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Field Methods is a new class for me, but I am very excited about teaching it this semester. It will have an urban focus and will include Geography students enrolled in it for a methods class and Urban Studies minors taking it as a capstone class. This class will involve field work and you should plan to work on some Friday afternoons as a class. (Students who have signed up for IDIS 400 will be able to sign up for an independent study for 1 credit. Students signed up for GEOG 365 are already signed up for 4 credits.) If this schedule is going to be a problem, please let me know (an email will work).
The class will be quite small (six to eight students), which means that we can decide together what we want to do. The website for the class has descriptions of two of possibilities. What do you think about these two models? What particular issues or methods of urban field work do you want to learn more about? Feel free to comment here or to send me an email.
I like the 2nd model of the class, doing a PAR project. Honestly, I’ve never done a PAR project, personally, it would be interesting conducting one. Also, the project would have community benefits like helping kids learn about the place around them, to name one. If we do decide to do the PAR project another topic that I thought about may be interesting to learn more about with the kids is urban gardens and agriculture, I did research on this topic for urban sociology. We could talk about it with the students, but the potential bump in the road of that topic is most of the semester is not in the prime growing season, unless the gardening/agriculture programs are growing winter vegetables or have greenhouses.
I am so excited to get a comment! Thanks, Matt!
I find the the first Method to be the most appealing because of the connection I will be able to make to my major (Historic Preservation). While I have had the opportunity to conduct surveys I have yet to design my own or be able to interact with the public through interviews. I also am interested in the aspect of a digital component. I would love to create a website of our findings or utilize InDesign to create a report.
The idea of a PAR project is interesting, but I am apprehensive to working in a 5th grade classroom. However, the potential topics for the second option are more appealing to me than the parks option from Method 1, for example school and residential segregation is something I would be very interested in studying. As well as children and outdoor space in general. A topic I could see arising is what in the built environment they contribute to being a sign for “safe”. I.e sidewalks or street lights
I am leaning more towards the second option because school segregation and the project with a 5th grade class seems really interesting to me. I also feel like their would be more human interaction and experiences with the second one. However, I am not entirely set on the second option because observing the park system and the people within them also sound interesting. Also, the digital aspect at the end could be really cool. So, at the moment I am on the fence leaning towards option 2.