Zach @zhoutd2511 - Tumblr Blog

My Learnings From OUTD Research

Over the past few months, this course has provided me with an in-depth look at the work and process of research and research in this field of study. I have always thought of research as a scientific process done through experiments by scientists. However, I was wrong. I learned that research can come in many forms and through many methods. One of the best things that I learned was that research can be presented in various ways. This was a significant discovery for me during the week we attended the innovation week talks. I realized that research doesn’t have to be presented through numbers or papers; it can be addressed through poetry, pictures and stories.

Three things that I now know about outdoor recreation research:

1. Ethics: From this course, I developed a deeper understanding of the many different aspects that help create an ethical research project. Before, I had a basic understanding ( kids under 18 need parental permission, and participants need to be aware of what is happening to them). I understood why ethics were important in studies so that they ensure that the research being done puts people first and upholds respect for human dignity.

2. Open vs. Closed questions: This is something that I feel comfortable with and comfortable using. I understand that both types of questions have a time and place where they can be useful, and I have understood the situations they best fit into during a survey. I know that open questions allow the individual taking the survey to elaborate on their answer, whereas closed questions generally answer yes or no.

3. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data: I learned about these two types in a high school science class, and I was already familiar with the terms. However, this provided a good refresher and allowed me to better understand how these two types of data may be used in research and what goes into obtaining each set of data.

Three things that I am still confused by:

1. Levels of theory: I understand that each level deals with a social theory, but I don’t fully understand the difference between Macrosocial, Mesocial, and Microsocial. I also don’t understand why there is a distinction between the three categories and if there are different ethical concerns with each, and that’s why they are divided.

2. Coding: I find using a computer to process all your information and create a code that matches all your data seems like a lot of unnecessary work. I could understand it if you had numbers and needed to find a link between the numbers, but I find that organizing your findings into categories makes it easier to understand. I also don’t know why you would want to code your work.

3. Grounded Theory: The way that our notes and textbook describe this confuses me. You’re finding categories within your data, finding relationships between the categories, and then finding a core category. I think what is getting me is the core category. Is it a similarity between all other categories, or is it the category you will focus your research on?

Three things I know about me as an OUTD Rec researcher:

1. I prefer to work with Qualitative data. It makes more sense to me than quantitative data. It is easier for me to make meaning from data that are just numbers. Data expressed as words rather than numbers makes it easier for me to understand, and if I’m honest, data with numbers and equations makes no sense to me. I don’t care enough to spend the time decoding what the numbers mean or represent (this is because me and math have never been friends).

2. When I like what I’m researching, I find that when I don’t care about the topic, I won’t put in the same amount of effort or care what the outcome is, even if it’s being graded. I know that when I like my topic, I can spend hours reading and writing about it without becoming bored or angry that I have to spend time on a project.

3. I am very organized: All my data is colour-coded and sorted into categories and sub-categories depending on which question it answers in our research. I like to have it all in one place and create a set timeline of what will happen and when that work will be done.

Three things I need to work on to become more confident in my skills:

1. Analyzing surveys: making meaning of answers is something that I struggle with. Especially when I didn’t create the survey. When I don’t know what the goal of the survey is, I struggle to derive meaning from the results.

2. Developing survey questions: coming up with practical questions that will help me to answer what I am researching is something that I struggle with. When I create surveys, I find that the questions are either the same question or it is close-ended questions. I find it challenging to think of multiple questions that will give me an in-depth view of the topic being studied.

3. Creating a hypothesis: I have been creating hypotheses since grade 8 in science class. However, those were easy and were generally either I think this will happen or the opposite will happen. Developing a hypothesis on something that is not a yes or no/ this or that is something that I struggle with. Coming up with what I think will happen is not a strength of mine, and I usually make it up having no clue what I think will happen. So developing that skill is something I want to work on.

I have seen the value of this course and have learned to respect the work that researchers do. It is demanding and meticulous work, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who does this work.

zhoutd2511

Rad post Annie!

I also agree that from this course I gained a better understanding of ethical research, it also helps with research being a safe place for everyone. I was similar to you where kids under 18 needed permission to participate in and that they needed to be aware of what was taking place. In the course you learn about why it is important to be an ethical researcher.

I had a similar experience in high school when it came to learning about Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data. However, I grew to enjoy qualitative data because it has more than just numbers. Qualitative data offered insight into people's responses and allowed them to write how they feel about the subject.

I can say that I am not as organized with my coding or data collection. I enjoy how you like to sort your data by colour coding and into categories and subcategories. I will definitely use this in the future when performing research. This information will definitely help me with my organization skills that I lack.

Cheers Mate

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.

troutd2511

Blog 9&10

Three things I am still confused by

1.Critical Reflexivity

I know the definition of critical reflexivity on the PowerPoint is “a process of constant, self-conscious scrutiny of the self as a research process” but I’m not really sure what that all means. While reading through what we’ve learnt about critical reflexivity it seems like it means it’s you as the researcher reflecting on your work after you’ve finished. There’s so many parts to this topic that I just don’t really understand how they all fit in together.

2.Coding

To me coding seems like a very difficult and confusing way of organizing your notes, research, etc. To me there is no need to use coding themes such as categorizing different conditions, strategies and tactics, and consequences, i feel that if you can have your notes, thoughts, and research organized in a way that makes sense to you then there’s no need to use any sort of deductive coding or inductive coding. After sitting through our lecture(s) on how to code research and reading through notes as well as writing notes, I still don’t fully understand what this means.

3.Reliability vs Validity

Reliability is explained to us as dependability or consistency, that the same thing will be repeated or recur under identical or very similar conditions. Validity is explained to us as truthfulness and refers to the match between a concept, or the way a researcher conceptualizes the idea in a conceptual definition, and a measure. Reliability and validity make sense to me but at the same time, they don’t. I’m not really sure what it is that I don’t understand about these concepts, I just can’t wrap my head around it to fully understand.

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

1.Interviewing

I fully understand interviews and how they work with open-ended questions as well as close-ended questions, the different types of interviews (structured, semi-structured, unstructured), how to get yourself ready for interviews, and I fully understand how to go about interviewing someone. I do however need more practice doing interviews so that i’ll be able to get the most out of interviewing someone for either a research topic or whatever my future holds.

2.Focus Groups

I understand focus groups, how they work, why they work, I understand it all. My next steps to further my understanding of focus groups would be observing one or participating in one to get the full understanding of focus groups.

3.Analyzing Surveys

The way you analyze surveys is different for everyone, what you do with the information surrounding your topic and how you choose to sort the data varies depending on the person, and what the survey was about. There are many different types of surveys which require different ways to go about organizing the data you’ve collected. My next steps to develop a further understanding on how to organize data collected from surveys would be to create more surveys and analyze the data collected in a way that makes sense to me when looking back on the data that’s been collected.

Three things I know for certain about outdoor recreation research

1.Qualitative vs Quantitative Survey Questions

Survey questions have to be worded in a way that’s easy to understand for the people taking your survey but also have to be worded in a way where you can generate the best answer possible. For me when making surveys, depending on what information I’m looking for, I prefer a close ended question followed by an open ended question which is the same question but asking to explain your reasoning. This gives me a different outlook on the question I’m asking since everyone views things differently.

2.Ethics

Ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. Ethics are putting people first, respecting people’s privacy, and having respect for human dignity. Ethics in research are important because they promote the aims of research and expanding knowledge, they support the values required for collaborative work, mutual respect and fairness.

3.Invisible Backpack

Everyone has their own invisible backpack, it’s what you carry with you personally. It’s your past, what you’ve been through, what you have personally overcome, everyone has their own invisible backpack and what you have in that backpack makes you, you. How you engage in the world, how you dictate conversations, how you make decisions. Invisible backpacks make you the person you are today and how you view the world.

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

1.I prefer close ended survey questions

As a researcher I personally prefer close-ended questions, I find that with open-ended questions people can interpret your question in different ways which may not be how you planned on it going. With close ended questions you can get an answer that you want without it going any which way.

2.Organization of Data Collected

When doing research for any number of things I know how I like to organize my data. When I first start doing research I write down important information on the topic along with the website I collected the data from. I then sort my information into different categories relating the data that I’ve collected and make subtitles. I do this with every research project that I have done and it works for me and I understand where information that I need is with the website I got it from for if I want to dig deeper. Everyone organizes their research information differently and I have found what works for me.

3.When I Enjoy what I’m Researching

When I’m doing a research problem I like to be able to enjoy what I’m learning, if I’m told what I have to research I don’t want to do it and I don’t enjoy the research project. I personally would rather get to choose what I research, I will be more willing to do it as well as the quality of my research will be better since I’m more involved with what I’m learning,

zhoutd2511

Rad post Taegs!

I agree with what you have to say about ethics and how they are moral principles. I like how our ideology of ethics is very similar within research. I would also mention that REB is good for youth who are too young as they are vulnerable to the injustice of research. REB gives the youth a chance if they meet 2 areas for success such as parent's approval and if the youth are not put in harm's way.

I enjoyed the insight into your definition of an invisible backpack because I was confused about what the definition of an invisible backpack is. I understand how it can be related to research. But I don't understand how each person has their own backpack. However, reading your section on the invisible backpack gave me insight and now I understand that everyone has a backpack and it essentially focuses on your personality as an individual and takes all your life experience to help you become who you are.

I ALSO HATE being told what to research when I do not have an interest in the topics. Similar to you, I enjoy researching topics that I enjoy and find interesting. When I am not given the chance to choose my topic I tend to be very vague with my answers and not do so well with my writing. I feel like in university we should have more opportunities to focus on research that we enjoy.

Cheers mate

Blog 8

I chose to do a quiz that would test my knowledge in the wilderness in a survival situation. The quiz has 37 questions, I got 29 of these questions correct. All the questions are multiple choice with four answers. There was only one question within the 37 that had an answer for all the above. I enjoyed this because for me all of the above answers are the easy way out and do not test your knowledge of the subject. I found that the questions are split into four categories: navigation, shelter, food/water, and terrain. I had a problem understanding one of the questions due to how poorly it was written. The rest of the 36 questions are easy to understand. The strength of this quiz was that it is very useful for beginners who are curious about the outdoors. Something I did not like was that there were so many questions about moss and I knew nothing about moss.

Although I knew nothing, I feel that I was able to learn about moss by going through this simple quiz. I did not like that a couple of the questions were obvious answers due to the answers that were given as they did not relate to the question. I found that the layout of the quiz was unique due to the quiz having photos, a tracker of your answers along with total points, and a questions streak. The quiz can be improved by making more vital questions for wilderness survival. The quiz can also change some of the answers for multiple choice to make it more difficult. The quiz can add some more vital questions such as how to get clean water without boiling water. If the length of the quiz is extended it should only take 5-10 minutes. The quiz is easily found on the internet and it can be shared through social media sources like Facebook.

raoutd2511

#7 Research and Innovation Week

Prompt: Research doesn’t exist inside a bubble, and neither should you. For this assignment you are required to attend at least one event of the Research and Innovation Week Conference. In your blog post, you need to identify the topic being researched, outline the challenges and successes of the methodology, connect it directly to course content, and provide your opinion of the effectiveness of the research approach(es). Note that not all presentations will go into detail on this.

Answer:

There were a few presentations that I was interested in attending from this week but I was not able to make the time frames they were presented in. (FYI: if you email [email protected] you may potentially be able to get a recording of a presentation) I attended one and asked for the recording so I could better understand the content. As Jill said, I found the presentations quite complex and had difficulty in understanding the world of academic research and jargon. I was also told that all the presentations would be available to watch as recordings by mid-week next week.

I watched the presentation Strength-Based Strategies for Parents and Educators to Promote Mental Wellness and Resiliencies in Children and Youth by Dr. Ed Rawana. As a teacher candidate it was actually very insightful to listen to what Dr. Rawana had to say about the topic and his comparison of teaching and parenting.

Identify the research topic: The research topic of this presentation was promoting the development of strengths and resilience in children and youth through parenting and educators. One of the key points he kept coming back to was the idea that adults are role models. As a teacher, parent, caregiver, they have to demonstrate the strength and skills they want these children to grow up to possess. He references it much like an apprenticeship program. Training and preparing children to have the strength based skill they need as an adult.

Challenges and success of the methodology: Unfortunately this presentation did not go into much depth regarding how this research was done and mostly a research overview. However, I did find a lot of really interesting points of information that were made. I have come up with some challenges and success ideas although not directly discussed in the presentation. Some challenges I saw were in the measure of success, how do you measure if leading (teaching/parenting) with a strength based model is effective? I am having difficulty wrapping my brain around this. I think it is qualitative research as Dr. Rawana said something along the lines of: it is not about the amount of time you spend with the children but the quality of the time spent. I am not sure how you measure the factors that make someone resilient as this could come from a lot of different factors. My grade 9 geography teacher had us take an online survey to see how much grit we had but I do not think online tests and quizzes in these ways are accurate representations or good ways to conduct research. One of the successes of this methodology is it forces people to choose and think about their decisions to make a conscious effort to use their strengths and not just choose randomly.

Connection to course content: A few areas that I thought connected to course content where in relation to an ethics approval as this research is focused on children and Dr. Rawana even mentioned you are not really supposed to do research on children so this would require a strong, thorough plan to be able to follow these children to see the effects of adults in their lives using strength based approaches to promote resilience. Additionally, I thought of a literature review and review of sources and planning the research you are talking about. He mentioned a few times the work of Dr. Epstein and personally I have never looked at his research so it could very well be fundamental but the negative connotations around that person himself threw me off into listening to those connections. Lastly, I made a connection to sampling. I do not know the sample size or the demographic of people chosen but I think this would definitely affect the research as these kinds or role models look and appear differently in a low income neighborhood vs a high income neighborhood and geographic location, etc.

Opinion on effectiveness of the model: I had a hard time pulling out the information to answer these questions from the presentation but I did gain some interesting parenting/teaching tips. Honestly after writing all of this I am not sure what the model of this research was but I think it was effective as there was information that I thought was strong and believable. It was a well done presentation.

Rawana, E. (2022). Strength-Based Strategies for Parents and Educators to Promote Mental Wellness and Resiliencies in Children and Youth . Lakehead University Research and Innovation Week. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/rec/share/CvEGT2sn108nYfd77T9WjXpsiB3elJmsueO_viqlNVxItts1eHTZY2-WRZZAddkJ.xzD3U6Z7gs_Zcm9a Passcode: 3E6+QYJ+.

zhoutd2511

Rad post Rachel. I did not watch or attend this presentation because I had class during the set time. Reading your post is very insightful of the presentation. The correlation between mental health and resiliencies in children is such a cool topic. I also like how you connected the presentation to course material such as ethics approval. Super cool read of your blog post.

Follow the Water, Stand With the Land

I watched Follow the Water, Stand with the Land for this week's blog post. The session was decent. I lost interest many times while watching the session. It was not as engaging and entertaining to keep me focused on it. However, the information that Rita Wong provided was well done and knowledgeable. Rita Wong has seen the expansion of urbanization and the destruction of the environment. Her knowledge about the land comes from her experiences; she spent some time as a climate change activist and has shared her knowledge with indigenous leaders and communities.

The presentation goes over the pipeline in Wet’suwet’en land and how the creation of the pipeline is detrimental to environment. She mentions clear cutting trees to make the pipeline is negative for the environment because of all the co2 released in the air and the destruction of wildlife homes. Rita Wong has a weird way to present her knowledge by using poems. I found this to be a bad way to present to university students. Due to my lack of interest in English and poems alongside reading books that do not pique my interest. Moreover, she does find some vital information by documenting the difference between urbanization and the environment by looking at people who live in the surrounding area. Although, she does lack scientific research as the presentation drew more on her feelings and opinions instead of hard cold facts. She also takes a look at how the environment changes from the installation of the pipeline and how it is negative for the environment.

I personally feel like this presentation lacks the academic research to back up her topic.

okoutd2511

Interviewing Members of the Inter-Mural Hockey Teams for their Point of View on Skate Trails

Who: I will be interviewing Nick Spanyi, the captain/coach of the Inter-mural hockey team.

Why: Because of his experience in kinesiology, playing hockey, and frequent participation within the schools athletic communities. He can give an interesting perspective on the appeal of skate-trails and how he feels they benefit communities.

Interview Questions:

Have you ever heard of or seen a skate-trail before? - With this question I hope to gain an idea of how well-known skate-trails are within our schools athletic community. I am trying to see if skate-trails are ever talked about or been used by members of primarily the schools hockey community.

Do you see the appeal of skate-trails? If so, what is so appealing? If not, why might you think other people find it appealing? - Asking about the appeal answers one of the most pressing objectives of the interview. This was a necessary question to ask in order to obtain the perspective I was looking for. It is an adaptive question and works whether the answer is yes or no.

How does Hockey benefit communities? How would you compare skate-trails to hockey in terms of impact on communities? - This question allows me to understand how legitimate someone from the Hockey community might feel skate-trails are. He may be unaware of how huge skate-trails are in Ontario, examples include places such as the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, or Bentway in Toronto.

What importance do you feel accessibility has on the success of a recreational organization? - This question ties into one of the main subjects covered in our podcast. We talk about how accessible the skate-trails are, and the importance behind that accessibility. The goal is to make the question seem unrelated to the topic of skate-trails to get a more general answer at first. We can then narrow down the specificity of the question and compare the two answers to get either a differing or similar perspective.

How much potential do you believe Skate-Trails have to be successful? - This is a follow up question to the last. By asking the last two questions in this order, I hope for him to factor accessibility into the equation of success without me directly telling him to do so. This will prove his answer in the 4th question even further (unless there is a chance he gives completely different answers which can make for intriguing data).

Summary:

The goal of this interview was to get an idea of how athletes view skate-trails, and whether or not skate-trails is something that would appeal to the athletic demographic. This is meant to prove that skate-trails are much more than a leisurely stroll through the park.

I was also hoping to use this interview almost as an advertisement for why you should visit skate-trails. By showing the excitement of an experienced hockey player, and displaying the popularity of the recreation; this can entice athletes to give skate-trails a try. I wanted to use questions that had a lot of depth, and could be answered in many ways. This was because I am not looking for a specific answer. What I am looking for is a genuine response that can give me topics of discussion I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

The first question is an opener to give us an idea of how immersed in the skate-trail community Nick may already be. From the answer to the first question, we can make our responses accordingly to continue the discussion, for example; If he says that he has seen skate-trails before we can ask follow up questions such as “did you participate in the activity?” Or “how do you know about them?”.

The second questions is the crux of the interview in order to find out what makes skate-trails more appealing. A few topics of discussion in our podcast assignment include how accessibility effects the skate-trails, and the impact skate-trails have on its local community. The last few questions pertain to those two topics and give us first person information to consider when conducting our podcast research.

zhoutd2511

Rad post,

the questions you mentioned during your interview are very well done for your chosen topic. All your questions connect well with each other. I would not change a single question great job!

Blog 6 Interview

Who I am interviewing

I would be interviewing a professional red bull athlete who does extreme sports such as cliff jumping. The main reason why I would be so invested in interviewing him is that I enjoy cliff jumping, and I do it a lot. Obviously, I am not as good as a professional, but I would like to learn more about the sport.

My five questions

What got you into cliff jumping?

This question is an introduction question that will give the audience a brief glance into cliff jumping and how an average person who enjoys doing extreme sports started cliff jumping. Follow-up questions to the main one. What sports did you start in as a kid, and how did it transfer into cliff diving?

What type of training do you have to do?

This question is helpful for people who want to start training when they are younger to be able to compete or do crazy jumps when they are older.

What made you choose Red Bull over other extreme sports companies such as Monster?

This question compares why the person chose Red Bull over other extreme sports teams and what is different from other teams, such as the management? The benefits? And the overall team that is associated with cliff jumping.

Do extreme sports help with your well-being and mental health?

This question is vital as extreme sports have been linked to helping with mental health and well-being. The importance of the question is to get a professional who does cliff jumping daily to explain if it does help them at all.

What would you recommend to people who expire to join an extreme sports team and what steps do they need to take to achieve their goal?

This question is more of closure as it provides the viewers with a way for how they can get involved or start training to reach their dreams.

Summary

The goal of the interview is mainly for people who are curious about extreme sports such as cliff jumping as the interview will mention the start-up of a professional. The interview will also ask questions that help people who are interested in joining an extreme sports team, for example, what teams are better to join for cliff jumping. The interview will also cover what a person must do in training to be able to compete. Finally, the most vital question is if mental health and well-being improve when doing an extreme sport.

troutd2511

Blog 4: What’s on my mind

This past week my mind has been occupied by a numerous amount of things such as the OSAT II river travel day and coordinating that with my group members, different assignments, work and trying to figure out a way not to fall behind in school.

What I was most excited about and what occupied my mind the most this past week was the River travel day for OSAT II. For this day we had to coordinate with our groups what to pick up for equipment/gear and distributing it between group members, what were bringing for lunch (if we were doing a picnic style or everyone is on their own), how many layers to wear as well as pack, and making sure we had our materials for fire starting (which unfortunately i had forgotten).

In conclusion of my week, I have learned a variety of different skills for the outdoors in winter, I have finally caught up on schoolwork and I am exhausted.

Thanks for listening to my Ted talk

zhoutd2511

Rad post dude, I agree with the time management as life is always busy I always have trouble balancing what to do and coordinating with groups due to the fact I am in a lot of groups. Glad you had a wicked time during the river travel day for OSTA II and that you are all caught up in school work,

Cheers.

What I am thinking about

Basically for the past three weeks I have been thinking about ranches. The reason I am thinking about ranches is because of Yellowstone the tv show on Amazon Prime Video. Basically, without spoiling anything the show follows the Dutton family, who are owners of the largest ranch in Montana called the Yellowstone. The show revolves around the drama at the ranch and surrounding areas such as the reservation, national park and new city folks. If you like cows or cowboys I would recommend watching the show as each episode is like a drug to me I can not get enough of it. I have been thinking a lot about the Yellowstone ranch because of the landscape and the vast amount of land. It is such a beautiful place and I think it would be a pretty rad job to have; I mean heck you get to play with cows and horses.

Moreover, another reason why I have been thinking about ranches is because in private land stewardship we had a guest speaker come in who used to be a reccer. He graduated from the program around 2010 and now owns a couple of ranches in Thunder Bay. One of his ranches is called the Sleeping G Farm. The farm contains about 10 fields for vegetable crops. He used to have about 30 sheep on his ranch until he sold them to buy cattle for the ranch. Sleepy G Farm has around 20 cattle, and around 50 chickens that they use to lay eggs. The cool thing about the chickens is that they are free roam so they aren't forced into what we see on documentaries about chickens being treated poorly. The chickens have a very large area that is fenced off with coups they can go in and out of at any time.

With all the consumption of ranches I started to look online in Canada to buy a ranch and it is actually pretty cool. I found places with 500 arcs that are a decent price and affordable if I was not a student. That being said, I think when I am older I would like to live out on a ranch or a farm and have some cattle but I am more interested in the land. The reason why I care so much about the land is because I will have the chance to take care of the land and habits so that animals and other creatures have a safe place to live. I guess I would want a hobby farm in the near future.

#yellowstone

justplainrec

03. Teenage Development and Extreme Sports.

If I was conducting research as a graduated student and had limitless resources, I would choose to research the cognitive and emotional development of teenagers who participate in extreme sports. I’m interested in this topic primarily because it reflects my own teenage years – I did not participate in team sports but did I participate in mountain bike racing and alpine skiing. I’m very curious as to how this choice affected my development and how my background has affected my adult life, not only in my lifestyle choices, but in my emotional regulation and sense of self.

The sports I would focus on are rock-climbing, cross-country mountain biking, alpine skiing, and snowboarding. I think there is a lot of benefit that can be gained from participation in extreme sport and a study on how participation in these sports affects teenagers would help the sports to further join the mainstream and become more normalized. Finances are often a barrier for teens when it comes to participation in extreme sports, so I would specifically hope to see high school students in Thunder Bay benefit from this sport by an increased access to opportunities to try extreme sports. Ideally, more schools would adopt more extreme sports as electives and extracurriculars. Currently, some schools have the option to take skiing or snowboarding as an elective, and most have the option to mountain bike race as an extracurricular. I would want to see snowboarding and skiing be offered as an elective across the board and for mountain biking and climbing to be offered as extracurriculars at minimum.

My reason for focusing on extreme sport is that even at a glance, there is some contrast between extreme sports and team sports. Extreme sports usually involve individual goals rather than teamwork. Extreme sports involve flow states, high competency, and an aspect of danger. Due to their intense nature, extreme sports can be a way of striving for self-actualization and promoting positive personal change. Their uncertain nature provides opportunity for intense cognitive development and emotional dimension (Cohen et. Al, 2018). Teens are known for risk taking behaviours, and channeling those impulses into extreme sports would have positive outcomes.

I would love to study how participating in extreme sport affects a teenager’s sense of self-efficacy, confidence, emotional regulation, and independence, and how these aspects are carried into their adult lives. This tracking would have to take place over a 10-year period, from age 15 -25. This period spans from adolescence until the frontal lobe has fully developed (Arain et. al, 2013), giving a considerable window to see how participation affects the participants as teenagers and the benefits they carry into their adult lives.

My research method would be qualitative and quantitative – I would want to survey the participants twice a year for 10 years. The frequency is due to most extreme sports being weather dependent and therefore having an on and off-season. I want to collect qualitative opinions from the participants themselves, as well as concrete quantitative measures of cognitive development. Having such a long period would require renewed consent as the study continued.

References

Arain, M., Haque, M., Johal, L., Mathur, P., Nel, W., Rais, A., Sandhu, R., & Sharma, S. (2013). Maturation of the adolescent brain. Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 9, 449–461. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S39776

Cohen, R., Baluch, B., Duffy, L. (2018). Defining Extreme Sport : Conceptions and Misconceptions. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01974

Photo: Powder Day. Taken By Jill Girardin, December 2021.

zhoutd2511

rad post dude. I enjoyed reading the topic of teenage development and extreme sports. I had a similar upbringing where extreme sports was my whole life and I could not get enough from it. I never thought of the impact that extreme sports have had on my life and how they contributed to my development as a teenager. Not to mention that I wanted to do research on the mental health benefits and well-being that extreme sports bring. But it would be cool to compare the findings of teenage development and mental health benefits.

I would take a look at some articles online as the academic community seems to be split on google scholar. The first two articles are negative for teenage development on extreme sports. While, the next two talk about the benefits. Will your post include both of these categories or will you pick one side to do research on. Furthermore, Will you take part in your own research to see if there is any change in adults.

Cheers

Zach.

Extreme Sports and Mental Health Benefits

If I had the opportunity to conduct research with a limitless resource at my disposal it would have to be on the correlation of extreme sports and mental health benefits. What is classified as extreme sports? While these activities involve a high degree of risk that can put the participant in danger. I have always been into extreme sports. When I was a kid I would cliff jump, and bridge jump, all the time (I do not recommend doing this as it is a hazardous sport).. The state of mind that I would feel when doing this activity made me feel at peace. For the brief moments of doing the activity my mind was blank and the world around me was irrelevant. I became addicted to extreme sports. I started to look for ways to find this state of mind. I started off with runners high but running to the point where I feel the adrenaline and the peace of mind. I started ziplining while I was in scouts and it was pretty fun but also safer than the rest of the sports. I did rock climbing for a bit in high school than a lot more in university. I have only done skydiving, and parasailing once in my life and it was scary but awesome.

However, many characteristics are common to most extreme sports. They are not exclusive to youth; there have been many different participation levels from all age groups. Extreme sports tend to have a younger than the average target demographic as it supports a thrill by participation. Participating in extreme sports has been recognized to have many benefits associated with improving mental health, boosting well-being and lifestyle. Participants that have been involved in extreme sports went through a study by Cough et al. (2016) report outcomes of extreme sports as positive life transformations, optimal experiences, enhanced quality of life, emotional regulation, development of emotional agency in interpersonal relationships, joy, goal achievement, social connections, escape from boredom, pushing personal boundaries, overcoming fear, and pleasurable kinesthetic bodily sensations. I would want to run a similar type of study on the participants.

I would focus on making a wilderness therapy study that includes the use of extreme sports due to the massive benefits for improving mental health and well-being of an individual. I would try each sport that I’ve taken part in and run tests to see how my mental state and well-being changed over time, if it was a positive study. I would like to expand the study and open it up to volunteers. From expanding the study I would have more evidence to expand my research. Depending on the outcome I would want to start a program that encourages the use of extreme sports to help with mental health and well-being of an individual.

Resources

Clough, P., Houge Mackenzie, S., Mallabon, L., & Brymer, E. (2016). Adventurous Physical Activity Environments: A Mainstream Intervention for Mental Health. Sports Medicine (Auckland), 46(7), 963–968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0503-3

gboutd2511

The 70 Year Old Hermit

The 70-year-old lady of the woods

The 35-minute long documentary, made by Vice in 2013, sponsored by North Face tells the story of Agafia Lykov who is the last remaining member of the Lykov family living out in the Siberian forest. The documentary takes you back to show some of Agafia’s family history and how her family began to live deep in the middle of nowhere. In 1936, Agafia’s father first trekked the family through the Russian wilderness seeking shelter from Stalin. Agafia was born into harsh conditions in 1944, the family lived out in the Taiga for 40 years without any human interaction, until geologists came upon them. The documentary observes Agafia’s life who has been taking care of her family’s home for 25 years by herself. It is a very interesting case study due to the uniqueness of the story. It is unheard of to hear about families living out in the forest for decades without any human interactions, let alone a 70-year-old lady doing it by herself.

Research methods Used:

The makers of the documentary used various techniques to inquire information on the topic. Since it was a documentary focused on a smaller scale, more specific topic. Based on the description for qualitative research discussed in class, Vice would be going for more qualitative type research. This could be from visiting the research field and doing interviews with Agafia where they can get first-hand knowledge about her life, which is the main topic of the documentary.

Invisible Backpack

The filmmakers of the documentary do carry quite a bit in their invisible backpack. They are fortunate enough to be able to get the financial support to be able to travel to such a remote location, while also transporting the equipment. The video is sponsored by North Face which is a high end brand, this allows the filmmakers to film in good quality and to have a crew working with them. You can tell in the video that although the filmmakers loved getting the chance to meet and learn from Agafia, they definitely could not be there longer than a few days. This shows they come from a pretty comfortable and privileged lifestyle in North America, which they are fortunate enough to have.

Ethics

From my view, the filmmakers did a good job at remaining ethical in how they made the documentary. They respected Agafia’s culture, religion, and her as a person. One issue could be, that they did not say if they got permission from Agafia to come visit. It said in the documentary that her siblings died from pneumonia from the geologists visiting. They do not know how Agafia feels with outside visitors after what happened to her family. The filmmakers might have gotten the green light to come visit, but it would be a good thing to add to the documentary just to show the viewers they got the approval.

If I could make the documentary:

If I was given the opportunity to research and make a documentary about Agafia and her family. I would do a qualitative type research project because I am interested and want to learn about an individual’s experiences in life. The first step I would take would be to spend time doing online research. I would gain as much information as I could about Agafia’s family. This would help with having a base layer of knowledge to ask better, deeper questions when I would meet Agafia. My next step would be to go to the research field and gain information. This is where I would do most of the work gaining information. In a case like Agafia, the best way for me would be to live out Agafia’s every day life. By doing this I would gain more meaningful insight about what it is like to live in the Taiga.

zhoutd2511

Rad post dude! you did a good job with the quick little summary at the start of the blog. I like how you mentioned her family's history and how you started to focus on what the documentary would focus on her life. it still drives me crazy that she is 70 years old all alone in the wilderness and so far away from society.

I also agree with the type of research that was used in the documentary as qualitative research is a way to get to know her in person.

For the invisible backpack I also mentioned all of the points you hit in your blog, I agree with the use of high end equipment such as cameras and other equipment. not to mention that North Face is a big company with money to spare to make these type of documentary's, an example of this is the use of a helicopter and hiring a translator.

You made good points for the ethics, I completely forgot that they did not say if they had permission to be their or if she even wanted visitors. Although, that isn't known we do know that they treated her with respect as she showed her religion and way of life to them without a crew member having a disagreement.

I would also do the type of research you would do if we had the opportunity to do our own documentary. I personally would want to spend way more time out their with Agafia to gain a better understanding. I would like at least a month if I was making a documentary. I look forward to reading your next blog post.

Blot Post 2 Surviving in Siberia for 70 Years

Today I will be doing a case study on Surviving in the Siberian Wilderness for 70 years. The video was filmed by Vice Russia and sponsored by North Face. The documentary takes place from when the family moved to Siberia in 1936, and the documentary was filmed in 2013. The documentary follows the life of the Lykova family history, which included the father, mother, two brothers and two sisters. The family moved into the Siberian wilderness because their family wanted to avoid political turmoil and wanted to rule Russia because of oppression and death that was caused by Stalin. To this day, there is one last surviving family member named Agafia. The documentary looks at how she is self-reliant on the land and how she makes decisions. Agafia is located in Russia, Siberia, Taiga, around 125 miles away from the nearest town. The journey to reach her settlement would take about 7 days of canoeing. The team uses qualitative research as the documentary is on a smaller scale, by doing research on her life.

The invisible backpack isn't fully mentioned in the documentary. The aspects that can be inferred or seen in the film involve the sponsorship of North Face. The crew that went along obviously has access to funds and high-quality equipment, such as cameras, tents, and sleeping bags. The film's production shows that the cameraman was using a high-quality camera. Also to mention the crew brings along a translator for several days. The team went along for the trip. They were curious about the life of Agafia and how she lived. However, they do not see how she lives alone in the wilderness. Even though some have lived in polar regions, they still have no correlation to surviving.

A critical ethical consideration that was made for the documentary was that they hired a translator to break the communication barrier between the camera crew and Agafia. Furthermore, the team would need to ask permission on what they can film when attending Agafia's settlement. Examples of these are her day-to-day life, such as cooking dinner, morning prayers, storing food, daily routine, and showing the camera crew that metal object that was shot down.

The documentary was good; it lacked time as the group was only there for maybe 3 days. If I had the same opportunity to do research with the family, I would spend more time within the Agafia to better understand how she lives and her way of life. I would also bring a translation as I do not speak Russian. I would try to find out why she stays out there, how she lives her life, and all this would be done with the respect and consent of filming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68&ab_channel=VICE

troutd2511

ORPT and finding credible sources

Hello everyone! My name is Taegan Rogers, I’m in my second year at Lakehead University taking Concurrent Education and Outdoor Recreation. What drew me to these programs is that for as long as I can remember I have always wanted to become a kindergarten teacher, I love working with kids and helping them learn and grow. I have coached a hockey and soccer team, helped out in many hockey camps, as well as worked as a swimming instructor and camp instructor. Since doing these things it has become very clear to me that I want to teach. As for the Outdoor Recreation program I was drawn to the adventure aspect as well as expanding my knowledge of the outdoors. I have always loved to be outside exploring in my backyard, going on hikes, being on the water and just everything about the outdoors and what it has to offer, I have always been drawn to it. During high school, there was an outdoor recreation course that was offered. When I was taking this course we did a lot of different activities such as canoeing, hiking, biking as well as indoor rock climbing. We also had to research a university that offers this program, while researching I came across Lakehead University and I was so intrigued by the program that I expanded my research and Lakehead became my first choice for which University to attend.

As a consumer of knowledge, I tend to get my research information from a variety of 3 different sources. I look at different books in the library, academic journals/articles, as well as different textbooks.

Books in the library; I look for well-known authors. I also check the front and back of the book for credentials and areas of expertise of the author or authors.

Academic journals/articles; With academic journals/articles it tells you where the information is coming from at the top of the page before the authors are listed, I also read the summary of the journal before going to the in-depth part to see if the journal/article is going to be useful to what I’m researching.

Textbooks; With finding research through textbooks I go through the table of contexts to go to what pages are relevant to what I’m researching. I use textbooks for the class I’m taking and other textbooks on related topics so that I can get more information than just one textbook has and see if the information matches up in some way.

This relates to this program because we’re learning how to properly research different topics as well as how to find good reliable sources for this program as well as other programs you could be in. This will help us for years to come, to have knowledge on how to properly research different topics and have reliable sources when doing a job or just want to learn more on any topic of choice.

The photo was taken by me in Scotland in 2018

zhoutd2511

Rad post Taegs. I had a similar situation in high school. I took an outdoor recreation course called leadership. We would go on similar class trips such as high ropes, hiking, and camping. Although, we never had to search for a university that offers an outdoor recreation program. I didn’t even know it existed until my first year in university. I wish that my teacher in high school would do what yours did as leadership is my favourite class I would end up taking in high school. I have also helped out with teams such as track and field and camps but I haven’t done anything compared to your experience with kids. Also a really rad picture of Scotland, i'm going there in the summer.

As you are a consumer of knowledge you do use three of the most used types of information for research purposes. I personally do not use books as often unless they are online making it easier to find what I am looking for. Academic journals/articles are my go to as they are the best way to find information about various subjects. Just like books I tend not to use text books unless they are for a class or if I find them online due to the long process of finding the information I need for research. I also agree with how these sources relate to having proper research and sources that a student can rely on for projects and school work.

Blog Post 1 Outdoor Recreation and Reliable Sources.

My experience in the outdoors started when I was just a little kid. I started off in scouts at a very young age and moved all the way up to the Adventures level in scouts. I spent most of my time outdoors doing various activities such as all-season camping, high-ropes, canoeing, kayaking, ziplining, backcountry camping, snowboarding, and travelling to other provinces. After my experience with scouts I stopped going to the organisation and I chose to do some solo experiences in grade 12. At that time I had no idea what I wanted to do after highschool so I stayed an extra year which allowed me to continue doing sports while taking a few more courses, although I was able to have more free time on my hands. I would plan and go on solo trips to Algonquin park all the time and do back-packing trips for the weekend. One of my teachers in high-school recommended that I should go to Lakehead University because I wanted to be a high-school teacher. My problem was that I had to idea what I wanted to do for my teachables. I applied and was accepted with History and English as my teachables. However, during the time I've spent at the school I noticed that the university offered an ORPT program. After my first year I switched to ORPT and it was one of the best decisions I made in my academic career. One of the most influential reasons as to why I switched was because many of my friends in first year are in ORPT. During my time in Thunder Bay I have gone on many hikes and have explored a variety of nearby areas. I have gone on camping trips and day hikes throughout the area and I have fallen in love with the land. One of my favourite places in Thunder Bay would have to be Silver Falls Provincial Park. I've spent a lot of time within this park from day hikes to night hikes and a weekend camping trip. The picture below is a cool photo I took while at the park.

Photo: Sliver falls. December 2019 by Zach Harris

When it comes to relying upon information, I look towards academic sources and stay away from social media. The only time I use social media is when I compare different sources to come up with my own understanding of a problem instead of being a sheep and following one side of the argument. I tend to stick to 3 sources that I use for assignments and or doing research on various topics. Many of these sources do not have a direct correlation to outdoor recreation. Moreover, these sources are beneficial for academic research and projects and they are sources that a student can rely on.

Lakehead University Library Databases. The Lakehead database is the main source used to obtain reliable information as it offers many scholarly articles, journals, and books for research purposes.

Google Scholar. Google Scholar is one of the largest databases to use for scholarly research. The reason being is that it will direct you to databases like the Lakehead database, but what is unique about google scholar is that most of the articles, journals, primary sources, and books are free. I tend to use this when I need to find some more information on the topic I am researching.

JSTOR. JSTOR is a database that I will use for history as it is only a history database. JSTOR provides primary sources and many other historical sources such as journals, books, notes, letters, and articles.

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