Digital Commons at Buffalo State

S.M.I.L.E. (Success Means Initiating Life Everyday)

Charisma C. Dupree — Thu, 23 May 2013 06:26:50 PDT

Abstract:

Motivation exists as an important aspect of our lives. Motivation comes in two main forms, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. No matter the type motivation employed, at some point we all experience motivation to help achieve our goals and in order to reach success in any capacity. The use of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) can also help in the process of motivation and succeeding. When the going gets tough, it is imperative to SMILE – Success Means Initiating Life Everyday.

Capital Infusion, Dedication to Current Infrastructure and Workforce Development: The Three-Pronged Approach to Strategic Industrial Growth in Western New York

Clinton J. Ronan et al. — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:16:27 PDT

One billion dollars in incentives (Cuomo, December 2012a) will infuse the opportunity for Western New York (WNY) industrial growth. It is critical two areas are carefully evaluated and supported in order to avoid a false start and accomplish a responsible, long term, reinvigorated economy: (1) leverage current viable infrastructure, specifically the Niagara Falls International Airport (NFIAP), and (2) ensure workforce development in lean operations is initiated immediately to complement technical expertise in order to recruit and sustain high paying employers. Case studies introduced in this thesis included the development of a similar regional airport compared to NFIAP as well as a rapid improvement event, which applied lean methodology and tools to complex C-130 aircraft inspections. At the conclusion of this study the researchers found: the marketing of NFIAP is not effective, NFIAP would greatly benefit from diversification of employers located at NFIAP, and there is a rapid return on investment of workforce development in lean operations. Although development of NFIAP and workforce development in lean operations would prove to be beneficial to stakeholders, the commitment required to accomplish either will depend on the temperature of the burning platform for change.

Conservative Revolutionary Intellectuals in the Weimar Republic and National Socialist Germany: Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger, and Ernst Jϋnger

Vincent S. Betts — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:04:48 PDT

This thesis will examine the writings and career/life paths of three conservative revolutionary intellectuals during the Weimar Republic and National Socialist Germany. The purpose of this examination is not only to provide an overview of the development of conservative revolutionary thought in Germany after World War I, but also to investigate the influence these intellectuals had on the National Socialists' seizure and consolidation of power. The works and lives of three important intellectuals will be examined: Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger, and Ernst Jünger. In combination with scholarly secondary literature, this thesis will be based mostly on translated primary writings.

Robert Nathaniel Dett and the Music of the Harlem Renaissance

Daniel Weaver — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:00:36 PDT

While the contributions of writers and poets to the period of American cultural history known as the Harlem Renaissance are relatively well defined and understood, assessing the contributions of musicians has been more problematic. The topic has been covered indirectly through works of American music history and African American history, but there have been comparatively few works linking music directly to the goals of the movement. Much of the insight into music’s place during this period derives from contemporary writers such as Alain Locke and James Weldon Johnson, both of whom featured discussions of music in their writings. Relatively unknown today, Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) was one of a group of composers whose work reflects the goals of Locke and other Renaissance writers. This thesis will explore the work of Robert Nathaniel Dett as a composer and educator in the larger context of the Harlem Renaissance. With in-depth biographies of Dett’s life already available, this thesis will focus on the period of his greatest activity during the 1910s and the 1920s while concurrently attempting to establish a larger context for his work by situating it within the course of American music history of the period. Specific topics will include: Dett’s education at Oberlin College and subsequent employment as Music Director at Hampton Institute; how characteristics of Dett’s music aligned with the goals of the Harlem Renaissance; and, Dett’s response to criticism that he was neglecting the authentic heritage of African American music.

Wartime Art: A Study of Political Propaganda and Individual Expression in American Commercial and Combat Art during World War II

Jennifer M. Wilcott — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:25:24 PDT

This thesis will explore the mediums and functions of American art during World War II. The purpose of exploring art during World War II is not simply to provide an overview of the multiple media of art produced during the war, but to investigate the role that commercial artwork and combat soldiers’ artwork had on the lasting interpretation of the war. Themes addressed are propaganda, the role of posters, comic books, and cartoons along with their influence on American society at the time. Further analysis examines the role of three artists: Howard Brodie, Edward Reep, and Robert N. Blair. Their motivations and contributions to the documentation of World War II will be discussed.

Variation in Ovary Size of Osmerus mordax (Mitchell), the Rainbow Smelt, in Lakes Erie and Ontario

Stephen E. Bresee — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:50:12 PDT

Addressing three problems with respect to the reproductive effort of rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax (mitchell), this study determines whether or not there is a significant inter-population difference in the gonadosomatic index or reproductive effort between smelt in lakes Erie and Ontario.

Improv(ing) Students: Teaching Improvisation to High School Students to Increase Creative and Critical Thinking

Beth D. Slazak — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:46:34 PDT

This project focuses on teaching High School students improvisational techniques to increase their creative and critical thinking skills. This covers tools of Creative Problem Solving, rules and concepts of improvisational theater, and affective thinking skills. The finished project includes lesson plans, a workbook, and a video that will assist students and educators in teaching these skills.

The Exploration into Achieving One Women’s ‘Freedom of Voice’ as Relevant to Domestic Abuse through the Sciences of Creativity

Kathysue Dorey — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:12:38 PDT

This master’s project explores one woman’s journey in applied creativity and how learning behaviors and skills became the impetus for her life’s work with domestic abuse survivors. It is from this journey, that a groundbreaking Global Longitudinal Empirical Study with sustainable arm was developed.

This Empirical research is the Freedom Impact Study with Freedom Model that was founded on the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 psychometric measure, the Applied Creativity sciences, and the self-defense training system Pure Krav Maga™. Its sustainable arm is Freedom Global, a 10-day intensive training program for women from other countries to be trained in applied creativity and instructor certified in Pure Krav Maga so they can conduct the Freedom Impact Study in their respective countries.

The background, development, and proposed next steps are presented herein; along with the findings from the Freedom Impact Study’s Pilot Inquiry that was executed in October 2012.

Fraunces Tavern Museum: Revolutionizing Collections Care in a Small Museum Environment

Suzanne Prabucki — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:45:20 PDT

The purpose of this thesis is to present a comprehensive history of the Fraunces Tavern Museum and its collection along with an official catalogue comprising approximately 5,000 artifacts. It documents the Museum’s own experience with the collections care remediation process so that other institutions may use this Museum’s success story as a model for their own collections care issues.

The Fraunces Tavern Museum, located in New York City, is best known as the site where George Washington bade farewell to his officers at the end of the American Revolutionary War. The lineage group, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York (SRNY) purchased the Tavern in 1904 and opened it as a museum in 1907 where SRNY members could preserve their Patriot ancestors’ possessions. With the purchase and preservation of Fraunces Tavern, the collection has grown for over 100 years and artifact donors encompass not only SRNY members, but the general public.

The Impact of US Subprime Mortgage Crisis on the Chinese Real-estate Market

Yiwen Zhou — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:45:13 PDT

When the second largest American subprime loan institution, the New Century Financial Corporation, went bankrupt, the subprime crisis emerged. In only a short period of one year, the subprime crisis completely took the industrial mortgage industry to the brink of bankruptcy and beyond. Many related institutions’ hedge funds were forced into liquidation and investment banks announced that their losses had swelled. Moreover, commercial banks and insurance institutions also suffered great losses. The global stock market declined in response. The credit risk created by the subprime crisis eventually evolved into a global financial crisis.

As a principal part of the world economy, what can China learn from the US experience when facing rapid growth in the real-estate market? In addition, how does China avoid the similar emergence of a credit crisis at home? This thesis will try to give some advice by analyzing the reasons for the US crisis and the impact of the crisis on China.

This paper includes four parts: The first part explains what the subprime crisis is and how the crisis affected the Chinese real-estate market. From Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) recognizing 10.5 billion dollars in bad debts, to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac falling into deficit, to the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers, the subprime crisis caused large losses for a large number of financial institutions which resulted in a systematic to stock shock to the economy. The effect of the crisis on the Chinese real-estate market can be divided into four stages during the timeline.

The second part analyzes the causes of the subprime crisis. People with limited income and little or no personal credit history were able to acquire mortgage loans. They were unable to repay the loans by selling their houses once the housing prices decreased. Other reasons for subprime crisis are the existence of subprime market, the real-estate asset bubble, the weaknesses of credit assessment, the misguided federal government policy, and the ineffective regulatory monitoring.

The third part expounds on the impacts on the Chinese real-estate market caused by the subprime crisis. Falling housing prices all over the country not only affect the sale of houses, but also affect the confidence of house buyers. At the same time, the subprime mortgage crisis in the US serves as a case study for the Chinese of what to do and not to do in China. As a result of the impact of the subprime crisis, Chinese commercial banks have changed their operations and strengthened their risk control mechanisms.

The last part gives some suggestions for policies and the banking system to reduce the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis on China.

Communicating Creativity: A Workshop and Communication Tools for Teaching and Consulting in Creativity

Stephen J. Hammond — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:02:33 PDT

This project developed tools to support a consulting practice integrating the author’s interests in creative process, design and organizational strategy. The focus is on educating students and clients about creativity, creative thinking, design and innovation. Design thinking concepts of user feedback and rapid prototyping were used during the project. The resulting products are materials for a multi-day graduate level workshop for design students, a creativity website including blogging capability and a four minute educational video aimed at helping establish an Aerospace Technology Center in Northern Illinois.

Sustainability through Autonomy, Safety, Ownership, and Adaptability: A Qualitative Case Study of Locust Street Art in Buffalo, NY

Darlene García Torres — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:35:09 PDT

The activities of community arts exist in a realm outside of the K-12 school environment. In this paper, I examine and present my motivations for pursuing this topic of research, provide a brief history of community arts, and describe some of the actions that have defined the field since the early 20^th century. Various research studies detailing the economic, and health and wellness benefits of community arts initiatives on a diverse range of populations provide a rationale for sustaining the field. Interviews, observation, and document analysis are the data collection methods used to investigate and discover the factors influencing the sustainability of one of the longest running community arts organizations in the United States: Locust Street Art (formerly named MollyOlga) in Buffalo, NY. Analyzing data through complexity theory, findings of this case study reveal that community participation and support is a key factor in Locust Street Art’s sustainability, in addition to the organization’s characterization as a family business, creativity in fundraising, and adaptation to change. This paper also presents implications of the findings for arts education in other contexts, such as the effect of longer time periods devoted to the studio practice that may not be available in a K-12 art classroom. Additionally, recommendations for future research are provided, including a recommendation for studies of community arts organizations with different economic structures, and recommendations for studies of other sustainable community arts organizations.

Project Learning in Science: 6th Graders’ Scientific Investigations

Mary Shea Ph. D. et al. — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:41:51 PDT

This article describes the rationale for an enhanced inquiry approach to science education that authentically integrates content knowledge and application skills in a middle school science curriculum. Such pedagogy ensures students’ attainment of national and state standards for learning science and multiple literacies (e.g. language arts and technology) recognized as tools for science achievement; it also provides developmentally appropriate instruction aligned with characteristics of young adolescent learners. Two projects are described; in both, students research, experiment, construct, create, compose, and report, integrating multiple complex skills in ways that simulate real world science investigation. Results demonstrate that students recognize their work as relevant and take responsibility for quality and outcomes.

Advances in Technology in Continuing Education: Who Should Foot the Bill?

Matthew Hanson — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:41:49 PDT

Every continuing education unit must be on the forefront of the technology boom in order to remain attractive to students as well as best prepare students to enter the work force. Unfortunately, there is a significant cost associated with each new technological advancement. A significant debate has recently sparked over who should foot the bill for technological advancements. This work applies the Array of Higher Education Benefits (IHEP, 1998) as well as other relevant literature to the debate over who should foot the bill for the inevitable technological advancements. The benefits of higher education extend well beyond the individual receiving the degree, thus students should not solely receive the additional cost burden. Institutions of higher education work to fill the needs of the public and private sectors. All involved should share the costs of technological advancement.

“Finding a Manageable Body of Content”: Seven Literacy Teacher Educators Explore the Constraints on What They Teach

Cheryl A. Kreutter et al. — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:41:45 PDT

Teacher educators are engaged in a perpetual quest to squeeze as much as possible into preparation of new classroom literacy teachers. In response to increasing demands for preparing future teachers for modern classrooms, seven teacher educators tackled the question of what constitutes a manageable body of early literacy content in preservice coursework. Through retrospective analysis, they discovered common constraints among their institutions that influence their decision-making about when, what, and how much content to teach. These constraints include teacher educators’ beliefs about teaching literacy methods, time and resource management issues, range of students’ needs, and influences of local and national educational contexts. The findings are significant because they offer an initial naming of some of the constraints woven into the complex web of literacy instruction coursework that is offered to preservice teachers which, in turn, will impact the professional development they receive as inservice teachers

The Role of Genre in Reflective Practice: Tracing the Development of a Beginning Teacher's Journaling Practice

Heidi L. Hallman et al. — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:41:43 PDT

In this article, a teacher educator and a first-year teacher identify the role that genre, in a rhetorical sense, plays in reflective practice. As reflection in teacher education has been criticized for its potential to reinforce prior attitudes and dispositions within pre-service and beginning teachers, we see how meta-knowledge of genre is important to beginning teachers’ successful practice of reflection. Throughout this article, we draw on examples from one beginning teacher’s journaling practice as a way to illustrate that multiple genres of reflection co-exist within teachers’ reflective practice.

Victorian Women and Their Working Roles

Kara L. Barrett — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:20:18 PDT

Women during the Victorian Era did not have many rights. They were viewed as only supposed to be housewives and mothers to their children. The women during this era were only viewed as people that should only concern themselves with keeping a successful household. However, during this time women were forced into working positions outside of the household.

Women that were forced into working situations outside of their households were viewed negatively by society. Many women needed to have an income to support their families because the men in the household were not making enough money to survive. When the women entered the work places they were not made to feel welcome and were often harassed. These women workers therefore were not welcome in the work place (outside of the household) or in society.

The texts Helen Fleetwood, Goblin Market, North and South, Shirley and Sybil all have women in different working roles during this era. All of these texts strive to show that working women of all classes and working roles are viewed and treated poorly by Victorian society as a whole. However, the society is not giving the women any other option to advance or fix the situation that they are in. These texts show the unsafe conditions these working women were faced with and the treatments of them from society as a whole.

The Telling Line: The Relationship between Cognitive Style and Fashion Design Sketching

Mary K. Culpepper — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:15:25 PDT

This mixed-methods exploratory study addresses a gap in the literature by testing for links between cognitive style and the gestalt of sketches produced by college-level fashion design students. Students’ cognitive styles were appraised with the FourSight assessment, a measure of problem-solving preference gaining use in design schools. Then participants sketched fashion designs to complete a design brief. Panels of raters trained in FourSight reviewed the sketches to assess the cognitive styles of the sketchers. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant degree of interrater reliability, while qualitative analysis indicated emergent themes of selection, attitude, and innovation that aligned with FourSight types. The raters’ evaluations showed relationships between the sketches produced by fashion design students and the students’ cognitive style preferences, potentially affording designers additional insights in the problem-solving process. These findings support and extend FourSight theory and provide insights into the relationships between how people think and how they express their creativity through the concepts they produce.

The Stealth Creativity Manifesto: Better Living Through Creativity

Ian Rosenfeldt — Thu, 02 May 2013 06:12:00 PDT

This project focuses on the creation of a manifesto to be used as a guide to better living through creativity. The literature review covers aspects of self-discovery, development of personal strengths, and investigating the future of creative thinking. The finished product for this project is the Stealth Creativity Manifesto, presented as the liner notes for a cassette tape. The process in this paper may be used as a guideline for investigating and creating a manifesto, and developing a more creative life.

The Road Opens: From Escape to New Truth on the Road in American Literature

Peter J. Wiesen — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:05:13 PDT

Travel and relocation have been integral parts of the American experience from the first known journeys of Leif Ericson five hundred years before Columbus. Since then, Europeans moved about the continent as explorers, and eventually Americans moved westward as part of Manifest Destiny and in search of the American Dream. When they finally reached the west coast, the journey doubled back on itself, forcing the journeyers to search the already developed land for the disappearing American Dream. However, regardless of their reason for departing the land they were on, the characters of many of the works of American fiction (and in the case of Into the Wild, non-fiction) were altered by their time on the road, resulting in their finding a new truth at the end of their journey. By examining the journeys in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees, and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, this paper examines the reasons for the journey or movement, the encounters with falsehood and hypocrisy, and the discovery of new understandings or truths at the end of their journeys.