The overall project purpose was to develop a Career Fair website to facilitate experiential learning in an apparel internship program. Team members conducted videotaped interviews with professionals in various career areas throughout the United States. Career path, job responsibilities, past internship experiences, and career recommendations were highlighted. Edited videotaped interviews were “streamed” to the website, which allowed students to “meet” real professionals, offering concrete experiences to initiate the experiential learning process. Students completed a pre-test, an assignment requiring exploration of the website, and a post-test. All students demonstrated increased awareness of career options after having explored the website than before the experiential learning.
Sponsors: United States Department of Agriculture, Higher Education Program
PIs: Shiretta Ownbey, Donna Branson
Enhancing Health and Safety through
Personal Protective Equipment
This
project is a cooperative regional research project with Oklahoma's contribution
consisting of work toward Objective 1: Assessing the viability of various
textile systems for hand and body protection for selected occupations. The sun
protective headgear studies were completed, data were analyzed and a refereed
presentation was given. Work was initiated on determining the thermal and
evaporative resistances for selected materials suitable to be worn as
protective garment materials or next-to-the skin materials. This work will
continue next year as additional input for the theoretical model is under
development in other states.
Sponsor: Oklahoma
Agricultural Experiment Station
PI:
Donna Branson
Entrepreneurship Awareness and Education
Starting one’s own business is a dream of many,
including today’s non-business college student. Through this grant, two
1-hour curriculums, “Turning Your Passion into a Career” and
“Making a Living From Your Passion,” were developed to introduce
the aspiring non-business major to the underlying basic business concepts and
terminology to help them as they consider and perhaps develop a business.
Sponsor: Coleman
Foundation
PIs: Glenn Muske
Kent State University: Nancy
Stanforth
Housing in Ghana: A Qualitative Study
Housing and community are important as
shelter for protection and safety, as a means of moderating the near
environment for comfort, as a place to express one’s identity and
culture, and as a place of belonging within a community. Data were collected
onsite in Ghana. Photographs were used to confirm information from observations
and interviews. Content analysis of over 1,200 photographs was used to identify
and code different housing styles, materials, and construction methods. Pattern
matching logic was used to group housing styles with similar characteristics and housing
groups based on
combinations of different housing styles. Four traditional housing style
categories emerged: 1)
cylinder-shaped adobe with a conical thatched roof; 2) cube-shaped adobe with a
thatched roof; 3) cube-shaped adobe with a corrugated metal roof; and 4)
cube-shape adobe made with manufactured materials and a corrugated metal roof.
The housing group categories emerged:
1) small rural villages with homogeneity of housing using traditional building
materials, usually adobe with thatched roof; 2) larger rural villages with
homogeneity of form, but incorporating new building materials such as cinder
blocks and corrugated metal; and 3) rural towns with housing in transition
incorporated new building materials and electric appliances, such as
televisions. Some of the most homogeneous villages with traditional housing
were found within easy walking distance of towns and small cities; others were
in remote agricultural areas. In some villages, adobe and manufactured building
materials were combined to embrace the more durable manufactured materials into
the traditional housing forms (shapes). Implications from these findings
indicate that through understanding how technology is gradually being
incorporated into the housing, one can understand how the culture itself might
be eroded as the housing adapts and changes as modernization encroaches on
tradition.
Sponsor: Oklahoma Association of Family and
Consumer Sciences
PIs: Cheryl A. Farr
University of Alabama: Brecca Farr
The Impact of Store Lighting on
Merchandise Color Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
Previous research identifies lighting as
one of the major contributing factors in retail store atmospherics, shopping
behavior and shopper’s decision-making in a retail store environment. The
color of light described by color temperature (CT) and color rendering index
(CRI) can make a dramatic alteration in the perception of color of a product.
Good store lighting has the power to enhance the appearance of merchandise. The
purpose of this study was to identify and compare the subjects’ color
perception and designation of store products according to cultural difference
with regard to CRI and CT of fluorescent light. The experiment was conducted in
the Department of Design, Housing and Merchandising Lighting and Technology
Laboratory. Each cubicle included props to stimulate a retail setting. Four
hues from the Munsell color system were tested using four different colored
T-shirts; red (5R 4/14), yellow (5Y 8.5/14), blue (5B 5/10), and purple blue
(5PB 5/10). The color temperatures were 3000K and 5000 and the CRIs were 75 and
95. The subjects in this study consisted of ninety-eight young adults (49
American and 49 Korean subjects). The Korean subjects designated both blue and
purple blue colors as their actual hue; the American subjects perceived the
same colors as having lighter value and weaker chroma. Findings supported cross-cultural
differences do exist. Retailers and designers can benefit from the insights
this study provides when making lighting selections for retail stores that have
customers from different cultures. Understanding these findings is imperative
for designers and retailers in making lighting selections in retail areas where
the customers’ perception of color is important.
Sponsors: State
of Oklahoma, Philips
PIs: Nam-Kyu Park, Cheryl A. Farr
Learning Anytime Anywhere
Partnerships: A National Model for Inter-Institutional Post Baccalaureate
Distance Education Programs
The purpose of this project is to build a model for inter-university
consortia policies at the post-baccalaureate level for programs offered via the
Internet. Alliance Functional Teams consisting of faculty, college
administrators, finance officers, registrars, and continuing education
directors have been established. The purpose of the Alliance Functional Teams
is to identify policies and procedures that are perceived as barriers to
inter-institutional post-baccalaureate degree programs and then work to reduce
the barriers. The result will be new structures for effective collaboration
that can be used by regional, national, or international alliances.
Sponsors: Kansas State University, United States
Department of Education
PIs: Lona Robertson, Barbara Stoecker
Perspectives of In-Home Recycling Centers
In 2000, the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported an estimated 200
millions tons of municipal solid wastes were generated in 1998, a four million
ton increase from the previous year. This translates to 4.46 pounds daily for
each person in the U.S. With landfill space decreasing and environmental
concerns increasing, the need for recycling is becoming acute. Previous consumer
studies have linked convenience to individual willingness to recycle solid
waste such as aluminum cans, plastic, and newspapers. An important component of
convenience is the incorporation of in-home storage for recycling. The
incorporation of space to store recyclables (in-home recycling center) is
incumbent on residential designers (architects, interior designers, and home
builders). If consumers are to be encouraged to recycle, residential designers
need to promote recycling through the incorporation of in-home recycling
centers.
Findings from
the study indicate only 13.16 percent of the new home construction in Tulsa,
and 3.57 percent in Oklahoma City contained in-home recycling centers. To
understand why the rate of inclusion of in-home recycling centers was so low,
the attitudes and practices of residential designs were assessed. Attitudes and
behavioral intentions of architects, interior designers and home builders
toward environmental factors regarding recycling, recycling behavior and
in-home recycling centers were compared concerning their willingness to promote
and incorporate in-home recycling centers in their designs. The survey included
131 Oklahoma residential designers (almost equally distributed among
architects, interior designers and home builders). In general, there was a high
level of awareness about recycling programs; however, there was a low level of
promotion of recycling through the incorporation of in-home recycling centers.
Implications from the findings indicate the need to educate designers about the
promotion of in-home recycling centers as part of professional responsibility
to the environment.
Sponsor: Tracy Parker
PIs: Tracy Parker, Cheryl A. Farr
Protective Clothing For First Responders to Terrorism Incidents
The reduction of heat burden associated with wearing protective clothing is a significant problem for first responders to terrorism attacks, as well as for military and civilian applications. This 3-year research program will result in the development of a portable, integrated garment cooling system for individuals wearing protective clothing while working in disaster relief environments. Developmental work on cooling technologies, batteries and textile systems is being conducted by a research team with collective expertise in battery technology, cooling devices, textiles and protective clothing. Team members include: Oklahoma State University, Clemson University, Johns Hopkins University, SRI International, Inc., NanoPore, Inc., MesoSystems Technology, Inc., and Sciperio, Inc. William Haskell, U.S. Army Soldier Center, technical advisor for the project, affords the team an opportunity to interface with the army’s protective clothing research program. Recognizing that a battery-driven cooling garment could be used by different types of first responders, the team focused on one target user based on expert opinion and participation in simulated fire and HAZMAT work protocols conducted in Oklahoma City with the assistance of Fire Chief Heirston and Bill Haskell in July 2001. The chosen target user is a HAZMAT worker with a one-hour mission and an average body heat dissipation of 200 Watts.
Year 1 work resulted in the development and testing of multiple 12”x12” prototypes for each cooling technology. The Year 2 goal is the development of an alpha prototype liquid-cooled garment interfaced with a prototype adsorptive cooler (the most promising technology resulting from Year 1 work) and battery.
Sponsor:
Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
PIs: Donna H. Branson, Cheryl A. Farr
Clemson University: Christine Jarvis
Johns Hopkins University: Theodore Poehler
Sciperio, Inc.: Kenneth Church, Robert Taylor
SRI International, Inc.: Philip Cox, Subhash Narang
MesoSystems Technology, Inc.: Ezra Merril
NanoPore: Douglas Smith
Suburban
Japanese High School Students’ Apparel Shopping and Purchasing Behavior
The internationalization of business coupled with the increased acceptance of technology has increased competition for local retailers around the world. The Internet and popularization of television shopping has made new and different merchandise available. Kagoshima, Japan, is a midsize city that is geographically isolated from larger Japanese cities. Kagoshima provides an opportunity to explore the impact of technology on high school students who have grown up with computers and television shopping programs and who will soon be young adult consumers.
The purpose of
the study was to provide information about the shopping and purchasing
behavior, preferences and influences among suburban Japanese high school
students in relation to clothing. Additionally, the study provides insights
into the younger generations’ shopping experience with the Internet and
their current willingness to use the Internet as a shopping tool in the future.
Participants in the study were 289 female high school students at Kagoshima
Junshin High School. The response rate was 97.6 percent. Highlights from the
findings include the following: 1) most tenth graders shopped with their
mothers and most twelfth graders shopped with their friends; 2) 67 percent go
shopping one to two times a week, others shop more frequently; 3) 42 percent
shared clothing cost with their parents and 37 percent stated parents assumed
all of their clothing costs; 4) the greatest fashion influences were from
magazines, TV programs, movies and in-store displays; 5) although price was
identified as important, it was not a statistically significant factor in the
purchasing decisions; 6) only 3 percent of the students had purchased clothing
over the Internet; and 7) the favorite formats for purchasing clothing were
department stores and specialty stores. Based on the findings from this study,
local retailers are not losing market share to the Internet. This implies that
international retailers that rely on Internet marketing to increase sales among
these young Japanese customers need to evaluate their market penetration
strategies to capture this market.
Sponsors: State of Oklahoma, Kiriko Kosedo
PIs: Kiriko Kosedo, Cheryl A. Farr
Teaching Science Principles in the
Laboratory: A Textiles Manual and A Proposal Prototype
The overall goal for this project was to develop, test, and evaluate two prototype modules for a science-based textile laboratory manual that integrates science principles, scientific methods, and evaluation of textile test results. A 2X2 factorial design with a quasi-experimental approach was employed to test two factors: the use and non-use of multimedia laboratory materials and the instructional approach (expository learning and problem based learning or PBL.) To evaluate changes in students’ skill levels, subject content pre- and post-tests were administered. To measure the overall impact, mean scores for the course grades were compared. For overall student evaluation of the textile course, an adapted version of the Ramsden Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was administered. Preliminary analyses of the data indicate that trends exist. Comparing overall learning based on laboratory sections mean grade point averages (GPA), the two treatments (PBL and multimedia) had a positive effect. The lab sections that incorporated PBL experiences had higher mean GPAs than the sections that did not have PBL experiences. The sections having laboratory multimedia experiences had slightly higher GPAs than the sections receiving the same type of instruction without multimedia. Mean scores for the Likert-type scale responses to the CEQ included the following: 1) the sections with the highest mean scores in response to the statements “This course helped me sharpen my analytical skills” and “This course developed my problem-solving skills” were the PBL with multimedia sections; and 2) overall course satisfaction was equal to or higher for the sections with multimedia experiences than sections with the same instructional method but without multimedia. Based on student comments, the introduction of variety (either PBL or multimedia experiences) into the lab instruction was positive. Students were more engaged in the laboratory experience when PBL experiences were incorporated. Projected still images of the test results facilitated the students’ reporting, analyzing and interpreting results. The preliminary interpretation of the results indicates that the introduction of PBL experiences, when appropriate, and the incorporation of multimedia experiences in the laboratory introduce variety that contributes to students’ learning experiences and helps maintain a positive learning environment.
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
PIs: Cheryl Farr, Donna Branson, Shiretta
Ownbey
Tourism
Shopping: Do Retailing Strategies Fit Consumers’ Expectations?
The purposes of the study are to expand
understanding of retailing strategies employed by the tourism industry in
Oklahoma and consumer expectations for travel and shopping in Oklahoma, and to
make recommendations to the Oklahoma souvenir and service industry to better
approach their target markets. The project includes both qualitative and
quantitative studies.
Sponsor: Oklahoma
Agricultural Experiment Station
PI:
Hong Yu
The Virtual
Exchange as a
Critical Thinking and Experiential Learning Tool
The Virtual Exchange is an on-line educational resource designed to enhance critical thinking and problem solving skills. Funding from USDA enabled the researchers to develop the website and write guidebooks during the first year. The second year of funding involved pilot testing the system at three other universities. During the third year, the researchers will conduct comparison investigations concerning the efficacy of using on-line threaded discussions versus traditional in-class discussions as means for stimulating critical thinking among students.
Sponsors: United States Department of Agriculture, Higher Education Program
PIs: Lynne Richards, Donna Branson
Department of
Human Development and Family Science:
Stacy Thompson
School of Hotel
and Restaurant Administration:
Lynda Martin