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Browsing by Author "Zimmerman, Don, committee member"

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    Development and evaluation of a bilingual nutrition education computer program for Latino children
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2001) Serrano, Elena Lidia, author; Jennifer Anderson, advisor; Kendall, Pat, committee member; Fritz, Janet, committee member; Zimmerman, Don, committee member; Auld, Garry, committee member
    Interactive computer technology and multi-media have advanced in the past ten years as growing opportunities for nutrition education. Few nutrition education computer programs exist for school-aged children, particularly for Latinos. The overarching purpose of this research was to develop a computer nutrition program for low-income Mexican American children in Colorado. This research project spans all levels of software development -with formative evaluation , product development, and evaluation. Development of the CD-ROM program was driven by several theoretical models and results from the formative evaluation . The formative evaluation included focus groups with children and surveys with classroom teachers and media teachers in order to determine preferences for computer programs, particularly in classroom settings. We also sought to address dietary acculturation in the program. Food frequency questionnaires and acculturation scales were administered to children in largely Hispanic areas of Colorado. Several foods were found to be sensitive to change with increasing acculturation -- such as posole, corn tortillas, fresh corn , mangoes, Mexican cream, and beans - and sensitive to adoption . The final computer program contained a total of six components -- including educational modules, games, songs, and infomercials -- focusing on the Food Guide Pyramid and related topics. Foods included in the program were representative of different levels of acculturation (as determined by the dietary acculturation study) . Online evaluation was used to measure gains in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior intentions, as well as dietary choices. The program was implemented in a total of four schools -- two intervention schools and two matched control schools -- in southern Colorado. The computer nutrition education program proved to be highly effective in improving knowledge about the Food Guide Pyramid. The intervention group's knowledge of the Food Guide Pyramid increased by over 50% and was considered significantly higher than the control group at the p<.01 level. Self-efficacy related to using the Food Guide Pyramid to plan meals and snacks also increased significantly. Our findings demonstrated that games and songs were effective in strengthening knowledge about nutrition and the Food Guide Pyramid, regardless of acculturation level. Online data about dietary patterns confirmed findings from the preliminary dietary acculturation study.
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    Gatekeeping in agriculture publications: agriculture editors' uses of information sources and channels
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Talley, Rebecca Suzanne, author; O'Keefe, Garrett, advisor; Zimmerman, Don, committee member; Irlbeck, Nancy, committee member
    Agriculture producers have had a long-standing relationship with trade publications, turning to these sources for information that is used to make decisions in their production management, in turn affecting the entire multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Editors of these trade publications act as gatekeepers of the information that is published, allowing information into the publication or excluding it. Ultimately, this has an impact on the information that reaches agriculture producers and has an overall affect on the agriculture industry. This study examined the criteria agriculture editors value in sources, those sources that are most used and most preferred and why, those channels that are most used and most preferred and why, and if a source' s channel use affects the use of that source' s information. Results indicated that agriculture editors put a high value on sources that provided accurate, unbiased information and were easily accessed. Due in part to these criteria, editors rated sources that are publicly funded higher than most of those that are privately funded as most used and most preferred sources. Editors also indicated that e-mail was the most used and preferred information channel due to ease and efficiency, with the majority feeling that the information channel a source delivered information through influenced the use of that source' s information. Findings from this study indicate that sources may be able to push information to agriculture editors, and ultimately to publication, by conforming to those criteria that editors value and by delivering information through their preferred information channels.
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    Museum soundscapes and their impact on visitor outcomes
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Jakubowski, Robert D., author; Bell, Paul A., advisor; Dik, Bryan, committee member; Zimmerman, Don, committee member; Loomis, Ross, committee member
    Consistent with Attention Restoration Theory, restorative experiences can help people recover from the effects of life stresses. Research suggests that noise can interfere with the restorative process or with factors necessary for restorative outcomes, and there is reason to believe that pleasant sounds such as classical music or nonthreatening sounds of nature can enhance restorative outcomes. Research demonstrates that a visit to a museum or park can result in a restorative experience. The impact of extraneous sounds in such settings might depend on the type of sound and the purpose of the setting. The settings for the current study were an art exhibit and a natural history exhibit at The Wildlife Experience, a museum in Parker, Colorado that focuses on various aspects of wildlife. The art exhibit (Some Like it Hot, Cold Wet, Dry), displayed paintings, sculpture, and taxidermy about wildlife in four climates, and was frequented by enthusiasts of diverse ages, especially adults. The natural history exhibit (CritterCam), contained many different interactive displays based on photos and information gained from cameras mounted on wild animals, focused on wildlife, and tended to attract families with young children. Each day as researchers observed visitors and conducted an exit interview with them (n = 430 art, 433 natural history), either no added sounds were piped into the exhibit (control condition), or a soundtrack of either human voices, instrumental classical music, or natural sounds (birdsong) was piped into the gallery space at a low (approximately 50dB(A)) or high (approximately 60dB(A)) volume level. In general, in the art exhibit natural sounds and classical music yielded the highest dwell times, engagement, satisfaction, and knowledge gain, and human voices, especially louder voices, yielded the worst outcomes. In the natural history exhibit the ambient noise (e.g., children's voices and other crowd noise) somewhat masked the added soundtracks, and there were fewer effects of the added soundtracks; visitors in the control condition (i.e., no added sound) experienced the best outcomes when compared to the other sound delivery conditions, in terms of longer dwell times and lower ratings of noisiness. In terms of dispositional measures, in the art exhibit, extraversion was positively correlated with self-reported knowledge gain, satisfaction, and restoration; and need for cognition was positively correlated with knowledge gain, satisfaction, and dwell time. In the natural history exhibit, extraversion was positively correlated with engagement and knowledge gain; and noise sensitivity was negatively correlated with satisfaction and knowledge gain. Results are consistent with a congruence interpretation: sounds congruent with visitor expectations of an exhibit are more likely to yield a restorative experience.