ODU Digital Commons

[Introduction] While much has been written on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education, less has been published on nuances that exist outside of western contexts in other parts of the world including Asia-a region with distinct sociocultural systems marked by varying social hierarchies; gender, ethnic, and racial dynamics; and educational systems and forms of instruction. Echoin…

In Benjamin Percy’s keynote for Uncharted via Zoom, he stated he always carries around a Swiss Army knife. After he shared experiences of using his Swiss Army knife in real time, he suggest I and the rest of the attendees get one for our fiction. This writing advice fits the sentiment of his craft book, Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction , which I recommend to anyone who will hear me. In Percy’s essays…

Emerging capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) offer significant potential to support productive failure (PF)-based learning, which engages adult learners (ALs) in exploring problems before instruction and learning from their initial attempts. However, the effective use of AI to support multifaceted areas of PF-based learning, including problem generation, exploration, consol…

While immigrant children’s identity negotiation and their sense of belonging are increasingly highlighted, existing literature remains largely focused on language abilities and identity struggles, often emphasizing rigid definitions of “identity” grounded in blood, language, and culture. Drawing on findings from my dissertation, this comparative ethnographic case study examines the fluidity of id…

This exploratory study examined how early-career teachers in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) methods course, the majority of whom were science teachers, engaged with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools in lesson planning, examining patterns of use, perceived affordances and challenges, and factors influencing adoption. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance …

Nationally and globally, STEM serves as a gatekeeper to the labor market and higher education opportunities. Many Black girls find themselves locked out of the gate. Historically and contemporarily, Black girls are seldom viewed as capable or worthy of educational investment and face unique and ongoing challenges in K-12 STEM learning spaces due to their gender and racial identities. Research sug…

Professionals with similar backgrounds, given identical generative AI tools, achieve sharply different outcomes. This perspectives piece examines what explains that variance, reviewing evidence on cognitive capacity, domain expertise, metacognition, epistemic calibration, personality, and culture, and argues that existing user typologies describe these differences without predicting their consequ…

Secondary STEM instruction often remains organized in disciplinary silos, limiting opportunities for students to apply Concepts across domains incoherent, authentic contexts. This mixed methods implementation study examined Convergence Research in STEM and Tradition (CReST), an Artifact centered interdisciplinary curriculum model designed to connect chemistry, world history, and engineering throu…

[From Introduction] Picture this. It’s the year 1570. You fi nd yourself in Venice for the fi rst time and you are delighted by the unique culture around you. It’s a city built on the water, streets are replaced by canals. St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s palace, and the piazza do not disappoint. The Rialto is a hive of markets and vendors. As you wander the city you encounter something you haven’t…

[From Introduction] This chapter introduces several important elements of poetry, including figurative language, sound devices, Mood & Tone, theme, and common poetic forms. Throughout the chapter, readers will examine examples of poems and literary devices while learning how poets use language to shape meaning and emotion. Students will also practice identifying poetic techniques and analyzing ho…

[First paragraph] Students in K–12 schools encounter digital information every day, but they are not always prepared to decide whether that information is credible, useful, biased, incomplete, or misleading. This chapter is written specifically for K–12 school library and classroom instruction, not for academic library users or college-level research instruction. Its primary audience is upper ele…

The Hour of the Pearl is a dual-perspective detective mystery novel. While it uses traditional mystery plot beats, it is character-driven and borrows from literary fiction as well as commercial fiction. After Detective Rita Shaw compromises an undercover sting, she must take a demotion and transfer to picturesque, coastal Virginia in order to escape the whispers of her misconduct. When a local ho…

Two Heads and an Application: A Journey with Ralph Waldo Emerson is a series of essays that detail my own scholarly journey with the writings and teachings of its titular essayist. These essays not only grapple with my relationship to my many teachers, but also with my own intellectual independence or lack thereof. Through essays about past experiences bathed in the light of present day thought, …

Storytelling is a foundational component of Black knowledge creation and transmission. This dissertation centers Black women’s stories of birth and mothering—drawing on both primary source birth stories and fictional narratives—to examine the United States’ Black Maternal Health Emergency (BMHE). The BMHE is a complex and urgent issue wherein structural racism, medical bias, and intersecting soci…

The recent advancement of China in Latin America suggests that the traditional hegemony of the United States could be declining. The purpose of this research is to assess the degree in which the American hegemonic position in this region has diminished and what implications this likely phenomenon could eventually bring. Several dimensions of the notion of Hegemony are evaluated such as economic, …

This study establishes a technical and theoretical foundation for the efficient conversion of organic waste into biocrude and high-value carbon materials, aiming to facilitate the industrialization of hydrothermal and solvothermal liquefaction. The dissertation research is structured as follows: Chapter 2 developed a novel chemical kinetic model for the HTL of corn stover based on elemental balan…

Field of Impermanent Scars is a poetry collection exploring the many faces of grief and its physical manifestations within the female body. Scars are often thought of as permanent markings of trauma, but what if we viewed the scar as impermanent and malleable? Through the use of nature imagery, the poems work to make sense of trauma, paving a path toward understanding, healing, reconciliation, an…

While humanity has, throughout our species’ history, endeavored to dream and create astonishing, and ever-evolving, (bio)technologies with the utopian ideals of bettering our day-to day lives and achieving greater longevity, our endeavors have (thus far) not only produced remarkable, beneficial advances in longevity and quality of life, but have also yielded devastating and dire outcomes; often a…

Additive manufacturing of thermoplastic composites using fused deposition modeling (FDM) offers unparalleled geometric freedom and the ability to tailor reinforcement through short and continuous fiber architectures. However, the process inherently introduces mesoscopic defects, including 15-20% inter and intra-bead voids, weak interlayer bonding, and microcracking, which degrade mechanical and t…

Niobium (Nb) films play a central role in superconducting technologies used in particle accelerators and superconducting quantum circuits. Optimizing the physical properties of Nb films is therefore critical for improving both radiofrequency (RF) performance in superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities and coherence in superconducting qubits. This thesis investigates the relationship between …