Dissertation Defense Announcements

Cnidarians are part of a complex clade of marine invertebrates that inhabit a variety of extreme environments. The conditions of these habitats are becoming more extreme with the progression of time. These organisms associate with bacteria, which are composed of a larger community, known as the microbiome. To better understand the interactions between individual bacterial isolates and the model cnidarian Nematostella vectensis, it is imperative to investigate and develop methodologies. Here, the impacts of antibiotics were quantified throughout the life stages with a variety of methods. Antibiotic treatment effectively eliminates the resident bacteria of N. vectensis, though the anemone experiences transcriptional changes, even after removal of the stressor. Additionally, two methods to vector bacteria to the terminal host were quantitatively compared: Prey Feeding Method (PFM), and Solution Uptake Method (SUM). The PFM resulted in higher sustained concentrations through two weeks, indicating its potential as a viable method to vector bacteria. Lastly, part of the culturable microbiome was assessed for viability through thermal and saline stressors. Investigation of these methods is imperative to quantifying the interactions between bacteria and the host organism. Together, the assessment of common methodologies in a common cnidarian model contributes directly to understanding individual bacteria from the microbiome of N. vectensis.

Every student deserves the opportunity to access and make progress in the general curriculum. Teachers have reported difficulties in meeting this goal for students with extensive support needs (ESN) who do not yet demonstrate foundational academic skills, such as in the areas of literacy and numeracy. It becomes even more difficult once students enter high school and the gap between their instructional and grade-level widens. Researchers have evaluated different interventions to teach both foundational and grade-level skills to students with ESN in the area of mathematics. This study builds on that research by evaluating the effects of an intervention package combining modified schema-based instruction (MSBI) and embedded simultaneous prompting (SP) to teach secondary students with ESN who do not demonstrate numeracy skills to solve simple linear equations (e.g., 3+x=9) and to identify numerals 1–9 concurrently. The experimental design was a single-case multiple probe across numeral sets replicated across participants, who were two high school males with ESN and their instructors, a paraeducator and a special education teacher who implemented the intervention. The intervention was not effective to teach numeral identification or solving simple linear equations, nor did the students generalize numeral identification to real-world settings. However, the instructors did find the study procedures to be socially acceptable and hypothesized that the students would eventually reach mastery criterion, given additional time in the intervention. The findings from this study can be used to guide future research designed to support the needs of secondary students with ESN who do not yet demonstrate foundational academic skills.

Green burial places are cemeteries and funeral homes that embrace green burial practices by providing green burial funeral services and educating their clients about green burial options. A green burial place within a cemetery may be a part or whole cemetery that is dedicated to following green burial protocol. Green burial involves the use of biodegradable containers rather than steel or hardwood caskets. The decedent is not embalmed and is buried directly in the ground instead of within a burial vault. The grave is typically more shallow than contemporary burials; this encourages natural decomposition of the body. Green burial places within cemeteries are designated areas where green burials can happen and can contribute to the overall ecological well-being of the land.

Although not new in concept, green burial places are not as abundant or accessible as green burial advocates such as the Green Burial Council, International 501(c)(3) non-profit would like. Compared to contemporary burial in the United States, green burial has greater ecological and social benefits, as it reduces resource consumption standard to contemporary burial and supports regulatory and social ecosystem services. However, there are many funeral homes and cemeteries who do not currently provide green burial. Therefore, this dissertation asks and answers the overarching question: What are the opportunities for successful green burial placemaking that address the obstacles faced and anticipated by death care professionals?

This dissertation uses qualitative methods, specifically grounded theory methods, to answer the overarching question. I do this via three lines of inquiry: 1) examining obstacles to green burial placemaking that are presented by a sample of funeral directors from across the United States (§5.1 - §5.3), 2) Analyzing current death care consumers’ awareness of and attitudes towards green burial (§5.3 - §5.4), and 3) Uncovering the opportunities that successful green burial placemakers employed to successful create green burial places (§5.5 - §5.7).

The key methods used in this study are semi-structured interviews and online surveys, which have produced robust qualitative data. Semi-structured interviews were used to ascertain the perspectives and experiences of funeral industry professionals who have successfully started and continue to operate a green cemetery. The purpose of these interviews is to provide an understanding of the local and regional obstacles to green burial provision that death care providers anticipated, faced, and overcame. A total of nine interviews were conducted, and ten people were interviewed. In one case, the semi-structured interview involved two interviewees. The interviewees represented green burial cemeteries across the Mid-Atlantic States of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Two questionnaires were developed to understand obstacles at a national level. The first questionnaire was targeted towards funeral directors; the questions were targeted to understand funeral directors’ level of knowledge about green burial, their willingness to provide green burial to their families, and the obstacles that they anticipate or currently face when considering whether to provide green burial. The second questionnaire, informed by both the interviews and the responses from the funeral directors, was directed at death care consumers—adults in the United States, eighteen years or older. The purpose of this survey was to explore one specific obstacle that death care providers have identified: there is not a market for green burial, i.e. no one knows about green burial and therefore no one asks for green burial. The consumer survey in the proposed research asks consumers to explain what they would like to have happen to their body after death. Consumers are then presented with the definition of green burial and asked if this is something that they would be interested in. Responses are again analyzed using grounded theory methods.

The grounded theory that emerges from the proposed research will make contributions on two fronts. First, the knowledge will directly benefit the Green Burial Council International 501(c)3, a non-profit whose mission is to make green burial more accessible via educational outreach to both death care providers and consumers. As a member of the board of directors, I am committed to making practical use of the knowledge uncovered in this research. Second, this research will contribute to the scholarly pursuit present and legitimized by Palko (2021) to understand the relationships between death care decision-making and ecological and social consciousness.

Researchers have provided evidence of the effects of academic engagement on the achievement of all students. Despite the benefits of academic engagement, low rates have been reported for students with extensive support needs (ESN). Fortunately, researchers have identified effective practices for increasing academic engagement, including increasing teacher-delivered opportunities to respond (OTRs); however, students with ESN often have complex communication needs (CCN) and require supports to communicate and systematic prompting to acquire skills.

Efforts to increase teacher practices are often not sustained over time. Coaching is form of professional development with a large research base demonstrating lasting impact on teacher behavior. There are several components in the coaching literature which have been shown to be effective. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a coaching package comprised of an initial training, a goal setting and meeting cancellation contingency, daily performance feedback, and follow up coaching sessions on the frequency of teacher-delivered supported OTRs (i.e., OTR, communication support, prompt). All three teachers increased delivery of supported OTRs for the target student during small group instruction, while also increasing OTRs for all students in the group. In addition, all three target students increased active student responses (ASRs).