This study examines the creation of a sustainability toolkit that can be implemented in many communities, beginning with Johnson City, Tennessee. This project began in 2019 and will continue to grow indefinitely. For this project, a toolkit that will allow the public to have access to the tools and information they need in order to make their homes more energy-efficient will be created. It will be stocked in the local library in Johnson City Tennessee for free use to the public, as long as they have a library card, they can check out the toolkits. The toolkits will be used by the public, then returned to the library so that they can be restocked and checked out again. This study looks at the market, business and organizational research and the infrastructure of the project. Methods of research included looking at how the need for a change came about, who will benefit, existing similar programs and how they will be used in conjunction with this project, current organizational structures attached to the project, current team infrastructure and what resources are needed to fill the voids. Findings include what financial resources will be required and how they will be acquired, as well as resources that are currently available for this project and what is still needed in order for this project to be successful. As a result of this project, at least two libraries in the Johnson City area will be stocked with several energy toolkits for free and a partnership for future project expansion will have been established. This study looks at the process and what was learned during the implementation of the project.

Digital learning tools have become ubiquitous in virtual and in person classrooms as teachers found creative ways to engage students during the COVID 19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic and widespread remote learning, however, digital learning tools were increasingly common and a typical part of many classrooms. While all digital learning tools are worthy of study, math digital learning tools (MDLTs) designed for K - 8th grade in particular raise questions of efficacy and usefulness for classrooms. This paper shows that MDLTs are an effective tool to raise students’ math achievement across K - 8th grade, and that time spent on MDLTs can lead to better understanding of a topic than traditional, teacher led instruction. However, if the MDLT is being delivered in a language the student is not familiar with, that student will not be able to benefit from MDLTs in the way other students do. This is also true of students who receive Special Education services. Additionally, higher quality MDLTs that provide feedback that attaches meaning to students’ work creates a better learning environment for students than one with simpler feedback. Based on my experiences with student teaching this year and using the popular MDLT IXL frequently, I recommend that MDLTs not just be used for independent practice time, but for whole class, problem solving sessions where students have to use mathematical thinking in new content areas. This will build deeper conceptual learning and a greater sense of achievement in students.

This project investigated how alcohol might affect rates of Intimate Partner Aggression (IPA) within Hispanic populations specifically. Hispanics have the highest rates of IPA broadly speaking in the U.S., and I decided that further insight could be gleaned on why this might be by looking into how alcohol consumption might affect these rates. Data were gathered from Project IDEA, the research fellowship which this thesis piggybacked off of. Project IDEA was a survey asking couples about their drinking habits and relationship dynamics for the purpose of collecting more data on the connection between alcohol and IPA. My thesis focused more specifically on the Hispanic members of the sample. Ultimately, I found that Hispanics tend to engage in more heavy episodic drinking (i.e., drinking more in one sitting) than non-Hispanics, that heavy episodic drinking was positively correlated with IPA, and that Hispanics engaged more in all forms of IPA except for psychological perpetration than non-Hispanics. This essentially tells me that heavy episodic drinking might have something to do with the higher rates of IPA in Hispanic populations, but there is no definite causal relationship, and more research has to be done in this area.