Independent Studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/10805

This collection consists of a selection of theses completed by students as part of the requirements for the 3- and 4- year Bachelor of Independent Studies degrees. The theses included here were submitted to UWSpace by Independent Studies administrators upon the program’s closing in 2016.

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Arab-Jewish Cooperative Coexistence in Israel/Palestine
(University of Waterloo, 2005) Zer-Aviv, Avi
The current conflict between Arabs and Jews in Israel/Palestine has ruptured relations between the two peoples, and essentially divided them along geographic, economic, cultural, political, and sociological lines. Yet up until about a hundred years ago, these two peoples enjoyed a rich and deep shared history of coexistence, and lived together as neighbours in relative peace for centuries. This thesis is an attempt to uncover those memories, and use them to rekindle the tradition of cooperative coexistence between Jews and Arabs in that region. It comes from listening to the stories of my mother’s parents, both born in British Mandate Palestine, and from my own unique identity as a Canadian-Israeli-Palestinian-Algerian- Hungarian-Polish Jew and pagan. It comes from my own conflict of understanding the creation of the State of Israel as a rescue spot for Holocaust survivors like my father’s mother, and my discontent with religious nationalism and its racist dimensions. It is above all an affirmation that peace is an ongoing relational process worth cultivating, and will never be achieved so long as Jews and Arabs stay separate, segregated, and ghettoized within their respective communities.
Building Student Centred-Communities for Canada's Growing Population of Undergraduate Students
(University of Waterloo, 2014) Barbor, Allan
Over the past decade, Canada’s rising post-secondary student population has resulted in the “studentification" of many university towns. Such unprecedented growth requires new strategies focused on supporting undergraduate students during their transition into off-campus communities. Leaders throughout the community can engage students in high?priority neighbourhoods, through an informed and collaborative approach to development. Their investment in a purposeful and strategic infrastructure will improve student integration as they transition out of residence and into the surrounding communities.
Byron and Swinburne: Propagandists of the Risorgimento - The Manipulation of Historical Sources in Twin Dramatizations of Doge Faliero and Venetian Republicanism in 19th Century Italy
(University of Waterloo, 2016) Damyanovich, Michael
This essay will argue that Lord Byron manipulated historical sources on his fourteenth-century protagonist, Doge Faliero (died 1355), in order to write his historical drama, Marino Faliero: Doge of Venice (published 1821), as a piece of republican propaganda in support of Italy’s nation-building process (the Risorgimento), and that Algernon Swinburne’s rewrite of Byron’s drama, Marino Faliero (published 1885), perpetuated Byron’s manipulation of historical sources for the same purpose. This argument will proceed as follows: In writing his historical drama, Marino Faliero: Doge of Venice, Lord Byron covertly manipulated his supporting historical sources under the pretence of adhering to strict historicity. Byron did so in order to characterize Doge Faliero as a hero of Venetian Republicanism. In so doing, Byron dramatized the necessity of a people’s revolution in parallel visions of fourteenth- and early nineteenth-century Venice. Then, in rewriting Byron’s historical drama for late nineteenth-century Venice and post-unification Italy (after 1870), Algernon Swinburne developed Byron’s heroization of Faliero and updated the drama’s political representations. Swinburne did so in order to remodel Faliero after Giuseppe Mazzini (died 1872), the foremost Risorgimento leader of the effort to make the newly united Italy into a republic. Byron’s and Swinburne’s twin a-historic historical dramas about Doge Faliero served as republican propaganda throughout the Risorgimento, and they reflect more than a century of Venice’s major role therein.
Citizenship for a Modern Democracy: Youth Perspectives on the Canadian Multicultural Reality
(University of Waterloo, 2009) Moores, Erin
This paper explores the links between citizenship and multiculturalism in the Ontario secondary school curriculum Grade 10 Civics course and among Ontario youth. Contemporary citizenship theory suggests that a progressive approach to citizenship, fostering critical thinking, civic participation and commitment to social justice, is particularly necessary in a multicultural nation faced with complex issues like racism and inequity. However, this study offers preliminary support for the idea that Ontario’s approach to citizenship education remains generally conservative in nature and does not create a platform from which students could internalize critical perspectives on multiculturalism. Analysis of the Ontario Grade 10 Civics course and interviews with five recent Ontario high school graduates likewise suggests that students may also retain more conservative attitudes towards citizenship and superficial knowledge about its links to multiculturalism. This paper suggests that more research into how students understand these complex topics might assist educators as they develop more progressive curricula.
Contemporary Approaches to Elementary Piano Pedagogy: A Study of Original Pedagogical Pieces and Representative Elementary Learning Scenarios with a Study on the Integration of Visual Art and Literature into Music Instruction
(University of Waterloo, 2016) Jacklein, Julia
This thesis presents four original compositions for solo piano, each representing one of four elementary-level learning stages. These learning stages may be defined as the pre-reading level, the preparatory level, and Royal Conservatory Grades 1 and 2. Each composition introduces basic musical skills representing standard pedagogical requirements for the given level. An analytical essay describes the pedagogical significance of these compositions, also detailing how each may be taught to an elementary-level student of typical abilities. Three lesson plans and corresponding evaluations demonstrate lesson planning, presentation, and evaluation in elementary-level teaching scenarios; two further lesson plans for hypothetical students at the Grade 1 and Grade 2 levels represent slightly more advanced teaching scenarios. The research demonstrates that students retain information in a more comprehensive and meaningful way when art forms other than music reinforce musical experiences by combining visual, aural, and kinesthetic learning.
Defining, Demanding, and Developing the Critical Thinker
(University of Waterloo, 2013) Emanuel, Tatiana
This thesis examines critical thinking (CT) in education. Research includes a comprehensive literature review, focused on defining CT, understanding CT expectations in education, and expounding on how CT is best developed. To better support CT development and subsequent student achievement, a consensus should be reached regarding the definition of CT, and we consider prominent ideas of CT and its nature to offer a potential encompassing definition. This paper also includes analysis of a selection of Ontario‘s curriculum documents as well as a survey of professors teaching at universities across Ontario to identify CT promotion and expectations. CT is clearly valued in education, and is an important contributor to student achievement and academic success. However, our research demonstrates that explicit secondary school development of CT is often not sufficient considering the demands of higher education.
Dissocation of Subjective and Objective Health Status in the Chinese Population
(University of Waterloo, 2011) Tsuei, Sian
As the general Chinese population becomes more overweight, pressure mounts to explore the reasons behind this trend. Pooling four waves of the Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) into two groups—2004 with 2006 and 1997 with 2000—it was found that the higher socioeconomic status (SES) is positively correlated with perceived health status, but negatively correlated with objective health measures such as being overweight, diabetic, or hypertensive. Contrary to previous theories, in the Chinese population, higher SES is generally positively correlated with better health lifestyle knowledge, and less likelihood of daily use of alcohol and cigarettes. The negative correlation between higher SES and health may be due to increased opportunity cost of time. We find no evidence to support the idea that individuals with higher SES consume more sin goods such as alcohol and tobacco.
Evolving Conceptions of Time and Selfhood in Three Novels by Urula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed, Always Coming Home, and Lavinia
(University of Waterloo, 2014) Pella, Virginia Claire Elizabeth
Since the 1970s, Ursula K. Le Guin has been widely recognized as an author who uses fiction as a means to address fundamental philosophical, political, and ethical questions. Of the many scholarly analyses of her work, however, relatively few consider the implications of her depiction of time and selfhood. Those which do, moreover, concentrate on certain texts and take a limited range of theoretical perspectives. In consequence, neither the enduring nature of Le Guin’s engagement with these issues nor the originality of her treatment of them is generally recognized. This thesis aims to begin redressing this gap by examining the ways in which time and selfhood are portrayed in three major works of speculative fiction, only one of which (The Dispossessed) has previously been considered from this angle. Through a series of close readings, I demonstrate that Le Guin’s depiction of these concepts differs in important ways both from the “common-sense” understandings of time and selfhood prevalent in Western societies and between the three works themselves. The result is a clear evolution, in which the relatively familiar ontological framework of The Dispossessed gives way to a radical reconceptualization of the nature of time and individual existence in Always Coming Home, followed by Lavinia’s subtle but profound reframing of the relationship between time, the individual, and the totality of which he or she is part. Drawing on scholarly analyses of Le Guin’s work, as well as writings from narratology, phenomenology, philosophy of time, and neuroscience, I show that each text constitutes a systematic working through of an alternative way of understanding our individual and temporal existence in the world. This, in turn, forms the basis for Le Guin’s ongoing and in- depth exploration of major ethical questions.
Fermion Doubling in Loop Quantum Gravity
(University of Waterloo, 2015) Barnett, Jacob
For the last 20 years, it has been known how to couple matter to the theory of loop quantum gravity. However, one of the most simple questions that can be asked about this framework has not been addressed; is there a fermion doubling in loop quantum gravity? This is an exceptionally important issue if we are to connect the theory to experiments. In this thesis, we will arrive at a demonstration of fermion doubling around some graphs in the large bare ? limit. To obtain this result, we ?rst perform a Born-Oppenheimer like approximation to the Hamiltonian formulation of loop quantum gravity to work around a theory with a ?xed graph. We then make the case for identifying the energy spectrum this theory with a model of lattice gauge theory which is known to double. Appropriate reviews of fermion doubling and loop quantum gravity are provided along with an outlook of constructing a doubling-free version of LQG. Our ?ndings suggest one should interpret matter in loop quantum gravity in a much different way.
For the Long Haul: Challenging Ideologies of Social Movement Participation through Counter-stories of Activist Burnout
(University of Waterloo, 2015) Wettlauffer, Kathryn
It is a widely accepted truth, in the academic and activist literature alike, that burnout jeopardizes the sustainability of social movements and their actors. More disputable is whether its cause, or blame, lies in collective pressures or personal choices. This thesis takes up critical theory to develop a narrative inquiry into the dynamics between the two, in pursuit of answers to more complex questions about the origins of burnout: What ideologies of social movement participation dominate activist spaces? How do they manifest in subcultural norms and practices? And how do participants themselves navigate or negotiate these collective expectations, in order to “do activism” or do activism differently, in ways that are personally (un)sustainable? Narrative analysis was conducted using data collected during life story interviews with ten social and environmental justice activists from across Southern Ontario. Four distinct yet intersecting “ideologies” were discerned as forces shaping social movement participation within this region: an ideology of what activism is? an ideology of activist spaces as (anti)oppressive? an ideology of community relationships? and an ideology of how commitment is experienced or proven. These “activist ideologies” are also traced back to their roots in key ideologies that dominate western society more broadly, demonstrating an application of Althusser’s theory of the ideological state apparatus and how the “trickledown effect” of oppressive relations—even amongst progressives and radicals—may be interrupted or subverted. This theoretical analysis is complemented by a creative analytic theatre script crafted from the original research data. Its purpose is twofold: While offering the reader a more engaging representation of that data in the context of this thesis, “the play” is also designed for use in social movement spaces as a tool to both encourage the sharing of activists’ own burnout experiences and spark deeper, more strategic discussions of long-term social movement sustainability.
Game Design Concepts
(University of Waterloo, 2009) Bishop, Orin
The term “game design” is not well defined; it is used to mean many different things which oftentimes are only peripherally related to the actual design process, and many books purportedly on the subject do not adequately cover the core concepts of game design proper. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the more formal aspects of game design separate from other aspects of games such as art, production, audio, and programming. My objective is to flesh out a set of guidelines that can be applied across all types and media including both digital and non-digital games, and touch upon various difficulties and challenges that a game designer is likely to face in each stage of the design process from initial concept to playtesting and tweaking. Along the way I provide specific examples of how formal gameplay might be altered by specific changes to internal logic and mathematics, and how this might affect the experience for the players. The focus is on games as formal, mathematical systems, and I examine games from their basic elements outwards, though I also explore such topics as the incorporation of theme and narrative into formal gameplay. Throughout the thesis I present a number of different ways of looking at and thinking about gameplay, with the hope that the reader may emerge with a clearer vision of the underlying formal systems of all games.
I Don't Care Whose Fault It Is! Or, An Introduction to the Short-Term Forecasting Theory, Implementing Fuzzy-logic and Neural Networks
(University of Waterloo, 2006) Bernstein, Jordan
In contradiction with much conventional economic theory, this thesis argues that successful short-term forecasting is both possible and practicable. Beginning with the assumption, and widely-held belief, that there are patterns to be discovered in the stock market, the thesis develops the Short-Term Forecasting Theory (STFT) to demonstrate how useful and accurate short-term forecasts might be achieved. In short, this thesis posits that, if short-term financial forecasting of an equity can be broken down to a mechanical procedure, the problem of short-term forecasting is reduced to the question of finding the proper tools for this procedure. This thesis presents two computing methods – fuzzy logic and neural networks – that, when combined, could serve as an appropriate tool for implementation.
Imagination: A Tool with Potential
(University of Waterloo, 2012) Vukovich, Heidrun
This thesis deals with imagination as a tool in light of two academic disciplines: philosophy and education. In the history of philosophy, imagination appears as an intentional tool for cognizing, and in education, the child’s self-generated, imaginative activity serves as an integrative tool for cognitive processes and for self-awareness. The use of imagination in the history of philosophy reveals time-sensitive stages of differentiated, imaginative activity and intentionality. A similar time-organism of imaginative activity occurs in the developing child. Both time processes point to an evolving but de-linearized becoming human (Karl Koenig), which imply an evolutionary perspective of consciousness. This becoming human establishes itself in times of crisis and windows of opportunity, most obvious in child development. Similar relationships of opportunity and crisis are perceived in scientific research and in quantum physics. My background for this enquiry is education. In observing how educators face the challenge of declining academic skills in the global competitiveness of “knowledge as wealth” paradigm (Government of Canada), we see in the educational context the relative one-sightedness of causal thinking and information technology. This priority has undermined other modes of cognition. What is important beyond formal, abstract modes are empathy and interpersonal functioning skills that require imaginative activity. For education to fulfill its role in the midst of present cultural shifts, it must review its broader mission of culturalization. It must replace the present curricular-based school system with a postmodern pedagogy of whole child education. Kieran Egan’s imaginative education and Rudolph Steiner’s education towards freedom, both observe the child’s own time-sensitive cognitive processes in light of human becoming. In detailing their approach, imaginative activity accounts as an integral learning tool for Egan, and further stabilizes and harmonizes the development of the self in Steiner’s Waldorf Education.
Justice that is Healing: Responding to Domestic Violence in Aboriginal Communities
(University of Waterloo, 2011) Workman, Gloria
All Aboriginal communities are dealing with the effects of domestic violence. This thesis includes an exploration of the magnitude, outcomes and conditions that have been exacerbated by domestic violence with the goal of discovering ways to cope, challenge and prevent abuse within family life in Aboriginal communities. After reading a book called Returning to the Teachings, Exploring Aboriginal Justice by Rupert Ross, many questions came to mind: How would restorative justice processes work for situations of domestic violence? Was it even an appropriate response for situations of such a complex nature, particularly in Aboriginal communities? This kind of research is extremely important to help decision makers understand the urgency of the situation. There is a need to change the way that the justice systems deal with situations of domestic violence within Aboriginal communities. The health and well-being of the ever increasing number of future generations of Aboriginal children and youth depend on these changes, as they grow and develop into contributing members of their communities. I conducted a literature review, participated in numerous workshops and interviewed four people who helped me to gain a better understanding of justice as healing processes. Domestic violence is a significant, complex challenge within Aboriginal communities that has its roots in decisions made by western governments and churches to assimilate Aboriginal people into mainstream society. The warehousing of children in residential schools (over a hundred year period) and the ‘scooping’ of Aboriginal children into the foster care system (in the 1960s) destroyed families, communities and nations and left parents to pick up the shattered pieces of their families' lives. So much harm has been created for Aboriginal families and communities as a result of decisions made by mainstream hierarchies that it will take an enormous amount of resources and changes in how social services and justice systems deal with situations of domestic violence within Aboriginal communities. It will require a paradigm shift that puts Aboriginal people, particularly Aboriginal women, in charge of programs and services that promote the healing and restoration of their families and communities.
Leveraging Transmedia Communication Strategies to Improve Engagement and Foster Collaboration in Citizen-Science Projects
(University of Waterloo, 2017) Zoll, Charmian L.
Citizen science is the term used for the practice of harnessing non-expert, volunteer efforts to further scientific research using a crowdsourcing approach to collect, record, and analyze data and to fulfill other task work related to research. Maintaining enough interest and motivation to sustain participant engagement and involvement presents a challenge for project organizers. Current research indicates that a large percentage of participants contribute enthusiastically to citizen-science projects for a short period of time, only to lose interest, disengage from the project, and stop contributing. However, communication strategies can counteract some volunteer attrition by continually underscoring the importance and value of their contributions, and by raising a project's profile to keep it top-of-mind, relevant, and interesting to participants. This thesis explores how citizen-science projects could apply or adapt transmedia storytelling, communication and engagement techniques - particularly in a context similar to documentary filmmaking - in order to reward contributors with a positive, integrated media experience to bolster engagement with the subject matters and the goals of long-term research projects. It will examine the history of public participation in science, the history of modern participatory culture, and how new media strategies can by applied toward a top-down, novice-level, biological - and environmental - monitoring project (the most abundant type of project in citizen science.)
Maps of Human Communication: Science and the Arts
(University of Waterloo, 2009) Bandyopadhyay, Sujoy
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the function of language as a map that navigates the perception of human reality. In the thesis, attention is paid to the structure of speech, and whether or not it accurately represents the structure of empirical knowledge. This thesis also examines how, in a scientific context, paradoxes and confusion in quantum mechanics can be avoided through the use of a linguistic formula. Such a formula will permit the structure of speech to be congruent with the structure of empirical knowledge, as it pertains to the description of scientific experiments. The structure imposed onto the content of films by certain creative techniques are also examined in this thesis. The overall conclusions are that while the use of a linguistic formula could be useful in a scientific context, a strict adherence to the structure of empirical knowledge might not be appropriate in the area of film-making, because it might stifle creativity or be viewed as censorship.
Mending the Broken Telephone: Moving Forward from Theory to Practice in Supporting the Well-being of Sensitive Children
(University of Waterloo, 2016) Ly, Stefanie
This project examines current and historical research in developmental psychology and neuroscience to support the idea that nurturing familial and school relationships will create empathic, compassionate and creative future adult citizens and leaders, and thereby a healthy society. I argue that, however helpful they might be, changes to the public school elementary curriculum alone cannot bring about the desired objective. Many years of experimentation with “character training” curricula have amply demonstrated this. This paper culminates in recommendations for the ideal approaches to ensuring the necessary healthy relationships premised on the mentorship of parents, teachers, and other caregivers by child development professionals to support the unfolding of healthy individuals of all temperaments.
Performimg Education: The Utopian Potential of Creative Peer-to-peer Sexual Health Education for Queer Youth
(University of Waterloo, 2012) Ligate, Ashling
In this cultural moment, young queers are struggling to imagine themselves and find community. A significant component of enabling a youth's self-discovery is providing access to inclusive and culturally-relevant education about their bodies, especially as it relates to sexual health. Current models of instruction are limited. Institutional learning environments may rely on materials that are overtly or subtly homophobic (for example, speaking only of heterosexual relationships outside of the small section or chapter on other forms of sexual orientation). If a youth is lucky enough to encounter materials that strive to be more inclusive, the communication method may be dry and purely factual, leaving the youth to attempt to translate useful information into their daily life. This project addresses the gap in sexual health education for queer youth. I argue for the potential of using disidentificatory performance as a medium through which to build a self-sufficient commons for young queer people. In order to first identify the markers of this method of communication, I draw upon the work of Jose Esteban Munoz, a queer theorist and performance studies scholar. I conducted a critical content analysis of the fifth episode of the online video series called Heavy Petting and considered whether or not it could be considered an example of disidentificatory performance used for sexual health education. In my analysis of Heavy Petting, four themes arose, each of which related to things that are needed in order for a young queer commons to be self-sufficient: (1) tools for queering toxic tropes; (2) communication methods that allow for dissensus; (3) stylish politics grounded in a subversive aesthetic; and (4) role models and educators who will help create an intimate queerworld, in the words of Munoz. The results of my findings indicate that the Heavy Petting video is an example of disidentificatory performance, in that it satisfies the three criteria that I name as constitutive of the genre. This suggests that such peer-to-peer educational projects do indeed hold the potential to support commons building among young queer people.
Positive Materialsim: How Does Money Shape Family Happiness?
(University of Waterloo, 2009) Leslie, Trevor
Why do some families let money shape their happiness in a negative way while others control their money and shape their happiness in a positive way? Maslow (1943) described his first two levels in his Hierarchy of Needs as both materialistic and positive, that is support of life and safety, and yet materialism has a negative connotation in Western society. I conducted eight in-depth qualitative interviews with couples in the Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Demographically they were very similar by age, number of children, duration of marriage, education, family income, and proximity to grandparents. Existing literature and statistics suggest that many families fall prey to excessive negative materialism, yet the results of this study suggest that these families use materialism positively to help shape their happiness. Therefore, I submit my Positive Materialism Theory - A person or group who uses materials or materialism to facilitate spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values and as a result increases their happiness quotient. If families understand that money can be positive, (that money buying happiness is not negative), maybe this awareness will help families realize that “money can buy happiness” and take steps to accomplish this.
A Prototype Web Platform to Facilitate Public Engagement with Medical Evidence about Rheumatoid Arthtritis Medications
(University of Waterloo, 2016) Baker, Adam
Contemporary technologies and user interface design enable people to routinely interact with data in their everyday lives. While consumer applications for shopping and travel often feature data-driven user interfaces, health resources rarely do. These resources rely on manual translation of medical evidence into prose instead of providing users the capacity to interact with underlying data. The abstraction away from details about treatment options, including data about efficacy, harms, and patient-reported outcomes, stands in the way of people who may wish to become fully informed when taking on important medical decisions. In spite of barriers that restrict access to and potential to apply medical evidence, this project explored whether contemporary open-source Web technologies could be adapted to create datadriven resources for the exploration of such evidence. A prototype platform and example applications were developed using JavaScri+I3pt and React.js, with Google Spreadsheets as a data store for medical evidence related about twelve disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Research findings were manually encoded from diverse sources, and a controlled vocabulary and data visualization components built to bridge the gap between outcomes and data publishing formats favored in research, and issues important to patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The volume and heterogeneity of source evidence revealed no straightforward parallel to consumer data-driven online applications, especially where evidence conflicts or is uncertain. Nevertheless, this thesis demonstrates that extant and ready-made technologies can be combined to create an extensible, data-driven platform and user interface elements to investigate and visualize certain kinds of evidence about chronic disease treatment options. Future research might investigate how such platforms might be incorporated into patient-facing decision aids, automated synthesis of research findings, and collaborative tools to encode evidence.

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