Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

In the last thirty years, mathematics standards have undergone frequent changes due to two conflicting perspectives: reformists and traditionalists. The purpose of this study is to assess any lasting impacts of the 1997 California Math Standards. I interviewed three faculty in three categories about diversity, curriculum, and stakeholder perspective. Presented here are findings and common themes that emerged from the analysis of interviews. Results showed that a lasting impact of the Math Wars was the 2010 Common Core Standards, written in a way to favor the reform movement of the 1990s. A professional development perspective as an approach is utilized.

The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between implicit gender bias in medical professionals and misdiagnosis in young female-identified patients. The study examines the ways in which the age and gender of the patient can impact the accuracy and timeliness of the diagnoses young women receive. Furthermore, it analyzes how experiences with misdiagnosis alter patients’ perceptions of doctors. The findings of this study are based upon the survey responses of 21 young women, ages 19-25 years old.

Oral contraceptives (OCs) are used by over 100 million women worldwide. They contain synthetic hormones which may alter brain structure and function; however, only a few small-scale neuroimaging studies have examined their effects on the brain thus far. Taking a big data approach, the Jacobs Lab at UCSB launched a database which pairs structural brain scans with reproductive health histories. Preliminary findings from the database found that, compared to never users, OC users had an increase of grey matter volume (GMV) in an area of the brain called the cerebellum (n=48). In this replication study, participants showed similar results (n=24).

This research will argue for the historical significance of interconnectedness between the United States and Kashmir by using military aid archives, government records, and intellectual history. Together they provide the context needed to dispel the myth of the United States’ neutrality and reveal how Kashmir’s existence in American public life predates Indian Prime Minister Modi’s revocation of Article 370. Additionally, the guise of neutrality hides the impact of the United States’ military investments before and during the Kashmir Insurgency, even when the developments in Kashmir distinctly shaped debates in the United States public sphere.

The idea of chivalry came about in the Anglo-Norman period of medieval history and is understood to be a complex code of rules for behavior. One of these rules was to respect women. Furthermore, in many literary texts of the period, when a chivalrous gentleman hopes to offer love to a lady, he is expected to devote his entire life to his beloved. This would lead some to believe that chivalry gave women influence over their male counterparts during the medieval period. In this project, I analyze how the chivalric code gives or denies women power and agency in the texts of Marie de France.

Cultural mismatch theory predicts that a mismatch between the independent values of a higher education institution and the interdependent values of an underrepresented student may pose significant challenges for such students. This study examines the relationships between Greek membership, ethnic identity, perceptions of the university, persistence attitudes, and belonging. Latinx and multicultural-based fraternities and sororities are relatively small and may provide a sense of familismo for Latinx students, thus matching their culture and influencing factors of persistence. We expect that Latinx Greek members will show stronger positive relationships between ethnic identity, persistence, and belonging compared to non-Greek Latinx students.

English and Spanish speakers learn different phonetic systems in their acquisition of their respective languages. Despite having the same phonemic contrast between voiced and voiceless plosives, the stop consonants of the two languages differ in voice onset time, or VOT. They also have different vowels with different formant values. We hypothesized that bilingual children exposed to both languages would display intermediate VOT and vowel formant values for both languages. Measuring readings from lists from four children aged three to five years, we found this to be the case for VOT for only voiced stops and not voiceless stops. VOT for this group seems to collapse into three categories: strongly positive, slightly positive, and negative, to one of which all of their stop productions belong. Vowels did not appear to have a distinct, discernible pattern among bilingual children.

The purpose of this research project is to assess the reliability of UN Peacekeeping as a strategic conflict resolution tool in the context of modern global conflicts. This paper evaluates the efficacy of UN Peacekeeping on the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of operation, and analyzes its performance through the lens of Clausewitz’s concepts of fog and friction. This paper concludes that the systematic challenges peacekeeping operations consistently face at each level of operation, coupled with the increasing complexity of contemporary global conflicts, calls into question the ability of UN Peacekeeping to reliably navigate and resolve modern-day global conflicts.

California’s Indígena population (indigenous people who identify with origin communities in Mesoamerica) has grown over the last 70 years, especially during the 1990s. Simultaneously, the number of youth that have enrolled in the public-school system has increased. However, these youth are often not welcomed and instead experience racial microaggressions within schools that alienate and encourage them to assimilate while abandoning their culture. I will explore the history of displacement of Indígena youth and their interactions in schools. I will discuss a selection of Indígena youth experiences in the education system, while critically analyzing the implicit biases of those around them.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the global Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in tackling educational inequity, with an emphasis on the academic experiences of UCSB students. This research was done amidst the various controversies among local academic institutions, which included the 2019 California college admissions scandals and 2020 cost of living adjustment (COLA) protests. PISA is primarily a topdown initiative as it mainly champions educational equity through collaborations with government officials. This neglects the key role of community actors, such as governors and principals, and does not account for localized complexities, such as federalism in the United States. To identify bottom-up approaches that would complement PISA, a pilot study on the academic experiences of UCSB students was done. Key findings included 88% of the respondents coming from counties with higher standards of living, and only 3% having considered an overseas university education. The paper thus suggests that the global PISA initiative is inadequate in resolving localized educational inequities and raises two bottom-up programs – college open-day sessions in disadvantaged counties and local forums on state education policies – to improve socio-spatial disparities in educational equity.