the other. Without this era of paleontology, the profession would not be seen the way it is today.

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  Women’s Rights are Human Rights: The Story of Abortion Laws and the Women Affected

  Skylar Locke and Allison Burk

  The purpose of our project is to educate viewers on the history of abortion in the United States and the women affected by abortions. In the 21st century, the topic of abortion is over-politicalized and as a result, we tend to overlook the suffering and obstacles women encounter and are forced to overcome in these situations. We aim to de-stigmatize abortions with our project. Our unique abortion timeline includes three different components: the abortion laws and events beginning in the mid-1800s, the true, personal stories of women who are affected by these laws and abortions, and the different abortion resources available for women throughout time. Each topic appears as a different color circle on the bottom of the timeline to distinguish which story is what topic; red circles contain information on the laws and events, white circles are personal stories, and pink circles are resources. This timeline builds on the excellent abortion timelines already in existence including the “Abortion History Timeline” from the National Right to Life organization and the “Timeline of Attacks on Abortion” from the Planned Parenthood website. While these timelines do important work such as highlight major legislations and popular law cases, our timeline combines these insights in a way that we hope is accessible for students and readers interested in learning about abortions in a more complex and inclusive way.

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  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Interpreting Fractions Represented in Discrete and Continuous Models

  Victoria Webster

  Teaching and learning fractions have been a focus of research in mathematics education for decades. Current practices of teaching fractions emphasize the partitioning perspective, or part-whole, to conceptualize fractions. Another approach to teaching fractions is measurement. The part-whole approach limits students’ conceptualization of fractions and impedes learning improper fractions, whereas the measurement approach has the potential to overcome these difficulties and supports learning improper fractions. In this study, 55 preservice teachers engaged in an intervention to reexamine fractions using a measurement perspective. Before and after the intervention, the preservice teachers were asked to interpret proper and improper fractions using discrete and continuous representational models. We used conventional content analysis to examine the changes in preservice teachers’ strategies for interpreting fractions. In this paper, we report on these qualitative changes from before and after the intervention and highlight how preservice teachers’ interpretations of fractions influenced by the measurement perspective.