Human development researchers consider adolescence a rich time for interest development and identity exploration. A relatively new movement in the Free-Choice Learning (FCL) arena, the Maker movement, offers learners interest-driven, experiential, often collaborative, and process-oriented activities ranging from game design (computer-based and otherwise) and robotics, to sewing LEDs into clothing...
Riparian areas that can be used as reference sites on which to base goals of vegetation restoration have not been documented in the Oregon Coast Range. I examined the composition and distribution of unmanaged riparian overstories in the central Oregon Coast Range along nine streams which have experienced minimal disturbance...
The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of policy diffusion in the policy development process of state healthy soil policies. Within the last decade state legislation on soil health has increased exponentially. In general, these policies are efforts by state governments to mitigate or adapt to climate...
Scientists say that climate change is very likely to cause more frequent and more severe weather events. In order to understand how communities respond to changing weather patterns, an exploration of the connection between extreme weather events and climate change awareness, collective action, and policy is warranted. This case study...
A product of global climate change, ocean acidification (OA) and other stressors increasingly put pressure on the economic, social, and cultural systems of Western U.S. coastal communities. In the face of increasing OA and local reports that OA is negatively impacting local communities’ socioeconomic structures, there is a clear need...
The Linn and Benton County Gleaner network has helped the low-income families of urban and rural Oregon reclaim moral, social and cultural capital that is lost in the act of being poor in America. Rather than participating solely in government safety nets, these people reject “hand-outs” in favor of exchanging...
Depleted species of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) from the Northeast Pacific experience high discard mortality due to "barotrauma," induced from the rapid change in pressure during capture. Research suggests rockfish have the potential to survive barotrauma if immediately recompressed, but the potential for long-term recovery is unknown. In this project, we...
This thesis analyzes the emerging technology of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas extraction process through a pluralistic philosophical approach. Rather than defending traditional values in nature, such as intrinsic value, I defend a metaphilosophical pragmatism centered on policy implications. I argue that different philosophical positions will, most of the time,...
In the social context, distinct worldviews provide multiple, subjective, durable and conflicting views of natural resource situations. This research analyzes worldviews that shape people's perceptions, understandings and evaluations of forests and forestry in order to examine conflict associated with forestry issues. Differences in local residents' views of wildland fires and...
Oregon State University and the City of Corvallis have recently embarked on a three-year series of meetings and forums (‘Collaboration Corvallis’) designed to increase collaboration between the two organizations and other relevant stakeholders as well as find solutions to worsening problems in the areas of parking, noise and student population...