Tag: Poster 121

Benefit Corporations for the Environment: Avenues for Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in the Pacific

Presenter(s): Ana Garibay Mares − International Studies, Planning, Public Policy And Management, And Chinese

Faculty Mentor(s): Yvonne Braun, Kathie Carpenter

Poster 121

Research Area: Social Science

Funding: Ford Family Foundation Scholarship (funding provided for the independent study period, including travel), and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (employment to continue to pursue relevant research).

China’s unprecedented economic growth has raised concerns about the world’s natural resource reserves; as small island developing states, Pacific Island nations bind in solidarity to address concerns regarding their economic and environmental vulnerabilities as well. This is the era where merging the Chinese State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) model with Benefit Corporations (B Corps) will help facilitate China’s push for green economic growth along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This unique combination can strategically address the triple bottom line that green economies are applauded for: social, economic, and environmental growth. The BRI offers opportunities for China and the Pacific to use SOE funding to address sustainability goals under a B Corp business model. More specifically, the Maritime Silk Road, which forms part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), offers opportunities for China and the Pacific to promote a holistic sense of development, reduce the island’s loan dependency, and propel the island nations towards self-sufficiency. This model equates economic growth to both social and environmental capital. In other words, Chinese SOEs can help standardize green economies by merging the BRI with B Corps to tackle mutual concerns in the Asia-Pacific region.

Helping STEM Students Thrive: Investigating the Relationship of Course Belongingness and Approaches to Learning

Presenter(s): Shan Zhang

Faculty Mentor(s): Shawn Lampkins & Jenefer Husman

Poster 121

 Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

In college, students become increasingly responsible for their learning behaviors which determine their academic performance, known as self-regulation. If instructors expect students to be self-regulated, they need to know what factors they must address to support student self- regulation. We argue that self-efficacy (students’ belief in their ability to complete a task) and course belongingness (feeling of being valued in the course) are related to student self- regulation (SR), low-regulation (LR), deep learning strategies, (e.g., QAH, engagement of material by asking questions that take critical thought) and surface learning strategies (e.g., QAL, asking surface level questions ). The majority of research in university science education have male- dominated samples, our sample is 61% female-identified. We hypothesized that self-efficacy and course belongingness together would explain a significant portion of the variance in SR. By utilizing an existing validated survey of student approaches to learning from 271 undergraduate, non-major physics students, we conducted multiple regression analyses to explore these topics. We found that course belongingness and self-efficacy had strong positive relations with SR and strong negative relationship with LR. We also found that course belongingness and self-efficacy had a positive relationship with QAH and QAL, though its relation was not as strong as with SR. In conclusion, self-efficacy and course belongingness are strongly and positively related to students’ self-regulation. Based on these preliminary results, professors should consider promoting students’ sense of self-efficacy and feeling of belongingness in their courses. We will also explore gender as a moderator and mediator in this context.