MS Projects – Cohort 19

The list is organized by the round and location of their presentation at the Finals Conference, August 8, 2019.

Click here to see a list organized by content area and last name.

MS Graduate Content Area of Focus Conference Round Theme of Presentation Room Title Summary of MS Project
Kate Bergum English 1 Engage and empower
(Room 290)
Our Words: Fostering Language Identify and Empowerment in English This paper investigates the ways ELLs are empowered in their use of English and how to foster this agency in ELA classrooms.
Joseph Clark Soc Studies 1 Engage and empower
(Room 290)
Supporting Argumentative Writing in a History Course One of the most important skills for citizens of democratic society to possess is the ability to form an argument and support that argument with credible evidence. Argumentation occurs constantly, and in many forms, in the social studies classroom. Argumentative writing, in particular, is a crucial part of history courses.In this study I attempted to determine what supports I could provide students that would work the best to help them create sound arguments that were supported with historical evidence.
Alaina Hulman Math 1 Engage and empower
(Room 290)
We are Family: Family-Teacher Communication for Secondary Mathematics During elementary and middle school there tends to be more of a whole child approach where teachers and families of students regularly communicate. Research shows that this enhances student learning. What about communicating with the families of 180+ students of adolescents?
Riley Lenoch Science 1 Examining (Dis)Connections
(Room 245)
Determing the Variation in Student Participation and Work Completion Across Activity Types Teachers often struggle to create a learning activity that elicits student participation in scientific discourse and allows them to complete a meaningful task. Many science teachers conduct lectures, laboratory exercises or pass out worksheets, however it may be difficult to know when one elicits more engagement. Participation in discourse and work completion of 10 target students in two freshman biology classes was recorded for five different activity types. These findings suggest teachers must consider more than the activity type when attempting to elicit student participation and work completion.
Megan Pohl English 1 Examining (Dis)Connections
(Room 245)
Focus on the Process: Designing Equitable Curriculum to Keep Students Present Focusing on process-oriented writing curriculum helps create a more equitable and engaging classroom, disrupting product- and grade-focused assignments.
Kenneth Hawes Math 1 Examining (Dis)Connections
(Room 245)
Wielding the Double-Edged Sword: Mathematics’ Role in the Culture of Power and Consequences for Teaching Math for Social Justice Mathematics is a powerful tool, for better or for worse. Due to beliefs about its nature and importance, mathematics is uniquely difficult to turn a critical lens on in the classroom. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities for teaching math for social justice by drawing an anology with language education.
Abby Lewandowski Science 1 Expanding the Learning Environment
(Room L185)
Investigating students’ experiences with data through a citizen science project Children are spending less time outdoors and more time indoors using electronics, leading to physical and mental health issues. Taking students outdoors can be logistically challenging when the benefits are unknown. In this study, 11 high school students of mixed grade levels participated in a citizen science project that took them outdoors to search for authentic data. This learning experience was compared to an indoor, online data exploration in order to compare student experiences, including participation/engagement, scientific literacy, and attitudes. Results indicated that these variables increased during the outdoor data exploration, suggesting that outdoor citizen science involvement can facilitate stronger student experiences. Limitations and implications discuss the prospects for future implementations and studies of citizen science in the classroom.
Girelle Montagner Martinez Math 1 Expanding the Learning Environment
(Room L185)
Teacher Practices that Mitigate the Negative Effects of Childhood Trauma on Student Success in School Childhood trauma can have diverse physiological and psychological effects on the body that impact executive functioning, emotional regulation, and social interactions. There are strategies and practices that teachers can implement in classrooms to help students develop a sense of belonging and identity, process and regulate their emotions, and engage in effective learning habits that allow them to excel academically and socially.
Mariel McAleer Soc Studies 1 Expanding the Learning Environment
(Room L185)
Choice-Based Learning: A Strategy for Increasing Student Motivation Students’ learning outcomes are influenced by their motivation and enjoyment of the curriculum. Research indicates that when students have more autonomy regarding the activities and assessments they complete, both motivation and enjoyment increase. In my eighth grade social studies classroom, I investigate how student motivation, work quality, and completion rates vary over the course of several choice-based and non-choice-based units.
Michael Nuenninghoff Science 1 Supporting student development
( Room 198)
Examining student beliefs about the value of different participatory activities Participation is vital to learning. However, participation takes many forms, and teacher and student values for different participatory activities may not always align. In this study, 61 7th grade students were surveyed to determine what participatory activities they valued, as well as what participatory activities they believed that their teachers valued. Completing work individually and coming to class prepared were both perceived to be the most valued participatory activities by teachers and also the highest valued by students. Data showed that students believed that teachers value whole class discussion significantly more than students value whole class discussion. These results indicate a need to examine and explain to students the rationale behind why teachers value whole class discussion.
Sara Hilliger English 1 Supporting student development
( Room 198)
“Understanding for Real Life”: Developing Reader Identity in Adolescents This paper explores the development of positive reader identity in adolescents as a means to foster collaboration and autonomy around reading in inclusive classrooms.
Priyanka Subramanian Soc Studies 1 Supporting student development (Room 198) Representation Matters: Asian American Stories in U.S. History The inclusion of Asian American history in U.S. history classrooms remains limited and uni-dimensional, meaning students often fail to see Asian Americans as important actors in American racial history. While most curricula include a cursory look at Japanese Internment, I found that presenting students with a complex and nuanced picture of Japanese Internment rooted in the history of Asian American experience helps students understand the significance of Asian Americans in American racial history and prepares them to incorporate Asian American stories in their understanding of this history.
Erin Guarnieri English 1 Understanding Students
(Room 298)
“I Am Not Good at Writing:” Exploring Anxiety and Confidence in High School Writers This project investigates the connection between student writing, their level of anxiety and confidence that affects their drafting process, and how teachers can aid young writers.
Shawn Matson Soc Studies 1 Understanding Students
(Room 298)
Hands up, don’t snap: Rethinking classroom electronic device policies as culturally relevant teaching pedagogy. Student cell phone usage presents daily, grinding distractions and disruptions in high school classrooms. The response to this problem is often to shame or prohibit cell phone use outright. But these rules almost always fail. More importantly, they are corrosive to relationships and the classroom environment. I investigate how interrogating and rethinking these policies by centering the sociocultural context of learners can build a safe and culturally responsive learning environment.
Nicholas Brandt Science 1 Understanding Students
(Room 298)
So… What Should I Put Down? Getting Students Comfortable with Deep Science Questions Next generation science curricula advocates for deep-understanding from students. Questions are tools teachers use to guide students towards deep understanding of science phenomena. This study examines what question types elicit students’ scientific ideas and offers suggestions for a classroom environment that promotes comfort with difficult questions that lead to deep understanding.
Katie Bringe English 2 Art-Inclusive Education
(Room 290)
Teaching and Assessing Creativity Exploring methods for creative and artistic project assessment that successfully assess tangible skills, offer students clear written objectives, and provide solid evidence of common core learning.
Anna Husman Science 2 Art-Inclusive Education
(Room 290)
How does student use of text and drawings in groups relate to their use of reasoning in Claim-Evidence-Reasoning assessments? Educational research has claimed that teaching science should include opportunities for students to solve problems, construct explanations, and develop conclusions themselves. However, science classrooms often teach wrote memorization instead. To address this discrepancy, I conducted a study on a 10th grade chemistry class with 19 students to test the relationship between an early modeling activity and a claim-evidence-reasoning assessment. I found that students in groups that produced text-heavy models over drawing-heavy were more likely to supply evidence and use reasoning to demonstrate how that evidence supports a claim.
Kristofer Rhude Soc Studies 2 Art-Inclusive Education
(Room 290)
“Who Am I? 24601!”: Art and Justice in an American Classroom The world of education “as-it-is” is tragically focused on neoliberal commitments to grades, productivity, and workforce preparation. Grounded in critical theory, this paper explores how teachers and students might challenge this world through the arts. It argues that exposure to and creation of art gives students opportunities to encounter unfamiliar perspectives and build empathy to defy the hegemonic power of American neoliberal capitalism and promote justice-oriented democracy.
Greta Goetz English 2 Asset-Based English Classrooms
( Room 298)
Literacy Disconnects in a Culturally Relevant Classroom: Exploring the Gap Between Student Out-of-School and In-School Literacy Practices When out-of-school literacy practices are not valued in the classroom, students may experience a literacy disconnect. Despite a classroom that leveraged culturally relevant pedagogy, literacy disconnects were experienced by three students. This may have useful implications for culturally relevant educators.
Charlie Dettmering English 2 Asset-Based English Classrooms
( Room 298)
You are Smart: Asset-Based Instruction for Negotiating Identity and School Experiences ​An exploration in how identity and school experiences impact girls’ writing identity, and how can teachers best position girls to foster writing growth
Hannah Spatafore English 2 Asset-Based English Classrooms
( Room 298)
A Ladder Out of the Pit: Writing with Mental Illness I explore the effects that writing has on students with mental illnesses. I use interviews from my students, observations, and looked at student work.
Anna Rose O’Shea English 2 Authentic Classrooms
(Room 198)
More Than a Write Up: Closing the Achievement Gap Through Culturally Relevant Classroom Management Biases occur in schools due to class, race, culture, language, etc. This round table focuses on how teachers can close the achievement and discipline gap through culturally relevant classroom management.
Nicholas Stender Soc Studies 2 Authentic Classrooms
(Room 198)
Towards Student Engagement Through Liberation Ideologies Attacks on public education have eroded teachers’ abilities to situate themselves as experts and engage students with creative content. Based on a study done in a high school African Studies classroom, I argue that a key to reviving student engagement in the social studies classroom lies with linking classroom content to the real-life struggles of students in a capitalist society by affirming the place of ideologies of liberation that emphasize student agency.
Brendan Hickey Science 2 Authentic Classrooms
(Room 198)
Authentic Discourse in the Science Classroom: A Case Study This study investigates the ways in which changing the instructional context of a classroom discussion affects the quality of discourse within a science classroom, with the goal of making that discourse more authentic.
Nicholas Fish Soc Studies 2 Fresh look at classroom tools
(Room L138)
1:1 Computing and its Impact on Student Learning and Attitude 1:1 computing initiatives are rising at a high rate in this country, but are they truly effective in facilitating and supporting student learning? My research focuses on how schools with 1:1 computing affects student outcomes in regards to learning and engagement.
Andrew Close Math 2 Fresh look at classroom tools
(Room L138)
The Bare Bone Approach to Note-Taking in the Mathematics Classroom The three most common note-taking strategies in the mathematics classroom today are Cornell notes, skeletal notes, and verbatim notes. Why do we take notes and what effect does it have on student cognitive engagement.
Ryan Franda Science 2 Fresh look at classroom tools
(Room L138)
Student Preferences and Performance on Warm-up Questions in Honors Chemistry This study looks at how student preferences for different types of warm-up questions correspond to student performance on those types of questions.
Alyssa Topolsky English 2 Reflective Practices
( Room 245)
From Kiki Town to Sekstayenese: The Funds of Knowledge and Expressive Literacy Assets of Students with High Functioning Autism (HFA) This paper explores the funds of knowledge and expressive literacies of students with High Functioning Autism, and provides instructional methods for utilizing these assets.
John Lane Science 2 Reflective Practices
( Room 245)
Alignment Between Enacted Curriculum and Summative Assessment Misalignment of cognitive domains in formative and summative assessments is a problem. Looking at assessments in an AP Physics class via Bloom’s Taxonomy revealed formative assessment consistently targeting higher level thinking, while summative assessment targeted lower level skills. The problem with this misalignment is that students are assessed with cognitive tasks that do not call upon the same level of thinking they applied in creating their understandings. Misalignment leads to an inherent imbalance in student’s exposure to the range of cognitive domains. This makes for a compromised foundation from which to effectively approach higher-level cognitive learning expectations. Join me for a discussion on how teachers and preparation programs may work towards creating alignment throughout the enacted curriculum.
Jordan Bosma English 2 Reflective Practices
( Room 245)
Ain’t No Lie, Building Bi-Bi-Biliteracy: Reflecting on Students’ Languages and Writing I examined strategies to build biliteracy with English language learners by reflecting on what I did last year in my student teaching and what I want to do next year.
Kelly Casey English 2 Student Identities
( Room L185)
Bound by Linguistic Rigidity: How Multilinguals Attribute their Writing Successes and Failures Language influences how others judge us, our privilege, and how we view ourselves. As multilinguals negotiate their language practices, to what do they attribute their writing successes and failures?
Adam Iverson Soc Studies 2 Student Identities
( Room L185)
Political Assumptions in the Classroom: The Most Dangerous Game In today’s highly political environment, people of all ages are becoming more politically polarized, including students. It is easy to make assumptions about students’ political identities, especially considering the context that one is teaching in. In this reflection, I will explain that such assumptions can be both unnecessary and dangerous in the classroom.
Emily Olszewski English 2 Student Identities
( Room L185)
Reversing the Marginalization of ELLs and Promoting Biliteracy in the Classroom: Drawing On Students’ Full Linguistic Repertoires This study centralizes reversing the marginalization of ELLs and promoting biliteracy. It explores how bilingual teachers use relationships to draw on students’ full linguistic repertoires.
John Talio English 3 Building Connections
(Room 245)
Vital Partnerships in the Development of Childhood Literacies: Investigating the Roles of Parents and Educators This paper suggests that parent-educator partnerships are essential to the development of childhood literacy through an examination of these literacies support systems across literacies.
Jacob Greshik Science 3 Building Connections
(Room 245)
Can someone answer the question? Anyone? Bueller? Knowing which types of questions get responses and which ones don’t This study offers some insight on how to elicit student responses when asking low level and high level questions in the classroom.
Michael Jacoby English 3 Building Connections
(Room 245)
Linking Literacies: Connecting students’ home-life literacies with classroom contexts to foster motivation and engagement This paper examines the division between school and home literacies and how students and teachers can re-envision these in service of classroom engagement.
Emma Piechura Science 3 Centering Student Voice
(Room 198)
Investigating Student Preferences About Choice Assignments and Corresponding Rationales To discover what choices students feel are important to make in the classroom and why, I developed lesson plans with unique choices and collected student feedback. I found that picking the partners they work with and the type of assignment they complete are the most important choices students feel to make. I found the rationale for this was so students can increase their level of comfort, better suit their strengths and customize their work more. Considering these preferences in choices can have a significant impact on student work and attitudes.
Erika Gallagher English 3 Centering Student Voice
(Room 198)
Sit Down, Be Humble: Fostering Student Voice Through a Framework of Cultural Humility This project conceptualizes a pedagogical framework of cultural humility in the classroom as a way to cultivate student voice in writing.
Joseph Ferrito Soc Studies 3 Literacy & the middle school student
(Room L138)
Missed Opportunities: Literacy through Collaboration
Samuel McThenia English 3 Literacy & the middle school student
(Room L138)
Story of Your Life: Narrative Identity Development in Middle School Writing A presentation that explores the ways that middle school students develop and position their identities through writing and suggests how teachers can support their development.
Bradley Harris Soc Studies 3 Literacy & the middle school student
(Room L138)
Engaging With and Comprehending Primary Sources
James Gutsch Soc Studies 3 Modes of Learning and Assessment
(Room L185)
Hydra Pedagogy: A multi-headed approach to serving students The act of learning is not homogenous among students. Students all have their own communities and lived experience that shapes the way they learn. Different modalities of education expose students to content in ways that may help them 1) better understand what they are learning and 2) strengthen their ability to learn with more traditional methods.
Jacob Gonring Soc Studies 3 Modes of Learning and Assessment
(Room L185)
Meets Expectations? The Effect of Giving Students Rubrics with their Assignments on Student Scores Grading rubrics are often considered beneficial for students’ quality of work and teachers’ objectivity when grading. My research compared student scores across four assignments, two where rubrics were given to students with the assignment, and two without rubrics attached, and found that if not scaffolded correctly, those benefits can be unequally dispersed.
Andrew Dawkins Soc Studies 3 Modes of Learning and Assessment
(Room L185)
The SAMR Model: The Godzilla of Technology Integration In an increasingly digital age, schools grapple with how to harness the power of the monster of technology in the classroom. Models like the SAMR model claim they are the key to effective tech use in the classroom. I tested this model in my own classroom over the span of two quarters to find out if use of technology following the SAMR model led to greater student academic success.
Brad Horn English 3 Understanding Student Outcomes
(Room 290)
The Class to End All Classes: The Promise of Journalism & Documentary Projects in the Classroom This research examines and argues for using journalism and documentary assessments in secondary education using data collected from authentic “journomentary” assessments, which produced high student engagement and positive personal transformation.
Katie Cashin Soc Studies 3 Understanding Student Outcomes
(Room 290)
Black and Gifted: At the Intersection of Enrichment and Inclusion Current research on Gifted and Talented Education promotes grouping students with their same-ability peers; however, gifted black students are consistently excluded from these spaces. This paper explores the impact of student-centered pedagogies on the leadership potential and participation of gifted black students in an inclusive, mixed-ability classroom.
Jennafer Kowalefski Science 3 Understanding Student Outcomes
(Room 290)
Promoting Engagement in Secondary Science Engagement within secondary science is something with which teachers are constantly struggling and is something that can lead to lower academic achievement if not sufficiently attained. In this study, I explore how a sophomore-level physics class reacted to an inquiry-based and lecture-based lesson with the goal of increasing engagement.