DigitalCommons@Providence Copyright (c) 2013 Providence College All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.providence.edu Recent documents in DigitalCommons@Providence en-us Wed, 22 May 2013 01:31:45 PDT 3600 Transubstantiation and Quantum Physics: The Parallels of Mystery in Religion and Science http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/science_religion_2013/2 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/science_religion_2013/2 Mon, 20 May 2013 06:30:16 PDT As the study of physics has progressed into the abstract realm of quanta, some have argued that the notion of transubstantiation is an unreasonable understanding of the Eucharist. However, when confronted with the uncertainty that modern physics presents, sharp parallels between this uncertainty and the metaphysical mysteries of transubstantiation. If it is reasonable to accept uncertainty in quantum physics, then it should be reasonable to accept the mysteries within the metaphysical world.

]]> Zachary Sexton Philosophy Science Religion How Can We Explain Altruism? http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/science_religion_2013/1 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/science_religion_2013/1 Fri, 17 May 2013 10:30:14 PDT This paper looks at the topic of Altruism, or more specifically altruistic behaviors. The paper explores the explanations offered from a scientific perspective as well as those from a theological perspective to determine which view offers a deeper understanding of altruism.

]]> Teresa LeVasseur Science Philosophy The Antibiotic Revolution http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/kuhn_2013/6 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/kuhn_2013/6 Fri, 17 May 2013 06:15:22 PDT In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin, which revolutionized the way infections were treated. This discovery was revolutionary because it impacted the scientific field, the medical field, the pharmaceutical industry, and all of humanity. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin sparked the development of antibiotics, which has continued to save people’s lives since the revolution. Thomas Kuhn would qualify the discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming as a revolution because it led to a paradigm shift. Prior to the discovery of Penicillin, patients died from trivial injuries and infections. Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin is revolutionary because it changed the worldview of the way doctors treat patients with infectious diseases; and as a result of the antibiotic revolution, individuals are not vulnerable to death by bacterial diseases.

]]> Alyssa Olsen Biology Philosophy An Exploration of Art Song and Aria: Historical Influence and Performance Practice http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/23 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/23 Thu, 16 May 2013 08:15:34 PDT Soprano Eliza Mandzik's contribution to the Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship and Creativity was a musical performance. This document presents the progam for Mandzik's performance.

]]> Eliza Mandzik Music A Grammatical Paradigm http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/kuhn_2013/5 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/kuhn_2013/5 Thu, 16 May 2013 06:05:16 PDT Avram Noam Chomsky is known for his work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his political pursuits, and most importantly, for his theories in the discipline of linguistics. Chomsky linguistic pursuits aimed to answer the following linguistic studies: how a person learns and develops a language, how a person structures and understands a sentence, and what the purpose of linguistics is as a whole. His theories dramatically changed the linguistic paradigm. Due to this change, this paper also attempts to illustrate the correlation between scientific philosopher Thomas Kuhn’s belief in ‘paradigm shifts’ and the subsequent change in linguistic thought spurred by Chomsky’s grammatical theories.

]]> Alexia Polacheck Linguistics Philosophy Impacting Student Attitudes Toward Mathematics Through Project-Based Learning: A Multiple Intelligence Based Approach http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/22 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/22 Tue, 14 May 2013 08:29:33 PDT Reflecting on my first year of teaching, the number one hindrance to my students’ progress in mathematics seemed to be that my students strongly disliked the subject. Therefore in my second year of teaching at a diverse Catholic school in New England, I completed an action research project that implemented project-based learning (PBL) based on Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory into my mathematics classroom. I wanted to to see if the experience would first, impact student attitudes to make students like math more, and second, if PBL would allow students to see mathematics as applicable to the real world. Therefore, this action research project used a mixed-method design to examine student (N=20) attitudes towards mathematics. Students completed the research-tested Attitudes Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) as well as an open-ended reflective survey both before and after the PBL experience to assess the impact of the intervention. Results indicated that while PBL did not improve most student attitudes towards mathematics—at least in terms of students liking math more—it did cause almost every student to see math as useful in the real world.

]]> Andre Wade Mathematics The Rise of Religious Parties in Turkey and India http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/21 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/21 Tue, 14 May 2013 08:29:29 PDT This project examines the rise of religious parties in secular democracies. In both Turkey and India, religious parties have enjoyed electoral successes (and failures). While religion is a significant issue to voters, it is oftentimes the persistence of economic problems that leads to the rise and fall of religious parties. The impact of coalition governments, change in political rhetoric, and relationship between government and religion in both countries are also analyzed and contrasted.

]]> Hannah Donovan Politics Religion Developing Direction: "The Illusion" at Providence College http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/20 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/20 Tue, 14 May 2013 08:29:27 PDT Patrick Saunders was "selected to co-direct the Theatre, Dance and Film production of Tony Kushner's play, The Illusion. The role of the director is to engage the text, envision the production and guide the process of exploration with collaborating artists, from conception and design through rehearsal with the acting company, in order to ensure that the efforts of the creative team result in an innovative and unified story before a live audience."

Available for viewing is an extended abstract video, in which the director provides a summary of the production process.

]]> Patrick Saunders Theater A Plagued Mind: The Justification of Violence within the Principles of Maximilien Robespierre http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/19 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/19 Tue, 14 May 2013 08:29:23 PDT A Plagued Mind: The Justification of Violence within the Principles of Maximilien Robespierre, takes a new look into the political career of the French Revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre. This work explores the reasons as to why a man who valued principles so highly would seemingly turn against them by instituting the Reign of Terror. It follows the course of Robespierre's political career from beginning to end, and explains how each action taken by Robespierre was actually not an attempt to rise to power, but rather a sincere effort to create a republican France. As the French Revolution spiraled into chaos, so to did Maximilien Robespierre. As the situation of the Revolution became more dire, Robespierre began to justify acts of increasing extremity, climaxing with the infamous Reign of Terror.

]]> Kevin Lynch History New DWC Syllabus Using Nonwestern Sources http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/18 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/18 Tue, 14 May 2013 08:29:20 PDT This project presents a new, annotated syllabus for the Development of Western Civilization (DWC) curriculum at Providence College. The syllabus follows most of the same topics discussed in 3rd semester DWC, but instead uses almost all nonwestern sources for reading material. The purpose of the project was to gain a better understanding of western civilization while providing an alternative to how people learn about the society they live in, to better understand other societies, and help to put historical events into a broader context.

]]> Aubrey Moore Secondary education The Effects of Emotion and Message Framing on College Binge Drinking http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/17 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/17 Wed, 08 May 2013 12:10:34 PDT The purpose of this study was to find an effective way of portraying binge drinking information to college students, hopefully changing their drinking behavior. A 2(Loss vs. Gain frame) X 2(Anger vs. Fearful prime) X 2(Time 1 vs. Time 2 Alcohol Consumption) was used to assess change in participants' alcohol intake. It was hypothesized that the fearful/loss condition as well as the anger/gain condition would be the most effective in decreasing participants' alcohol consumption.

]]> Monica Broughton Psychology Leadership: Dr. Stephen Coan http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/16 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/16 Wed, 08 May 2013 12:10:33 PDT The goal of the Leadership wiki was to collect information and inform others about the qualities of good leadership. Such exemplary leaders are ones who engage in a specific practice, maintain the standards of their practice against personal temptation or institutional pressures to be more efficient, seek excellence in the whole of human life by transforming their personal desires to pursue what is truly good, and finally confront what is wrong with culture. The wiki will explain practice, practical reasoning, and virtue in general. For the Leadership wiki I chose my uncle, Dr. Stephen Coan, as my exemplary leader.

]]> Rebecca Coan Philosophy The Alternative Appeal http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/15 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/15 Wed, 08 May 2013 12:10:32 PDT For decades, Americans expressed dissatisfaction with conventional cancer treatments. I examine the appeal of biological alternatives to surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy for patients with cancer. The limited effectiveness and side effects of many conventional cancer therapies led many patients to pursue a variety of unconventional therapies. To improve the quality of care for cancer patients, "mainstream" providers must better understand, and even collaborate with, alternative practitioners.

]]> Courtney DeRoo Biology Health care Socialist Utopian Communities in the U.S. and Reasons for their Failures http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/14 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/14 Wed, 08 May 2013 12:10:30 PDT The focus of my research is on why socialist utopian communities could not last in capitalist America. Even though people lived in these isolated communities, they still relied too much on the "outside world." Some of the factors that would ultimately lead to the demise of these communities would be problems with leadership and financial difficulties . I researched two utopian socialist communities in nineteenth century New England: The Northampton Association of Education and Industry and Brook Farm. These two communities were both part of the Transcendental Movement and also were the ideas of Charles Fourier, a French philosopher. I will give a background on both of these communities and how they started and also why they ceased to exist today.

]]> Elizabeth Nako History Returns to Schooling: A Quantile Regression http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/13 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/student_scholarship/13 Wed, 08 May 2013 12:10:28 PDT This paper contributes to the large body of economic literature that attempts to estimate the returns to schooling. It uses quantile regression to estimate the effect of an additional year of education on monthly wage for earners in different quantiles. Using data from the young men’s cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey, the paper attempts to control for ability, family background, geography, and race, and finds that the returns to schooling is approximately 3.49% for men. Furthermore, the paper finds that while the effect of education on earnings is not significantly different from quantile to quantile, the significance of education increases with earnings.

]]> Arman Oganisian Economic policy Lynch Poster http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/17 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/17 Wed, 08 May 2013 07:30:30 PDT Lynch Lecture - Image 3 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/16 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/16 Wed, 08 May 2013 07:30:29 PDT Lynch Lecture - Image 1 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/14 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/14 Wed, 08 May 2013 07:30:28 PDT Lynch Lecture - Image 2 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/15 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/15 Wed, 08 May 2013 07:30:28 PDT Lagos Poster http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/13 http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/peacebuilding_gallery/13 Wed, 08 May 2013 07:30:27 PDT