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OUTD 2511 Blog Prompt 9-10

These three things I know for certain about outdoor recreation research:

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Date: Through this class it brought me about to high school where I learned about both qualitative and quantitative dates. But, this class showed me that I do prefer qualitative data because the collected date is more than just figures on a sheet of paper. I enjoy how qualitative data represents the individual's thoughts.

Ethics: I know that ethics are one of the most vital when doing research. Ethics are moral principles that help guide a person's decision making. I know that it is crucial when performing research that individuals who are in a vulnerable position will require an REB. Ethics are important to understand when doing research because it gives people the respect they need such as privacy, and dignity. Ethics in research help promote a safe environment and values of each individual. REB are special for youth that can legally not aloud to be in research due to it being vulnerable Neuman and Robson explain that “unless a researcher meets two minimal conditions: (1) a legal guardian grants written permission, and (2) the researcher follows all standard ethical principles to protect the participant from harm” (Neuman & Robson, 2018).

Coding: Coding is an easy way to organize your notes, and to help you with research. An example of this is seen in my podcast group as I made a survey, and took all the data and organized it to make sure that the data was concise and easy to follow. But I have also used my experience from highschool data management to make sure that I properly deal with the data that is collected.

These three things I am still confused by:

Interviewing: I have never interviewed someone in my life face to face. Unlike where I have used google forms to ask questions. I think it would be beneficial if i have a chance to interview someone in the future to help me with research.

Is research mandatory when I do not plan on doing any?

Invisible Backpack: I still do not fully understand what the Invisible Backpack is. I tried to do some research on my own and the first thing that pops up on google is white privilege so now i am even more confused about this whole invisible backpack. I can kinda understand it when research is being done however, I do not understand it for each individual.

These three things I know for certain about me as an outdoor recreation researcher: I understand why research is important. However, in this program I do not plan on doing any research within the program unless it is for assignments, and I do not plan on doing any after university due to the career field I am going into. I understand how it is relevant for this program if you are going into a field to do research but I do not think this should be a mandatory class.

Qualitative data: If I had to do research on a topic again for class I would want to focus on qualitative data because I prefer the words of people of just numbers. People can express way more emotions and give you quotes for research

I don't like doing research in topics that do not interest me: Not to be a debbie downer, But throughout this course I did not like not having the freedom of creating your own blog prompts. Because of this some of my blog posts were mediocre and I did not put as much focus into a lot of them. Luckly, for the podcast I was very interested in the topic because it involved rock climbing and mental health/ well-being. For most of my education I have always focused on doing assignments on well-being and mental health.

I like learning about mental- health and well-being: To continue with mental health and well-being would most likely be the only thing I will do research on due to the benefits of outdoor recreation and mental health. But I also love the correlation between extreme sports and mental health and how beneficial it is to take part in an extreme sport.

These three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:

I need to be less vague: When it comes to doing work that I am not interested in I tend to be vague when explaining or writing. I also struggle with communication and giving good examples for work. I need to be able to expand my thinking and relate it to my thesis and just in general

Creating/analyzing surveys: I would like to spend more time creating surveys because I feel like I lost that skill when I went into university. But in highschool I was pretty good at it. That being said, I would like to create more in the future to help me expand my knowledge and help me with my research for clubs, assignments or my own personal use. I would also like to explore new programs such as Google forms, QuestionPro, SurveySparrow, SurveyLegend are all programs that I would like to use to further my experience with research to be more confident in my skills.

Group work: I also need to spend more time with group work. I enjoy working alone most of the time and not having to rely on others to make sure that they get their jobs done so that the group can succeed. Furthermore, the more time i will spend with the groups will help me with my leadership style since im a Laissez-Faire leader i tend to lay back and let someone else take control of the group. I feel like I just let the leader tell me what to do and I have no problem with that, it just does not help me with my leadership skills within group work.

References

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 3 Ethics in Social Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 40 - 62). essay, Pearson.

tcoutd2511

Sup Zach,

Well first off I like your explanation of ethics considering I know mine was not the best and could use some work lol. Bruh how do you understand coding? I don’t know if I am just overthinking it or what but it just confuses me. The way you explained how you used coding for your podcast makes sense, but I don’t even know how to explain it like the term and knowing what you did is just not matching up to me.

Is research mandatory when I don’t plan on doing any? Love that you mentioned this because overall I don’t see why this class is mandatory in rec, we don’t have to do labs where we analyze the data we collected so I don’t see the purpose in this class. I think it should be more mandatory in the Natural Resources field.

To me when I think about the invisible backpack I just compare what experience some people have compared to me in the rec field. There are a couple people in our class that have been canoe tripping since they were kids, grew up going to camp, or their parents have taught them everything they know and prepared them well for this field. Personally I didn’t have may of that, any skills that we learned in rec are completely new to me and I am starting from scratch. So those who have more experience than I do have more in their “backpack” if that makes sense meanwhile mine is empty (in terms of experience in rec).

I agree where I wish that we had more freedom, I’m not proud of all my blogs and I know I would have been more committed and done a better job if they were prompts that interest me. Of course the blogs had to be related to course material and, well the material is pretty dull

Peace out girl scout,

Tay-Dawg

demoutd2511

My final takeaways from this course

Three Things I know for certain about outdoor recreation research:

The Importance of Ethics and Protecting the Confidentiality of Participants

From this course, I learned about the importance of ethics and being an ethical researcher. Ethical researchers might not get many rewards and little praise, but that is better than the long list of consequences an unethical researcher can face when caught (Neuman, 2018). The best preparation for ethical behaviour is to internalize a sensitivity to ethical concerns, to adopt a serious professional role, and to interact regularly with other researchers. Moveover, the scientific community demands ethical behaviour without exceptions” (Neuman, 2018). The ethics tutorial by TCPS-2 also taught me a lot about ethics, such as the level of confidentiality needed with participants of many age-ranges, mostly children. The textbook explains what scientific misconduct is, and two forms of it, research fraud and plagiarism. I had heard of plagiarism before, from my other University classes and that blurb in all the syllabuses, but also from an Academic Integrity Matters (AIM) course I did last year.

Invisible Backpacks in Research

Every person has an invisible backpack that affects their life. A person’s invisible backpack can affect, not only other people’s opinions and views of them, but also their own ideals, ideas, and opinions about the world around them, including any research they partake in (Hooykaas, 2022).

My invisible backpack affects and impacts my views and opinions on the things around me.

My Invisible Backpack Photo Credit: Drew Miller, made on Canva

Bad Science: How to spot it

Another thing I learned from this class was Bad Science and how to spot it.

Photo Credits: Hooykaas, 2022

The 12 tips to spotting bad science are:

Sensationalized Headlines

Misinterpreted Results

Conflict of Interests

Correlation & Causation

Speculative Language

Sample Size Too Small

Unrepresentative Samples

No Control Group Used

No Blind Testing Used

‘Cherry-picked’ Results

Unreplicable Results

Journals & Citations

I used these tips for spotting bad articles when writing my final paper for a different class this semester. I searched for keywords and read the abstracts for each one that came up, along with also avoiding the ones with “sensationalized headlines [and titles].”

Three Things I’m still confused about are:

How I will use this knowledge I have gained from this class in my future, as right now I am not planning on going into a career in the research field; I’m leaning more towards the outdoor education field.

Some of the research-related terms and phrases. I have learned many terms from this course, through the textbook and the slides. An example of a phrase I’m confused with is ‘Axial Coding’, which from the textbook is defined as “a second coding of qualitative data after open coding. The researcher organizes the codes, develops linkages among them, and discovers key analytic categories” (Neuman, 2018). Another phrase is ‘Alternative Hypothesis’, and when I looked up the definition in the textbook, I didn’t know one of the words, ‘null hypothesis’, that was part of the definition, so I had to learn what that term meant to figure out what my original confusing term meant. This occurred many times throughout the assigned textbook readings for me.

How to use Tumblr. Before this class, I had never used Tumblr or any blogging platform. I have learned how to post, and repost and reply to other’s posts. One thing that still confuses me about Tumblr is how sometimes when I click on someone’s post or repost to read it, it pops up on the side in a smaller area; I’m not sure why, but it only happens randomly, so it is not too bad.

Three things I know for certain about me as an outdoor recreation researcher:

I prefer to analyze and use qualitative research over quantitative when researching. I don’t mind analyzing numbers and more concrete data, but qualitative data, with its information in words, pictures, sounds, visual images or objects (Neuman, 2018) is more my style.

I currently plan to not go into a career in the research field, more aiming for the outdoor education field. But I have learned that if I am interested in and like the topic I’m researching, whether outdoor-related or not, I will be more excited and passionate about it. For example, when I was writing the script for my podcast group, I was much more excited about writing the sections about ghost towns and shipwrecks over the rest of it.

Three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:

Taking time and having more practice with writing research/survey questions, whether the questions are quantitative or qualitative. I don’t have much practice writing either type of questions, or really any survey research questions before this class.

Organizing my research notes better. I need to spend some time improving my note collecting method, which right now is to put everything in one doc, under general headings and with a certain note to remember which one of my references it came from. This works for some assignments and projects, but for others, that have a lot of research and notes, it is a little confusing.

More confident in myself, in my researching skills and in general. I’m not the most confident person, with my skills and knowledge, or sharing them with others. I have gained some confidence over the last year and a half, as I am still often very quiet, but now I will sometimes offer my opinions and thoughts, more than just when I have to, like after being called on in class.

References:

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 2 Theory and Social Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 21 - 40). essay, Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 4 Reviewing the Scholarly Literature and Planning a Study. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 62 - 79). essay, Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 5 Designing a Study. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 79 – 102). essay, Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 14 Nonreactive Qualitative Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 305 - 327). essay, Pearson.

tcoutd2511

My little Drewcifer!

So many people have talked about ethics in their blog post when it comes to the “what I know” section. I think its so cool that we all got an understanding of that within this class because it is a bigger part of research than what I thought it was. Looking at your invisible backpack I was kinda surprised to see “fully vaccinated” on there because I didn’t really consider that a privilege before, but now that you brought it up, it makes complete sense because I know many people who “weren’t allowed” to get vaccinated, so I like that you included that!

I relate to all of your points made in the second section. I’m still a bit confused in how to use tumblr as it doesn’t always let me add photos and on my home page it never even show the pages that I’m following so I never see anyone's posts and have to go looking for it instead. I don’t understand why this is a required class for rec, I think it should be optional because I know personally I don’t plan on doing big research projects. There were multiple terms that I don’t understand, especially when it comes to coding.

I think majority of people can agree that we feel more motivated to research when it is a topic we are interested in. Shipwrecks and ghost towns?? This sounds like an interesting podcast!

Now Drewcifer you should have more confidence because everyone loves you!! I have seen you comes out of your shell so much in the past year and I am so proud of you!

Peace out girl scout,

Tay-Dawg

Blog 9 & 10

Things I know about outdoor recreation research:

1) Ethics: Personally I have never given much thought to ethics. It was mentioned at the beginning of the course that kids under 18 need parental permission and need to know what is being asked of them. I can’t say I have given much thought but when this was brought up it made total sense. Children are considered to be vulnerable people, so when doing research the researcher has to meet a couple standards “1: a legal guardian must grant written permission. 2: researcher follows all standard ethical principles to protect the participant from harm” (Neuman and Robson 2018).

2) Research in Outdoor Recreation is broad. Within rec there are more topics to be researched than what people think there are. Research topics can include impact on mental health, tourism, national parks, interpretation, justice and equality, and access for marginalized citizens are a few examples. Through various classes I have been able to make this connection. In Parks and Tourism we discuss how tourism affects parks and how interpretation is laid out within a national park. In majority of the rec classes i have taken so far there is always a lesson on equality, in fact one of our instructors has just recently completed his Masters and conducted a seminar on Feminism in Recreation.

Four things I am still confused by:

1) Levels of theory. Macrosocial, mesosocial and microsocial. I don't quite understand what the purpose is exactly of even having levels of theory nor do I have a full understanding of the definitions provided. I don't get the difference, having examples help but overall I just don't have a great understanding as to what the purpose is and if they should be looked at with different perspectives.

2) Critical Reflexivity. A decent amount of context was given with this topic but I'm just genuinely overwhelmed by it. I am confused as to what questions I should be asking myself as a researcher, how often and how I examine my own work with different research topics. How do I know when I should input my own opinion? How am I guaranteed to stay within ethical standards? How do I know if I have crossed a line? What is intersubjectivity? Intersubjectivity apparently means that “the nature of your interactions remains unchanged during the research project” (Hookyass, 2022). This definition does not make sense to me, I don't understand how your intentions of an interaction could change anyway.

3) Coding. I don’t get how or why someone would want to code their data, I don't even know if what I said makes sense which is how confused I am. There were 3 stages presented in Grounding Theory, I have no clue when someone would use that method and why they would choose it over an alternative method.

4) Sample sizes. How do you know when you have a good sample size? How little is too little? How many is too many? How do you know when you have the right amount to actually come up with a thesis or conclusion?

Three things I know about myself as an outdoor recreation researcher:

1) I like to work with qualitative data because I feel that I can make more meaning from it and I genuinely enjoy hearing what people's personal experiences are or opinions are about the topic being researched or question being asked. With that I enjoy working with people in an interview format because they are “social relationships that involve rapport” (Neuman and Robson, 2018). Meaning that there is better communication and it is easier to understand each other.

2) I am more engaged if I like the topic I am researching. For my podcast group we are researching the use of recreation as a therapeutic source and effects on well being. To me I think this is a pretty basic topic that has been covered plenty of times and it gets repetitive. In Foundations last year I had to write a research paper and I chose the topic of marginalized citizens and their accessibility to recreation. I found myself being a lot more engaged in the research paper than the topic my podcast group chose.

3)I prefer interviews over surveys. I like interviews more because you are able to go more in depth about a question if you would like and if the interviewer and interviewee are both passionate about a topic you might gain more insight and be able to clarify what they have said further. It is much easier to interpret and you get to see and hear someone's true feelings about the topic.

These three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:

1) Because I would prefer to conduct interviews over surveys, I need to create better open-ended questions that will get me answers that I can analyze and make better meaning of. As well as asking questions that play off each other and make sense, avoiding jumping from one question to the next and try to have more of a conversation. When conducting an interview it would also force me out of my shell a bit as in most cases I am an ambivert, so this would be a quick way for me to get over the anxiety I have talking to people, because I promise I really do like talking to everyone!

2) Avoiding bias in terms of who I am interviewing. Being in second year rec I do not have the ability to conduct actual interviews that require more effort behind the scene. I only have the ability to interview people in the class. I know the personalities of my classmates, I know who likes doing what and who spends the most time outdoors and who has the most experience in the outdoors. If I want accurate data I should avoid only interviewing those who are the definition of outdoor rec and instead interview people who have contrasting personalities in order to get the full scope of answers.

3) Committing to a hypothesis. Don't get me wrong I am decent at making hypotheses, it's just that I don't always see the point in making one and I never make one that I fully believe in. I make one and I'm just kinda like ya it makes sense so let's call it a day and move on from that. I don't really have a goal or answer in mind when I am researching. Who knows, maybe if I did it might make it a bit easier to narrow down my searches when reading an academic journal.

Overall there is more to research that I don't understand compared to what I do. I didn’t realize how in depth research can be because I haven't given much thought to it before. I have more respect for it, now realizing how detail oriented it can be.

References:

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 3 Ethics in Social Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 40 - 62).

Hookyass, A. (2022). Research Design. OUTD Week 2, slide 23.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 7 Qualitative and Quantitative Sampling. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 131 – 160).

evsoutd2511

Blog 7

For research and innovation week, I attended a seminar called Water Justice for Planetary Wellbeing. It discussed the ways remote Indigenous communities suffer at the hands of the government due to inaccessibility to water on their own land, as well as the ways the world uses water in non-sustainable fashion. The research available in this presentation was from firsthand experiences of the presenter, who travels to remote communities to discuss water, and other sources. Unfortunately, I could not return to these sources to investigate more after the presentation, as I was never sent the link to the presentation afterward– but the presentation referenced scientific journals and articles about worldwide and North American water usage and focused on how it is used in excess. For example, it discussed how many desert states experience droughts due to overuse of water in environments that don’t naturally have enough water to support the kinds of mass production (via farming) that take place, and so water is moved around. It discussed the injustices that remote communities face, with governments promising to bring clean water while making excuses about why it can’t happen, while subsequently forcing oil pipelines through their land. Though it was not explicitly discussed, I can imagine some difficulties in researching the impacts of water injustice would come from differences in values between groups of people. Some people value profit more than marginalized people, and researching the differences and origins of who holds power must have been difficult (ex. Staying neutral in situations of injustice).

tcoutd2511

That is a presentation I wish I had attended!! it sounds super interesting and current. Since moving to Thunder Bay I have met a few people who live on reserves by Kenora. They have said that the water situation that they are in is not horrible but it could be better. Its crazy to think about how much water gets polluted and overused, coming from the grater Toronto area I don’t think much of it but I am glad wen it is brought up because ti us a real issue that I should be aware of even if I am not effected. I remember having to read a chapter from my geography textbook in first year and I was really just blown away from how much we misuse and overuse water especially when it comes to farming. It should be accessible to everyone and it is the governments job to make that happen.

Taylor

mrpoutd2511

Recreational Activities Trivia Quiz

What is the context?

I chose the Recreational Activities Questions and Answers Trivia Quiz. It asked a variety of questions regarding what is and what isn’t considered a recreational leisure activity. I got 6 out of 10 on this quiz because of the poorly written and ambiguous questions.

How well are the questions written?

The questions are not written well. A lot of the questions could be interpreted in a variety of ways and the confusion in the wording made me get some questions wrong.

Might there be variety/ambiguity in the responses that lead to poor results?

Some questions are more open to interpretation and shouldn’t have a right or wrong ex. whether watching tv is or isn’t a recreational activity.

What is considered leisure recreation for one might not be for another. For example, my grandma loves mowing her lawn and it’s her favorite thing to do in the summer. In her case it is recreation. This activity might be non-recreational for some and recreation for others. This is an example of where you can’t have a true or false selection.

The majority of the questions consider it to be a recreational activity only if there’s social engagement occurring as well. This is confusing because in this context, golf, for example, is considered a recreational activity if it’s done in a group setting but not if you’re golfing solo.

This quiz is flawed because there is so much open to interpretation and many exceptions come up in their scenarios.

What are some strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths - the type of question is varied.

Weaknesses - images don’t necessarily match the question (ie. you were supposed to choose the correct recreation in the photo which was a photo of people diving into a pool. The correct answer was “skydiving”.) Additionally, questions are ambiguous and open to interpretation and therefore can’t be marked right or wrong definitively.

Some of the answers in the quiz were also incorrect. In question 2, for example, it’s stated that there are no recreational/leisure activities that can be bad. Although this is open to interpretation it is also blatantly false. “There are good and bad forms of recreation” (Rossman, Schlatter 2019). Drug use is considered a recreational activity but also harmful and ill-advised.

How might it be improved?

The quiz could be improved with less ambiguous questions with concrete right or wrong answers. A better introduction explaining their definition of recreational activities would help understand their perspective on the topic.

Consideration should be given to the definition of recreational activity.

Some things the writers might want to consider to make for a better quiz include: implementing good question writing, not confusing beliefs with reality, and avoiding slang and abbreviations, ambiguity and vagueness. (Neumen, Robson 2018)

References:

https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mta3njixmq==0ep9

Rossman, J.R., Schlatter, B.E. (2019). Chapter 1 Basic Programming Concepts. In Recreation Programming (8th Edition, pp. 1-20). Sagamore-Ventre.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 8 Survey Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 161- 191). Pearson.

tcoutd2511

Sup Penner! Ok so I just did the quiz and all I have to say is BRUTAL. It was awful. It really feels like a grade 7 made this for a school project that they did not really care to pass. The questions were very boring and the correct answers weren’t even correct. There was an image of a girl jumping off a diving board, the question said to identify the recreational activity, the options to choose form were boating, hunting rowing and sky diving. The correct answer was sky diving but like come on the picture clearly shows a diving board meaning they are diving into a pool. Another question said to choose what options are considered recreation, the answer did not include waterpolo, you mean to tell me waterpolo is not a recreation activity?? Ya I don’t even know what to say other than that it was poorly planned and it was just awful, enough said.

Peace out girl scout,

Taylor

mrpoutd2511

OUTD 2511 Blog Prompt 6

1) Who I’m Interviewing and Why

I chose to interview Deana Renaud, a mental health professional from Nipigon, Ontario. She has a Masters degree in Social Work; and writes about “her adventures hiking, traveling, momming and enjoying everything outside on the Northwestern shore of Lake Superior and beyond.” (Renauld) I have chosen her to interview because I believe her combination of experience in the mental health field and her love of the outdoors will offer valuable insight for my podcast topic of the effect of rock climbing on mental health.

2) Interview Questions

1. Question - What are some positive effects on your mental health since you started rock climbing?

Insight - The insight I would like to get from this question is to find out to what extent and in what ways mental health can improve with activity, specifically rock climbing.

2. Question - Do you feel that these positive effects are because of rock climbing specifically or could they be attributed to something else?

Insight - The insight I would like to get from this question is whether or not outside forces other than rock climbing may be causing positive effects on one’s mental state.

3. Question - Do you feel that a less-social outdoor activity like going for a run or swimming would provide the same benefits to mental health as a social activity like rock climbing?

Insight - The insight I would like to get from this question is whether the social aspect of rock climbing plays any part in improving mental health or if the same benefits can be achieved in a solo activity.

4. Question - In your work have you seen value in encouraging outdoor activities like rock climbing in regards to mental health?

Insight - The insight I would like to get from this question is whether the positive effects experienced by Deana Renaud are specific to her or if these results are typical and possible for anyone.

5. Question - What advice would you give someone who is struggling with their mental health?

Insight - The insight I would like to get from this question is encouraging and practical ideas for someone struggling with their mental health.

3) How I decided on these questions

I used Kvale’s question (Rossman, Schlatter 2019) types to decide on what I would ask my interviewee, specifically the introducing questions (number 1), specifying questions (question 2+3), direct questions (number 4+5). I ordered my questions to flow naturally from one topic to the other to engage the interviewer.

References

https://www.northernontario.travel/author/deana-renaud

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 12 Qualitative Interviewing. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition). Pearson.

tcoutd2511

Sup Penner! I like your questions, the one critique I was gonna make was about the first one. I was essentially going to say that it is a basic but kind of a difficult question to answer because I feel that most people would give the same answer for this question being that it may help them destress, so it is a bit difficult to have a better understanding as to how their mental health has improved if that makes sense, or maybe Im just overthinking it. That was my initial though about that question but the second one you asked kind of plays into the first one therefore improving it. The second question should really get the interviewee to really think about how recreation has effected their lives and if thats the primary factor that has improved their mental health or have they also started making little changes. With regards to question 3 I like the question, its original, I cant say i have seen anyone else ask this. Theres no right or wrong answer to this one. Yes all of your questions are based on a persons experience and they are geared toward Deana. Number 3 in particular though is extremely opinion based and overall it is based on ones social preference. I like that you finished off the interview asking for a piece of advice. This is a good way ti finish it off because it is in a way ensuring that this is a safe space and keeps the conversation going about mental health.

Peace out girl scout,

Taylor

jb-outd2511

Blog post 6

Blog Prompt #6 (Provided by Dr. Amanda Hooykaas): You have five minutes to interview a key thinker who represents your field of inquiry (for the podcast project). To do this you must:

1) Identify who you are interviewing and why

2) List five clear interview questions (and what insight you hope to get out of each)

3) Provide a brief overview/summary that discusses how you decided on these questions

The individual I plan to interview is Dr. Craig Paiement, an outdoor recreation professor here at Lakehead University. I plan to interview Craig because I feel like he is full of knowledge and very well respected among the outdoor recreation community.

1. Within your knowledge and experience what ways have you seen benefits from participation in an outdoor recreation scene?

Asking this question will allow me to gauge where the interviewee stands with regards to his current knowledge and will allow for him to give his perspective on how outdoor recreation can benefit students at the university level. With this being an open ended question hopefully the interviewee will elaborate into other questions and points that I have.

2. How have you noticed the affects the pandemic has had on participation in outdoor recreation especially for university students?

The purpose of this question is to gain information from a different perspective compared to my own as since the interviewee is a professor they are exposed to different angles of the same situation which the normal student wouldn’t see.

3. What do you associate with when you hear the term outdoor recreation?

The intent of this question is hoping to see what different words and activities are connected when someone hears the term outdoor recreation. By asking this I will gain knowledge of different perspectives on what people think of when the term comes to mind. Before I joined outdoor recreation just hearing the term I would just assume it’s just camping but since taking several outdoor recreation classes I have learned that it is actually so much more!

4. What resources do you know about on campus and in Thunder Bay that are available to students?

This question will reveal different opportunities directly on the lakehead campus and within the area of thunder bay so students will learn of new activities and potentially clubs they may be interested in joining. This question also gives the interviewee the opportunity to speak on any clubs or organizations they may have been involved with in the past.

5. What is the most cost effective activity to get into in your opinion?

The goal of this specific question is to determine what activities are the most cost effective to get into for someone who is new to the outdoor recreation community and not sure what to get involved with. I hope to gain valuable information on different activities and how each of them can have a positive impact on participants’ daily life.

I came up with these questions because I felt that since they were mostly open ended questions they would open up a new conversation as well as add onto the other questions asked. These questions would also help contribute to my podcast group and give us first hand information which we can discuss and break down.

tcoutd2511

Sup Jagoby! I love that you would choose to interview Craig. I think he has had so many experiences, having many different jobs and him moving all the time. He would for sure be one to give you straight forward answers and is not afraid to express his actual opinion about anything - as I’m sure we all know by now. I really like the first question you asked, it is a basic question but knowing Craig he would have a deeper understanding if recreation. We know that he has specifically homeschooled his kids so that they are able to experience the world and participate in multiple recreation experiences. most people don’t raise their kids that way, and we know that Craig wasn’t brought up that way. He would have a good understanding with this because he is then able to compare his kids lives to how his was while growing up.

The pandemic has effected all of us, some more than others so it is interesting to see how one age group may be effected more than another. As a university student I know I was greatly effected from the start of having to decide if I should take a year off or go straight to school, knowing that my classes are online and i have never had to do anything like that before so I wasn’t sure if it would be the best option for me or not. Every student had to make that decision and had to motivate themselves more to do their school work, let’s be real, when classes are online they feel optional. Many students rely on sports to keep us busy, we are not the kind of people to put on our snowshoes and go for a 3k hike. We like the social aspect of playing sports especially if we have been playing with the same people for years. When the pandemic hit I honestly think we all just lost motivation to do anything. Thats how I think university kids were effected meanwhile we got professor Craig over here who is now teaching inline and with that comes the ability to teach from anywhere, its not like he is getting paid different so this guy has just been teaching from his van and decided t drive to Collingwood and Quebec in the winter just because he missed the snow.So again, its crazy to see how the pandemic has affected those who are at different stages of their life.

Im gonna stop there because I am starting to lose ficus and this might of ended up becoming a huge response, but anyways I like ya questions and I love Craig so overall great post!

Peace out boy scout,

Tay-Dawg

aloutd2511

Blog Prompt 8

Would you Survive Backpacking?: https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/playquiz/?title=mtm2mza1oqq36q

I took a quiz called Would you Survive Backpacking? As it turns out, I would not survive backpacking, as I ended with a 41% on the quiz. That is okay since the whole reason for completing the quiz was to evaluate the quality of the questions asked.

Overall, I think this quiz was designed very poorly as questions with multiple answers were not labeled as multiple answer questions and some questions had joke answers. The quiz was presented completely independently, with no knowledge to obtain prior to the quiz. It puzzles me as to what the point of this quiz is.

When collecting data, we often discuss the format of research, in regards to reactive and non-reactive. Reactive research is where information is gathered of someone that is aware their actions are being recorded; they are reacting to those circumstances (Hooykaas, 2022). Non-reactive research requires the participant being recorded to have no knowledge that they/their actions are being used for a greater understanding (Hooykaas, 2022). The actions completed will be influenced by knowing or not knowing if they are being recorded, even if it is on a subconscious level. Would you Survive Backpacking? is reactive research; there is awareness that there will be a result given and information collected from completing these questions. Did I think about this while completing the quiz? Not actively; it might’ve been something I considered in the back of my mind, but I was also considering that my results of this quiz have no further impact on my life.

Another format I want to discuss for this quiz is random assignment. The saying often associated with random assignment is don’t compare apples and oranges; simply because they are different (Neuman et al, 2017). I feel as though this information being collected with no context to the person's background knowledge or opportunity to learn the correct answers prior, leaves no room for accurate comparison. Had the quiz asked a personal question such as age, gender or geographical location I can see how groups could’ve been divided into the experimental and control group. Within a randomly selected research group (in this case all the people that chose to complete this quiz) are the people randomly selected from society to participate (Neuman et al, 2017). The next step would be randomly assigning people to a choice between two different groups, for example having participants choose between blue or red (Neuman et al, 2017). Lastly, choose which group (in this case blue and red) which will be the group receiving the drug or placebo/experiment or control. This quiz seems to not be assigning anything and observing the information as a whole, which continues to confuse me as to why?

As university students, we face multiple choice questions very regularly. Multiple choice seems as though the correct answer will be very simple to find, however, many times university professors give multiple correct answers and the task is to find the answer that is “most correct”. Throughout Would you Survive Backpacking? There are many answers where one option is to be selected, but a few questions require multiple answers but lack providing test-takers of that information. While not knowing there are multiple correct answers that were expected to be selected, I ended up getting the question wrong; I had only selected one of the correct answers. It can also be a huge barrier to receiving accurate information when ‘joke’ answers are deemed correct.

While completing a quiz, especially one online with very little explanation as to what knowledge is expected of you it can be difficult to understand the context. One specific question comes to mind throughout this quiz; “what is the most dangerous animal to encounter while backpacking?” From my own knowledge I had selected “rattlesnake” as I’ve heard they are very dangerous. You may understand my frustration when I saw my answer was wrong; BUT the correct answer was “the one in your mirror” (referencing yourself as your biggest challenge). I hope this goes without saying; you are in a lot more dangour being with a rattlesnake than your own self.

Overall, this quiz was very random; lack of context clues and direction made up a lot of my false answers. I struggle to understand the purpose of providing this quiz. Let me know if you have any clues to better understand this!

References:

Hooykaas, A. (2022). Secondary Analysis. Research Design. Week 9

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2017). Basics of Social Research (Canadian Edition) (4th Edition). Pearson Education Canada. Retrieved from: https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9780134649078

tcoutd2511

Hey Allison! I went to do the quiz myself and came out with a barely passing score, lowkey hurt my ego considering I’m the one who is trying to dedicate my life toward the outdoors lol. I went to do the quiz a few hours ago and am now writing my response so I do not remember all of my critiques on it that I had. I think it did have some good questions that required some thinking and I feel like if I watched a bit more National Geographic and Mountain Men then I could have gotten a better score. I did notice that some questions did not indicate if it required more than one answer which was a bit frustrating. I also didn’t like how some answers were more “right” than others because if there are multiple correct answers to the given situation then its just based on preference but then they mark you wrong if you don’t pick “their” correct answer. I get how the rattlesnake question would have been frustrating to get wrong because yes of course they are dangerous and the quiz was totally trying to trick you in a way. However I did pick the answer “the one in the mirror”, I only knew to choose this one because in rec we talk about risk management and how the biggest mistakes come from human error. So when it came to answering that question I thought about how a person may end up in the position of facing a rattlesnake and how they need to be carful deciding their next move. Because you got it wrong and I got it correct and we are studying 2 different fields, I fell that this quiz was definitely made for those who have had multiple outdoor experiences and genuinely enjoy learning about how to survive in the wilderness. Overall I did expect a better layout and I guess instructions (explaining if a there is more than one answer) considering the website the quiz is posted on is “ProProfs”

Peace out girl scout,

Tay-Dawg

Prompt 8

In light of me being very depressed because I miss playing sports, I decided to take a quiz called What Sport is for me? https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/personality/quizreport.php?title=which-sport-suits-you&sid=MTc0ODMxNTMx . The results suggested that I am a non competitive person and that I should try yoga, body balance, identifying and solving problems, and power walking etc. I wasn't expecting these answers considering I am more of a hockey, soccer and running type of person, I guess I’m taking a big L because I don't want to try anything it suggested.

I personally enjoy taking quizzes for fun but this one was just not it. It was only 10 questions long and the answers were overwhelming. When taking the quiz I just wanted it to be over and felt relief once I got to the last question.

In a sense, a quiz is a type of research, but it might not cross participants' minds that way. When taking an online quiz you know you are going to get your results at the end, this is done as your information is collected and then generated into your results. Surveys are known as “reactive research”, “people are being studied and are aware of that fact” (Hooykaas, 2022). When it comes down to it a quiz is like a survey, they both use participants in order to come to conclusions. For example, in a classroom setting, teachers sometimes hand out a “pop quiz” in order to see where their students are at with the concepts being learned.

I took the quiz on a site called Proprof and given the title I had decent expectations for the quiz but what do ya know I was let down. Some of the questions that were asked had too many answers that basically meant the same thing, so I don't know that if I chose a different answers that means the same thing as another answer then i might have gotten a different result, which is how i feel this would have turned out but overall it doesn't make sense for it to be that way and I’m not putting myself through the quiz again to find out. The first question for example was “Do you like the idea of challenging yourself?” The answers provided were; only challenging myself, yes creative challenge, yes in a team, being part of a team, I am like a tiger on the hunt, to develop my abilities. These were just a few of the answers as there were 4 other options. Reading these is basically like seeing the same answers over and over, like I don't understand the difference between “yes in a team” and “being part of a team”. Even though there's not a difference between those 2 options it’s still possible that it could have given me different results.

The questions themselves were pretty basic, asking if you like being outside, like working as a team or as an individual, and some questions were targeting a specific sport for example, “do you like playing with a racquet to move a ball” this is clearly targeting a specific sport. Yes, asking this question and getting a response will give a clear indication if this is a sport the participant should try or not, but that’s not news to them. You know what you like and know what you don't, so I feel that when someone decides to take a quiz like this, all the questions should not be straightforward. I was personally drawn to the quiz because I love playing sports and was curious if it would recommend something I hadn't tried before and was curious about what kind of vibe I give off I guess with my answers.

I think it would have been beneficial to include a ranking scheme. The quiz would provide a scenario and you have to rank where you would place yourself either on a scale from 1-10 or if you would describe yourself this way, ranging from absolute to disagree, if that makes sense.

Overall I don't have anything good to say about this quiz. The questions were very poor and allowed for the participant to have no creative thinking, the questions were very basic and take no thought to answer, there were too many answers provided for each question, some of them did not make sense and it was overwhelming because they meant the same thing but I just had fear that it was a situation where the answers are very similar and it’s difficult to distinguish what would be the right one. Basically there was no flavor to the entire and is just a quiz to do when you're extremely bored and have scrolled to the bottom of all your social media so that's how you decide to spend your time, sitting in your room at 2am, procrastinating life in general.

Hooykaas, A. (2022). Secondary Analysis. Research Design. Week 9.

Research Week

During Research and innovation week I attended an hour session where they had maybe 5 different presenters. Quite honestly I do not remember much of the presentations nor did i understand them.

There was one where they were talking about the topic of radiology and how not everything is guarenteed to show up on a CTscan or x-ray etc. I found the topic interesting because before choosing Rec as my major my first choice was to go into radiology/diagnostic imaging. However after watching that session I don’t think i would have made it far in that field lol, but thats okay because i like where I am at right now.

The presenters themselves did give credit to their professors and most of them had citation slides at the end of their powerpoints. When they were actually presenting their findings it was quite boring and a good majority of them were just reading off their screen, providing no more extra detail.

I don’t really know what else to say, I didn’t enjoy the presentations that much and looking at the later sessions there wasn’t much sparking my interest. Overall this is kind of toss away blog post just like how I tossed away my time attending the hour long session just to gain nothing out of it. There were some interesting points but otherwise it felt like a class where I could take a solid nap if I tried.

Prompt 6: The Interview

This here is the one and only, roommate Julia!

My podcast group is focusing on how college/university students use recreation as an outlet for maintaining their wellbeing. We chose this topic because we know first hand what the post secondary experience is like and as rec students we make being outside and partaking in recreational activities as part of our routines when we can. If I were conducting an interview I would choose to interview my roommate Julia. I am choosing to interview Julia because she is studying French Education and we spend ample time sitting at the dining room table together grinding out our homework. I think it would be best to interview someone who is not in the Outdoor Recreation program because else wise it may be biased. This way she represents a number of students who are not technically dedicating their lives to rec which will provide a mutual understanding and opinion.

1)For you, how does partaking in recreation differ from your high school years to post secondary?

I would ask this question because it will give insight as to how school has affected her life and the ability to participate in recreation, and indicates a difference in her education timeline.

2)Since moving to Thunder Bay do you feel that you have more of a desire to explore the city in terms of what nature is surrounding the area.

This question will help identify if students living in Thunder Bay want to get outside more, and knowing where Julia is from, being Oakville, this will also help explain if her environments have a more active role in her life.

3) Out of 7 days of the week, how often do you try to partake in recreation as a form to destress? Do you find it hard to access recreation?

This question gets straight to the point and could help if our group were to interview multiple students and make a graph. Displaying this data would be easy and makes it easy to see how often students use recreation to help their mental well being.

4) When you do find the time to get outside and take a mental break, how do you feel afterwards? How does your mental health compare to before engaging in recreation to after?

I'd ask this question to see if students feel that they do benefit from taking those mental breaks and how much it actually helps them.

raoutd2511

#6 Interview Questions

Prompt: You have five minutes to interview a key thinker who represents your field of inquiry (for the podcast project). To do this you must: 1) Identify who you are interviewing and why 2) List five clear interview questions (and what insight you hope to get out of each) 3) Provide a brief overview/summary that discusses how you decided on these questions (referencing the textbook would be helpful here!). In your response to a peer, please provide feedback on how effective these questions might be at addressing the aims of the interviewer. How might they be improved? On what basis?

Answer:

If I had 5 minutes to interview a key thinker for my podcast, I would interview Charolette Madison, my roommate (Charlotte Marsden’s alter ego) because she is a prime example of the people we want to survey to understand why they came to Thunder Bay for our podcast. Since our podcast encompasses aspects of why people come to Thunder Bay for recreational purposes. Charlotte is from England and she came all the way to Thunder Bay for school. We discussed in our podcast planning that we would have a target audience of high school students and potential individuals who may be interested in coming to Thunder Bay. I have seen Charlotte take on every opportunity to embrace recreating here - including doing 51km of classic Nordic skiing yesterday at the Sleeping Giant Loppet.

The questions I would like to ask:

1. Before you made the decision to come to Thunder Bay, were you aware of all the recreational opportunities that you can try in this city?

This question allows for the person being interviewed to expand on if they were aware of different activities you can participate in this city. This analyzes how the city of Thunder Bay adversities different things they offer. It also allows the interviewee to answer if they have looked into some of the things you can do here.

2. Without meeting people of similar interest.. Do you think you would have embraced so many different activities and opportunities?

Humans are social people and it is really nice to have the confidence of others to encourage you when you are doing something new. I personally do not feel I would have not had so many opportunities or confidence to try something new if I had not met people with the knowledge and same adventure spirit.

3. How has being in the ORPT program changed your view on the different recreational activities that are available to you in this city?

This is specific to the program because most other programs do not have these same opportunities and people often find rec people to go with when they want to partake in things like rock climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, etc. I have been made aware of so many more things that exist in Thunder Bay because of the program.

4. What has been your favorite recreational activity you have participated in since coming to Thunder Bay?

From this question you can get insight into what kinds of activities their person has participated in and what their likes and dislikes are. This could be beneficial for recommending activities. This is an interesting question because perhaps they tried something completely new and it has become their favorite.

5. Are there anything you have yet to participate in and how do you plan to find a way to participate in it?

Thunder Bay can be a hard city for a student as it is spread out and has a poorly functioning transit system that does not reach out to some of the coolest places for recreation. How do students get around without vehicles etc.

6. Anything you find challenging about living here and participating in recreational activities?

This can share some of the challenges an individual might face living in this city for recreation purposes and how access to some of these activities is limited for those who want to try them but do know the right people etc.

Summary:

I decided on these questions because it allows Charlotte to elaborate on her answers with open ended questions that allow for explanation. This format has questions that ask for specific details regarding experiences with recreational activities. This allows them to share why they do what they do and what they are getting out of it.

tcoutd2511

Hey Rachel

I love this post and love that you decided you would interview Charlotte. She really is a prime example of who you should be interviewing to get the responses your wanting. Char loves Canada and has really tried to embrace all of the activities around here. I really like your second question because it would really get the interviewee to think about how Thunder bay and the people around them have had an impact on their lives. I also like your fifth question. Ive been living up here for a year now and for me personally there is still so much exploring that I haven’t done yet and a decent amount of it is only accessible if you have a vehicle or are able to make plans with a group of people.

Peace out girl scout, Tay-Dawg

demoutd2511

Canada's Canoe Museum!

The article I chose to critically analyze for this week’s blog post is Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough prepares to move world’s largest canoe and kayak collection by Caley Bedore, a Global News reporter. (Link to the article is below in my references.)

Canadian Canoe Museum. Photo Credit: kawarthaNOW.com

This article focuses on Peterborough’s Canadian Canoe Museum and their preparations to move their 600+ piece collection to their new location. Currently the museum is located at 910 Monaghan Rd, and is moving to 2077 Ashburnham Drive (Bedore, 2022). They are moving buildings as they would like to showcase more of their collection, as right now the current building can only house and show less than 20% of their collection (Bedore). The new building will not only showcase more canoes, but also “…have a full outdoor campus, a full new suite of exhibitions, [and] a café” (Bedore). Some staff members are also interviewed and asked about the move and their work, such as how they are carefully cleaning each canoe and making sure it will be safe on its journey across the city to the new building. The museum is also “…working with many Indigenous, First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities to also support the exhibit development” (Bedore). The museum is currently open to the public on weekends from 10am-4pm, and plans to close their doors in September of this year to finish their prep work for the move (CCM, 2021). The new building is set to open in the summer of 2023 (Bedore).

Model Picture of the inside of the new building. Photo Credit: kawarthaNOW.com

The article does not directly list their sources, but some sources they might have used could included the following:

The Canadian Canoe Museum website, and their page on their new building

https://canoemuseum.ca/

https://canoemuseum.ca/new-museum/the-building/

Other Global News articles about the museum, that were linked on the page as ‘Read More’ options

https://globalnews.ca/news/7607438/canadian-canoe-museum-purchases-land-johnson-park/

https://globalnews.ca/news/4910464/canadian-canoe-museum-hires-director-to-develop-relations-collaborate-with-indigenous-communities/

https://globalnews.ca/video/7821252/canadian-canoe-museum-unveils-new-details-on-new-museum

Museum Staff Members

Carolyn Hyslop, Executive Director

Jeremy Ward, Curator

Dane Allendorf, Staff member cleaning the canoes

The information gathered from the museum staff interviews are primary sources of information, and the information from the other Global News articles are secondary sources.

References:

Bedore, C. (2022, February 17). Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough prepares to move world's largest canoe and kayak collection . Global News. Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/8627255/canoe-museum-move-collection-new-location/

CCM. (2022, January 31). Home Page. Canadian Canoe Museum. Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://canoemuseum.ca/

tcoutd2511

I had no idea this museum existed after the many times I’ve been to Ptb! I think I’m spending a weekend up there in August so I’ll have to check it out. I’m curious to see what the “outdoor campus” will look like when they get to the new building. The article mentioned that they are “working with indigenous communities”, personally I’m wondering what this exactly means because there are many articles out there that claim to be partnering with Indigenous people and they rarely go into explanation on what that means or what the process is, so hopefully when the move is finished visitors will be able to visibly see more of that culture within the museum.

peace out girl scout,

Taylor

Judging Errors at the Olympics

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have been under way for 12 days now. Personally I have only been paying attention to the snowboarding events as I already watch snowboarding more than the average person I think. While watching the events I have noticed that sometimes there has been a huge score difference between riders who have performed the same trick. I saw an article the other day discussing errors in the judging process.

There was an article released on feb 14th stating that snowboarders say judging was an issue within the big air event. In the article it is pointed out that there was a judging error within the gold medal run where Canadian Max Parrot was scored high for having a full grab of his board, but replay shows he was only holding his knee. Therefore leaving his teammate Mark McMorris upset and claiming that he should have won gold.

To make judging more accurate Mark McMorris and American Red Gerard put in their input by saying the judges should be given more time to put in their scores and should be shown slow-motion replays. McMorris also claims that the cameraman and judges don't always have the proper training for these events nor are they taking this job into a professional manner because they are not paid as much as they should be, so why should they take it seriously when it's essentially just a side gig.

The article was released by CBC and because there are statements made by the participants of the event it is clear to see that this is qualitative research/interviews as it is based on an individual's experience. Interviewing the participants is probably one of the only ways to get the most accurate and knowledgeable opinion on what is happening in Beijing, especially since the riders who did make a statement have been in the olympics before and regularly participate in XGames, Burton Open and the World Cup.

Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning and process rather than outcomes. The individual who conducted these interviews may have asked questions that require critical thinking, an example question they may have asked is “how can judging be improved for the next winter olympics that allow for more professionalism within the event?”. This is where McMorris’ statement comes along where he stated what needs to be improved and why the judging is not as professional as it could be at the moment.

As a consumer reading this article I personally gained more knowledge on what goes on behind the scenes at the olympics regarding the judging process and the lack of professionalism. Also when an error is made in the judging process and it was a noticeable error - being that even I who was streaming the event could tell something went wrong with the scores, it makes me question if the judges are qualified, what makes them qualified and if bias did take place.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/snowboard/beijing-2022-snowboarding-judging-under-fire-1.6350724

How Thunder Bay Changed My Life.

For this week's prompt we are supposed to write about anything of our choosing. Something that's been on my mind recently is how grateful I am to be in Thunder Bay. I honestly can't express how much going to school here and leaving Orangeville has changed my life. Before I moved up here my mental state was not good and it hasn't been since grade 7. This made for 6.5 years of silence where I didn’t talk to anyone, yes I had friends in high school and elementary, I was invited to go out etc but I never took the offers making my life very uneventful and staring at my bedroom wall for hours every Friday night. There's a lot more I could get into but I don't see the point because I've moved past that and I'm not in that mental state anymore. Right now I am in love with my life and have been since I moved up here and into residence in January 2021. Within the past year I have grown so much and have become excited about life again. Since living up here I can't say that there has been a day where I wake up in a bad mood.

I have been able to establish routines, wake up earlier, get things done earlier in the day and be able to buy the great amount of carrots and broccoli I want which is pretty exciting to me! Also the fact that there is so much nature around me is crazy and I feel like there is still so much that I haven't gotten to see around here! I look forward to everyday ahead of me which is a huge change in mindset for me because a year ago I didn't have the motivation to do anything except sit in my room and be mad at the world. That is insane for me to think about because now I see myself as a pretty chill and happy person and I feel like most people who know me up here would agree with that. The 2 different ways people perceive me are so weird because up here I am a very laid back person, down for anything (text me and I'll be there!, unless im working), enjoy talking to people and I need some sort of social activity in my life to keep me going. Back in Orangeville everyone saw me as a miserable person and who doesn't enjoy talking to people, is lazy and enjoys being on my own which is far from the truth.

A trend that I have noticed since being here is that I’m actually appreciated and people have vocally expressed that to me. I am very much a person who cares deeply for others, I check in on others frequently and I always have their backs and I know others have my back. In residence last year there were a couple rumours spread about me which were one hundred percent false and I was getting harassed in my own res building. I don't know where the rumours originated from but many people stuck up for me, wanted to hear my side of the story and always supported me. Throughout the year I have come to appreciate people so much and I know that I am appreciated. I have been a person that people come to, people I am barely friends with have opened up to me so much. I've received comments from people saying I give off a positive vibe and have gotten texts from people expressing that they feel that they can come to me for anything. I have a very non judgemental attitude, anything anyone tells me stays with me and I feel that it's so important to be there for others and give people an outlet to get things off their mind. I strive to be a good person and overall that's all I want in my life, is to be a good and happy person and see that others are happy. One of my favourite lyrics of all time is “cause if we don't leave this town, we might never make it out”. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn't left my hometown and I don't care to know what it would have been.

Im not good at titles

If I were to conduct research on any topic I would choose to research the health stats and differences of those who eat meat and those who are vegan. I'm interested in this topic because I have found that there is always a huge debate on who is the so-called “healthiest” and both parties tend to have strong opinions supporting their side which also comes off as defensive. There really is no definition on what makes someone “healthy”. People may seem to have similar body structures but medical reports are not the same, so who's to say what makes an individual healthier than another. The sole purpose of this research would genuinely be out of curiosity as to who is more satisfied with their choice of lifestyle.

I have seen through the media the ever changing standards as to what we should be putting into our bodies. It changes so frequently and everyone thinks they know everything which is what makes this an interesting topic to me. When conducting this research topic I would focus on how the foods we eat affect our mood and activity levels and how that plays out in day to day lives. Do those who eat meat feel more sluggish throughout the day? Do those who are vegan have better habits embedded in their routines? These are just 2 examples of questions I could ask while researching this topic. There are many ways to conduct research on this, long term or short term. Since it's in my hands I would make this a long term project, starting from age 16 maybe, and spanning it to 3-5 years later. I would choose this timeframe because I find it an appropriate age where individuals start making changes to their lives that they feel would benefit them and ultimately start coming to terms with how they want to live their lives. Participants would be asked to complete weekly surveys and partake in check ups like checking heart rate, blood pressure etc. They would be asked to keep track of how many calories they have taken in throughout the week, grams of protein etc. As well as keeping track of how much physical activity they had in the week, how they felt after eating a meal, how sustainable is their lifestyle financially, was the choice of eating habits easy to maintain and if they found they were faced with any barriers. The participants themselves would preferably have close to the same body structure and same stats in attempt for the research to be done on an even playing field. For research to be completed at the end of the term there would have to be set standards in order to define which participant benefitted the most from their lifestyle.

Siberian Lady

The documentary shows the life of Agafia Lykov. She lives in the taiga, a remote Siberia which is a region in Russia. It covers why she felt the need to isolate yourself from society and how she goes about her day-to-day tasks. What drove Agafia and her family out of the modern society was the fact that Old Believers were being killed because of their beliefs which is why they moved, in order to stick to their own beliefs without fear.

There are 3 levels of theory, macrosocial, mesosocial and microsocial. This documentary would be categorized as microsocial because it is focused on one individual and their actions. The study itself is qualitative. This means that researchers are focused on the process rather than outcome and involve fieldwork. The researchers of this study want to see a day in the life which is the process portion and they even get a bit of hands-on experience.

An ethical concern that I picked up on was their agreement they had made. On Agafia’s wishlist she claimed to want a goat and a rooster. Not to say that there is anything wrong with exchanging that for footage but we don't know what went on behind the scenes. Did she want more and they talked her down, how long did they go back and forth, etc?

In terms of an invisible backpack we know the crew that went to see her are more “privileged”, even though Agafia is content with her life. She has been away from the city for so long and has only been back 5 times I think she said, so she might not really understand what is going on around her with the technology and how many people will have access to catch a glimpse into her life.

As a researcher, in this situation where someone lives a different lifestyle and is proud of that lifestyle it is extremely important to keep side comments to yourself and look at everything with an open mind so that the person being researched is being respected. Especially in this case where Agafia has allowed them to come to her home where she was doing fine on her own and has allowed them to bring such technology with them that she does not fully understand because of being in isolation for so long. Due to this barrier, personally after editing the footage I think it would have been a good idea to visit her again and let her watch and make suggestions if she feels the need as her life is being put out to the world and it’s a personal preference of living that not everyone will understand.

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