tgoutd2511

[tgoutd2511]

Hey Emma,

I enjoyed reading your final blog post this week. I think you did a really good job of answering Dr. Amanda Hooykaas’ prompt, sharing your personal experiences and insights from the course. I really relate to your response regarding your preference of qualitative over quantitative data. I completely agree that quantitative data can be easier to visualize, but still prefer qualitative data to get a full grasp on the information being provided. 

I didn’t think about it at the time of writing my own blog post, but also feel confused by the differences between ordinal, nominal, ratio, and interval data. As a visual learner, a lot of the jargon and concepts get lost on me without having a full understanding of where they fit into research and how they are utilized. 

Your mention of trying to limit your bias when starting research is really interesting and self-aware. I think it can be a really difficult thing to do, because we all have some kind of idea on how things will play out as it’s what leads us to developing our own theories in research. However, I totally agree that it can create barriers and even skew data if we allow the research to be influenced by our own biases. I think this is a constant struggle when conducting research but the best thing we can do is acknowledge it and work to minimize it just like you are doing.

Great job this week!

Cheers,

Tait

Blog 9 & 10

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

Qualitative VS Quantitative data: I have been familiar with the concept of qualitative versus quantitative data for years, as well as the importance of knowing when to use each. Qualitative data refers to more subjective data, and can differ between different individuals and subjects. Quantitative data refers to objective, usually number-based data. It is more concrete

It can be very difficult to create a research question: there is so much to consider when making a research question, and every part of the question can lead the researcher down a different rabbit hole of data and questions and considerations, and it can easily become seemingly never-ending. Questions therefore must be concise and have parameters set in place for the sake of the researcher. 

Open VS closed questions: Open-ended questions are subjective, and allow the participant to elaborate as much as they are comfortable with. Closed-ended questions are often yes-or-no, or multiple choice (with no room to elaborate or bring in their own thoughts and ideas). Both are effective at different times (ex. Open questions work best for qualitative research, closed work best for quantitative research). 

These three things I am still confused by:

Critical reflexivity: I am a little unsure of what this means as a concept, or how I can put it into action in my research. I think more examples about what it means and how I can put it into effect might benefit my understanding. 

Ethics: I always found the details of ethics regulations as they pertain to research a little confusing, and difficult to keep track of with so many regulations and strict guidelines. However, I now understand that these guidelines are in place to protect the integrity and humanity of individuals (Pearson, 2018). They are put in place to maintain privacy: not everything about everyone needs to be or should be researched, and someone who consents to research is entitled to as much privacy as they want. Research ethics might be a barrier to some aspects of research, but they are put in place to protect people. However, I am still confused about the reasoning behind certain research ethics restrictions and certain times when they seem almost subjective, and I also find it difficult to keep track of all the different ways research needs to be ethically reviewed. 

The differences between ordinal, nominal, ratio, and interval data: I don’t quite understand these concepts and what they mean or how they relate to one another, and the importance of knowing the differences between them in research. 

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

I have an invisible backpack: I know for certain that I am constantly learning more about what kind of privilege I hold as a researcher that provides me with opportunities that might not be held by other people. For example, I know that because I am white, upper-middle class, educated, have a home, have a job, have a reliable source of food, have a stable family and home life, and other things that give me privilege in research. 

I find quantitative data easier to visualize and manage, but I feel like I get more out of qualitative data and find it more engaging. Qualitative data has more depth, which interests me: I prefer knowing the in-depth information, and love knowing what people are thinking and why, and the different ways people perceive things. However, I find quantitative data easier to organize and conceptualize, compare, and contrast. I feel that qualitative data is best when supported by quantitative data. 

I put more effort into researching topics that interest me: when I am not engaged with a topic or it does not seem relevant or interesting to me, I find it difficult to want to know more about it and ask the right questions to properly research the topic. 

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

Research takes a lot more time than I originally thought– every time. As someone who struggles with time management, but still sets high standards for success and is a bit of a perfectionist, I find it very difficult to balance the two, as success with one usually needs to come with success in another.  

Starting my research without a bias. I often find myself with a preconceived idea of what results I am going to find in my research, and sometimes find myself only looking for information that fits what I want to find. Therefore, I need to work on removing my biases from the information I look for and present. 

Coding: I don’t quite understand the intentional ways to code data, or why coding is essential to research. I feel like when I do research, I have my own ways of coding my data that make sense to me, but might not be formal ways. I understand the importance of keeping data organized, but might need practice putting it into play if I were conducting formal research alongside other researchers. However, coding in the sense of creating numbers and letters to correlate to certain pieces of data in a bigger picture is really confusing to me, and I definitely would need to practice this before I felt comfortable putting it into research. 

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 1 Doing Social Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 1-21). essay, Pearson.

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. 

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 6 Qualitative and Quantitative Measurement. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 102 - 131). essay, Pearson.

[tgoutd2511]

Hey Morgan!

Great post this week. I really enjoyed reading your final blog post as there’s a lot of really thoughtful information in here! I can personally relate to your desire of developing a longer attention span. Reading that section of your blog, I can really relate to your experience of diving in the deep end and then wanting to leave the pool a little early (forgive my horrible analogy). I think it is a very honorable skill to work on developing and takes a lot of self awareness to recognize! I think this will really benefit you in the future when you decide on a long-term topic of research.

I also really enjoyed hearing your perspective on research teams. I agree that based on my knowledge and what our guest lecturers presented, it seems fairly rare that you are conducting research completely on your own. I think that it would have been really beneficial to go over what this hierarchy and research process looks like when acting as a team. 

Overall, your blog is incredibly insightful, and I think you have a really great perspective and understanding of research in the outdoor recreation field. 

Cheers!

Tait

Final Response

These Three Things I Know for Certain About Outdoor Recreation Research:

1.       The subjects of your study matter

The subjects of your study form both the experimental and control groups and are the yardstick by which a variable or theory is tested (Neuman & Robson, 2014). Choosing the right subjects for your research means selecting a group that is representative- both statistically and qualitatively- of your group. The group should be large enough to be an accurate sample, small enough to be a possible venture, wide enough to get a big picture of your area of research, and yet specific enough to rule out large outside influences. One must also be on the lookout for power dynamic breaches like abuse of power, abuse of trust, or conflicts of interest (Neuman & Robson, 2014). The entirety of a study can crumble based on only the poor selection or unethical treatment of subjects, making it not only one of the first, but also one of the most important parts of planning an experiment.

2.       Everything is a matter of perspective

Lets explore the hypothetical of two studies being done on the treatment of wilderness trip leaders: one focused on women vs. men leading women, and the other, women vs. men leading men. In the former, the trip leaders are always treated with respect and trust, while in the other, the women were not. The results of the first study could suggest that client sexism did not exist, and that women and men are equally respected by participants, while the latter would suggest the exact opposite. The perspectives and biases from which you design your study has an effect on it, no matter how objective you aim to be. If you do not have the lived experience or knowledge to design a study on a certain topic, your results will not be representative.

3.       Focusing on recreation can leave pieces of research missing

This one is a discovery I have made on my own throughout the semester, rather than being strictly taught to me. For my podcast project, we focused in on identity in the Thunder Bay outdoor recreation space. I found myself enthralled with the topic of identity as it relates to one’s feelings about participating in outdoor recreation, however I found myself frequently having to leave interesting concepts out because they did not meet the hyper-specific criteria for our project. The issue here is that outdoor recreation is so entangled with almost every aspect of social psychology one sees in their day-to-day life, and yet we often don’t take one’s day to day life into account. Outdoor recreation as a concept needs more specific understanding, but this feeling of discovering a stone unturned and being unable to fully turn it leaves me pondering if we narrow things too completely.

These Three Things I am Still Confused By:

1.       The boundaries between protecting your study and protecting your participants:

There is a well known ethical paradox in social and psychological research in which the researcher must find a perfect mid point between the advancement of knowledge and minimizing impacts on participants (Neuman & Robson, 2014). While the code of ethics addresses some hard and fast rules of harm reduction (Neuman & Robson, 2014), it seems to me that there is a large grey not addressed. For example, working with participants with past trauma, specially in recounting those stories, can be incredibly triggering and difficult. How does a researcher manage the likelihood that learning more about those who have experienced trauma, can set participants back in terms of mental and emotional recovery? Is the only option to remain impartial and offer up alternative resources someone can seek? I hope that there is more personal responsibility than that for researchers.

2.       How far academic outdoor recreation research can go in the future

Parks Canada and other related businesses have been doing their own independent applied studies for decades (Neuman & Robson, 2014), but research done on the field of outdoor recreation as a whole is just beginning. I wonder exactly how far this more generalized outdoor recreation research can go in the future, because outdoor rec has been shown to have so many similarities to group activity as a whole. At some point, will doing this specific research be seen as merely restating research that has already been done with other group situations, or will the small (yet important) differences continue to expand in coming years?

3.       How many people are working on the same research at once

I found that in this course we talk about research as almost being a solitary affair, however as our guest lecturers have stated, there is almost always other people involved to oversee, contribute, or act as impartial third parties to the study. I think this course could have benefitted from exploring these various relationships and the hierarchy of research teams further. I feel it would have given a more realistic look into what the world of research will really look like once we get there, which could have enticed some students to be more interested in continuing with research.

These Three Things I Know for Sure About Myself as an Outdoor Recreation Researcher:

1.        I like to actually perform research rather than analyzing and writing about it

Throughout the podcast project, I very much enjoyed looking at the social media posts that I did my research on, but I had a lot of trouble scripting my part of the podcast. I very much enjoy writing and speaking, however writing in a scientific or professional manner feels stifling and cold in comparison to more narrative or creative writing tasks. I do not enjoy the rewording and restating of fact, the necessary repetition of scientific writing, or being unable to have any of my own ideas once the writing period has begun. All new or interesting ideas must happen before the research has even begun, and this can feel stifling and highly rooted in the hypothetical. The task of actually writing the paper or script feels sluggish and droning to me.

2.        I do not think I could work on research with highly volatile or controversial topics

During one of our guest lectures, a research project was discussed that involved a participant with a particularly controversial opinion on women in the outdoors. This is not an uncommon thing either. Many researchers, depending on their topic, will end up in a similar situation, faced with opinions that they do not share or respect. I cannot see myself being able to maintain the necessary composure during this circumstance. I am a very sensitive person and I also have been told I do not hide my facial expressions well, so I do not believe I would be able to get through an in-person survey with someone who is rude or bigoted towards me or others in any way.

3.       I am very interested in women’s stories

In many areas, I find I have grown tired of constant reiteration of female struggles. I find that those who have lived experience as a woman already know what the findings will be, and those that do not have that lived experience are often not listening. However, I have found another side of women-centred social research this semester. Through articles I read throughout this course, such as, “Curating a Public Self” (linked below), I have found that studies done by women and for women are incredibly different than studies done about women. The topics that studies about women are still aiming to “definitively” prove over and over again are accepted as fact and as jumping off points for the real research to begin. It does not feel like being nagged about my own experience, but rather like someone finally telling me something about myself I did not already know. I hope to continue to look for studies and articles done by women and for women, not about them, because we are not objects of oppression but rather individuals with stories that are worth hearing.

 These Three Areas I Need to Spend Time Developing/Learning in Order to Feel More Confident in my Skills:

1.       Developing a Longer Attention Span

When selecting research questions, I often pick something I am very interested in in that moment. This allows me to put effort into a project and care deeply about finding the truth. However, it also means for me specifically, that all of these benefits go away once that topic is no longer interesting to me. The research process takes 7 steps (Neuman & Robson, 2014), and my short hyper fixation on the topic can only get me through approximately steps 1-4. Once the data is collected and the personal curiosity satisfied, my interest tanks. Applied research is far quicker than academic (Neuman & Robson, 2014), so this may be better suited to me, but in the future, I hope to learn to pick topics based off of long-standing interest rather than whims, and work on lengthening that attention span.

2.       Deconstruct my own Impostor Syndrome

Throughout the entirety of my outdoor recreation “career”, I have felt like I do not belong in the outdoor space. Objectively, I know that even in childhood I was firmly situated in the community through camping, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and summer camps, but even now I will often say to myself that these ventures “don’t count” in some way or that “other people do more extreme things”. Impostor syndrome is an incredibly common response to environmental influences like sexism, racism, ableism, and homophobia, but one must be able to look past their feelings of falsehood in order to perform their best in work and scholarly situations.

3.       Taking the time to come up with better quality questions

A huge part of research, and specifically surveys, are the questions you are asking. This brainstorming process can seem easy once you’ve selected a thesis, but between developing your sample group, choosing your intended audience, avoiding confirmation bias, creating falsifiability, and following all ethics rules, the question development process can be lengthy and difficult (Neuman & Robson, 2014). The process requires “skill, practice, patience, and creativity,” (Neuman & Robson, 165, 2014). I would like to think I possess all of these traits, but as previous responses will show, I do lack patience. I hope to get better at this in order to create questions that dive deeper to what the research is looking for.

Reference List:

Gray, T., Norton, C., Breault-Hood, J., Christie, B., & Taylor, N. (2018). Curating a public self: Exploring social media images of women in the outdoors. Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, 10(2), 153–170. https://doi.org/10.18666/jorel-2018-v10-i2-8191

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2014). 1: Doing Social Research. In Basics of Social Research (pp. 2–22). essay, Pearson Canada.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2014). 2: Theory and Social Research. In Basics of Social Research (pp. 24–42). essay, Pearson Canada.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2014). 3: Ethics in Social Research. In Basics of Social Research (pp. 43–63). essay, Pearson Canada.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2014). 8: Survey Research. In Basics of Social Research (pp. 162–192). essay, Pearson Canada.

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Blog 9 & 10

Three things I know for certain about outdoor rec research:

1.       Ethics considerations

I know that ethics are a vital part of research and after completing the TPCS Tutorial on research ethics I am much more aware of what that entails. I understand how important ethics are to research, but also understand that there are reasons for people to partake in unethical actions during research due to financial, social, and professional pressures. These things may cause some people to stray from the ethical course of actions and teaches us to be even more critical of our own studies in the future (Neuman & Robson, 2018).

2.       Invisible backpacks

I know for certain that we all carry our own invisible backpack with us. This is something we carry with us every day, not only when doing research work. However, it is imperative to acknowledge your own backpack when doing research so that you recognize some of the biases we may have as researchers and where our own experiences and perspectives may cause the research to fall short. I know for certain that I need to keep this at the front of my mind when doing research in the future and continue to have conversations about it with my peers.

3.       We’re in an incredible field

Outdoor Recreation is an incredible field to work in with an array of research opportunities. There are so many options of what to study that it really leaves it up to us as Reccers to choose our own path and follow what interests us most. As our guest lecturer Stephanie Potter mentioned during her presentation, there are so many options for Outdoor Rec grads that the best thing to do is follow your passion and intertwine it with your education and career when possible. If you follow what interests you most, then with hard work you can build a successful career in this industry.

Three things I am still confused by:

1.       Quantitative data reduction

Although I believe I have a solid understanding of qualitative and quantitative data collection, since I have not had the chance to do my own data reduction I am still confused by the exact process. In the case of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, researchers make inferences to reach a conclusion about the data they have collected. By understanding, reasoning, simplifying, and abstracting from the data, researchers are able to pull conclusions from their findings (Neuman & Robson, 2018). Despite this, I am still confused by the exact process of reducing this quantitative data. The textbook defines data reduction as “the analytic process of going from a large collection of data to a more generalizable statements about social life” (Neuman & Robson, 2018 p. 328). I feel like I will not have a solid grasp on this until I do it as part of a professional research project.

2.       Analysis of quantitative data

Similar to my first point, due to lack of hands-on experience I am still slightly confused by the process of analyzing quantitative research. Without a doubt I prefer gathering qualitative data over quantitative, and part of that is due to having a better understanding of what to do with the data once it is collected. From reading the relevant chapters in the textbook, I gather that it includes coding variables, entering data, cleaning data and rewriting code, and much more (Neuman & Robson, 2018). Again, since we did not have the opportunity to gather quantitative data and practice this in class I feel as though I am still lost on the process.

3.       How to get started

As a someone who tends to have lots of ideas, I find myself struggling to get started and act on them. This is the same in regard to conducting research. I am still do not understand the best way to get started or the process of turning something from an idea into a funded research project.

Three things I know about myself as a researcher:

1.       I prefer qualitative data

Although I enjoy reading tables, graphs, and pie charts as much as the next guy, nothing holds more weight than the words of research participants. I understand the need to integrate both into research but will always prefer qualitative data.

2.       I need to take advantage of Rec research opportunities

Thanks to our guest lecturers this semester I have a much better idea of the opportunities that are available to outdoor rec students. I know that as a researcher, I need to take advantage of these while I am still a student at Lakehead.

3.       My own invisible backpack

I had the opportunity during this semester to better understand my own invisible backpack and how it influences my own perspective and outlook on life.

Three areas to continue developing:

1.       Designing surveys

Although I believe I have a firm understanding of what makes a well-designed survey, I believe I need to continue developing this skill. Primarily, I should continue developing this skill by creating surveys and taking part in more research opportunities where surveys are involved. The textbook explains the various steps that are involved in creating a survey. Some of the general steps include developing a survey or interview schedule, collect data by conducting interviews or surveys online, over the phone, or through the mail (Neuman & Robson, 2018). It is the first phase regarding planning and setting up the survey that I need to put into practice in the future.

2.       Conducting Interviews

Building off of the idea of designing surveys, I also feel the need to develop my skills of conducting interviews. As a key form of qualitative data collection, it is very easy to conduct interviews in an unprofessional way that will have negative implications on your research. It is imperative to remove biases and not use leading questions that would influence respondents during an interview. As the interviewer, you need to stay totally neutral in order to collect the most accurate data (Neuman & Robson, 2018).

3.       Designing research questions

Similar to one of my points on what still confuses me, I need to get better at developing strong research questions. I believe this will help me when starting new research projects and turning ideas into projects.

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.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 8 Survey Research. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 160 - 192). essay, Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 11 Analysis of Quantitative Data. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 234 - 261). essay, Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 12 Qualitative Interviewing. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 261 - 278). essay, Pearson.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2018). Chapter 15 Analysis of Qualitative Data. In Basics of Social Research Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (4th Canadian Edition, pp. 327 - 342). essay, Pearson.

[tgoutd2511]

Hi Drew!

I really enjoyed reading your post from this week. Myself, along with many others I’m sure, are quite familiar with personality tests and have taken a number of them in the past. I was first introduced to the Myers Briggs personality test which seems to be the basis for this personality test as well. Your analysis of this survey is very insightful to read! I agree with you that it is quite accessible and easy to participate in as the design is not overwhelming for participants, and although fairly long the designers broke it down one page at a time. I think this helps getting through the questionnaire as it feels like you can take a break when necessary and are not intimidated by an incredibly long series of questions in front of you. I also enjoyed learning about your own result! I think it is super cool to see a change in your own personality and growth over a year by using this test. If you are able to save those results it could be really fascinating to take the quiz again in another year or even five years from now. (I wish I had done this when I first took a personality test in high school).

Great Job!

Tait

Personality Test

Blog Prompt #8 (Provided by Dr. Amanda Hooykaas): Find an online survey/questionnaire/quiz that you can participate in (it does not need to be formal) and complete it – the quality and honesty of your responses is up to you... what we want to hear about is the actual quality of the survey. Do not select a formal, credible questionnaire that will actually lead to a diagnosis as those are often very scrupulous in their wording and have already been vetted extensively. Please critically evaluate the survey/questionnaire/quiz (please provide us with the link to the page where you found it). What is the context? How well are the questions written? Might there be variety/ambiguity in the responses that lead to poor results? What are some strengths and weaknesses? How might it be improved (accessibility, wording, length, promotion, etc.). Please reference the course notes, the textbook, and the article itself. Remember, I expect you to be demonstrating a robust understanding of the course material at this point in time!

Context:

For this week’s post, I chose to do the 16personalities.com test. This test reveals which personality of the 16 best fits who you are. The 16 personalities include:

The Analysts

Architect (INTJ)

Logician (INTP)

Commander (ENTJ)

Debater (ENTP)

The Diplomats

Advocate (INFJ)

Mediator (INFP)

Protagonist (ENFJ)

Campaigner (ENFP)

The Sentinels

Logistician (ISTJ)

Defender (ISFJ)

Executive (ESTJ)

Consul (ESFJ)

Question Quality:

The questions are more statements you agree or disagree with, but they are very well-written. They are clear and easy to understand. “You regularly make new friends” and “Seeing other people cry can easily make you feel like you want to cry too” are two examples of questions from this test.

Variety and Ambiguity:

I think there is likely to be no variety or ambiguity in the responses that lead to poor results, as the questions are well-written and clear, which will not confuse test-takers. Also all the results are good results, as they are personality types, and one is not better than the other.

Strengths:

A few questions on each page, not overwhelming

Progress bar at the top

Clear wording and well-written questions

Results are very clear at the end, easy to see and understand

Weaknesses:

Long, as lots of questions

Not all the answer choices being labeled

Possible Improvements:

The accessibility of this test is good. It can easily be found by searching ‘personality test’ on Google and it will be one of the first few search results.

Google Search webpage. Photo credit: Google

One way this test could be improved is by labeling all the answer choices. Right now, only the first and last circles are labeled, with ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’ respectively. Not labeling the only circles or choices can lead to mixed interpretation of what those choices mean. As one person could think the second choice means often agree (3-4 times out of 5), well another person could think it means sometimes agree (2 times out of 5). These different interpretations could lead to people picking different circles, and possibly lead them to getting a personality that doesn’t fully fit them.

Answer choices for this test. Photo Credit: 16Personalities. com

I don’t know if this test has any promotion, but I do know a lot of people know about this test, as they will mention it when talking about personality tests.

Also, fun little thing, but I did the test this past week and got Defender, which is what I got a year ago when I also did this test. There were only slight changes in my percentages for each of the 5 categories (extraverted-introverted, intuitive-observant, thinking-feeling, judging-prospecting, and assertive-turbulent) all increased ranging from 5-10%, minus judging which decreased by 5%. I just thought it was neat as over the last year, I have felt like I’ve grown and figured out who I’m more, which is reflected in those slight changes.

References:

Anonymous. (n.d.). 16Personalities test. 16Personalities. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.16personalities.com/

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.

[tgoutd2511]

Blog #8 - Online Survey

Prompt:

Find an online survey/questionnaire/quiz that you can participate in (it does not need to be a formal) and complete it – the quality and honesty of your responses is up to you… what we want to hear about is the actual quality of the survey. Do not select a formal, credible questionnaire that will actually lead to a diagnosis as those are often very scrupulous in their wording and have already been vetted extensively.

Please critically evaluate the survey/questionnaire/quiz (please provide us with the link to the page where you found it). What is the context? How well are the questions written? Might there be variety/ambiguity in the responses that lead to poor results? What are some strengths and weaknesses? How might it be improved (accessibility, wording, length, promotion, etc.)

 Response:

After doing a quick google search for rock climbing surveys, I found one that was looking to gather information beneficial to them in opening a new indoor climbing gym in Essex (England?). This sparked my interest and I decided to participate and analyze their survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TMPY65L

 Question Quality

The questions are reasonably written and are easy to follow throughout the survey. The first thing I noticed filling out the survey was that there was only a “male” or “female” option when asked your gender, which is quite outdated and unreasonable. This should include other options or at the very least have a “prefer not to say” option. Overall, the questions are written simply in order to get right to the point without being too vague, but the available responses should be edited. For example in the second question, the age ranges are not evenly distributed which would skew the data. There should be even increments of 5 years as seen in the “16-21″ age group throughout the rest of the responses. By grouping such a large number of people together in the “36-50″ and “50+” category you are overly simplifying and misrepresenting the data.

Survey Strengths

Some of the strengths of this survey include it being short and concise. This minimizes ambiguity and can increase participation, while also allowing the survey to be inexpensive and fast to fill out (Neuman, 2018 p. 181).  Questions are also worded well and are easy to follow throughout the survey.

Survey Weaknesses

The first issue with the survey is that context is lacking, and only includes a very short introduction to the survey. The location, type of climbing gym, and background on who is trying to open the gym is completely unknown. It is my assumption that this was a survey created by locals and shared via social media, potentially with more context in the original post than on the survey itself.

The survey is quite short in length, which may be both beneficial and detrimental to their research. There is a lot left on the table here, such as questions that could have been asked or room for clarification/follow-up questions. The short length may make it more accessible and easier for people to fill out, but it also limits the amount of valuable data that the surveyors are retrieving. Furthermore, the survey lacks open ended questions to allow for general observations and detailed responses.

Improvements

I would recommend improving this survey by adding a couple more open-ended questions regarding what people would like to see in a new climbing gym. I would also recommend breaking down the question on important elements to gauge interest better in specific types of climbing. 

This could be done on a sliding scale from 0 – “not interested” to 5 – “very interested” regarding types of climbing (ie. Top rope, bouldering, lead climbing, auto-belays). There could then be a separate question that gauge’s interest in various amenities offered at the gym such as showers, change rooms etc. This expands on the research already being done and allows you to better understand the proportion and variety of climbing that is of interest to participants.

Promotion

The promotion for this survey is unknown, however it was likely posted and shared via social media when it was created. 

 References

Climbing wall - questionnaire. Climbing Wall - Questionnaire Survey. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2022, from https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TMPY65L

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.

[tgoutd2511]

Hey Drew,

Great post this week! It was great to read about some of the other presentations that took place during the undergraduate student conference oral presentation sessions. I also attended the undergrad presentations, but at a different time frame. The presentations I attended were all very scientific and heavy in medical terminology that was completely lost on me. The engineering projects that you summarized sound very interesting, especially the one about designing a retaining wall to protect against landslides. I wasn’t aware of the landslide along the Nipigon River before reading your post. Despite the research all being very different from what we are used to as reccers, I think it’s amazing the type of research and innovation being done and shared through this conference.

Tait

Engineering Research Presentations

Of all the events at the Research and Innovation Week Conference, I attended the Undergraduate Student Conference Oral Presentations - Session 3. The hour-long session was composed of 4 presentations and was focused on Engineering projects.

The first presentation was about the structure of a two-story building and how it handles different loads. In their research, the loads they considered included snow, wind, and crane load. Wind is one of the only horizontal loads they had to consider. Wind also is a large factor for all buildings, not just tall buildings like the CN tower or the ATAC. They explain how all these different loads would affect the building they were designing. They used something called Etabs to create their design.

The second presentation started with statistics about car-bridge collisions and the fatality rates. Their project was about designing bridge support that would not collapse if it was hit by a car or truck. They explained their research process and all the factors they had to consider. One cool thing they shared was how the car creates vibrations after hitting the supports, similar to earthquakes, and that is what causes all the damage. They also explained the method and systems they used in their design and process. I think this was a good idea, as many people watching might not have known what they were talking about.

The third presentation was on the Slope Stability of the Nipigon River. They started their presentation by defining what a landslide is and then talked about the landslide that occurred along the Nipigon River in the 1990s. They explained the possible causes for that landslide and provided recommendations for each. They think if there had been a Cantilever Retaining Wall that that landslide would haven't occurred. For their project, they designed a retaining wall and picked a good spot farther up the river to place it.

The fourth and final presentation was about a sensor system that could detect when someone had fallen or had a fever. I knew one of the speakers in this presentation; Chris Silver is another RA. Their sensor is located in a room, such as a hospital or nursing home room, or something similar to that size; they programmed the sensor for a room around that size.

One challenge they had to overcome was the technology they were using. Their sensor would send the data to a PSW or nurse, but there was a time delay; so, they are hoping with a better sensor they could get real-time data to help the fallen people faster. They also think with a better sensor, they could program it to ID faces, which would provide better fever readings, along with not signaling on a warm cup of tea, for example. They also showed a video where they demonstrated how their current sensor works and the information the PSWs and nurses would be emailed.

The four projects I saw and learned about were very interesting, but very confusing at points, as I don’t know a lot about engineering. I think all the groups had amazing ideas, designs, and clearly showed their research methods and the time they put into their projects.

References:

LU Engineering Students (2022). Undergraduate Student Conference Oral Presentations - Session 3. Presentation, Lakehead University Research and Innovation Week.

[tgoutd2511]

Blog 7: Research & 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.

Response:

For the blog assignment this week, I attended three different talks during the Undergraduate Student Conference Oral Presentations. While I tried my best to decipher the extremely heavy scientific jargon, I realized that I was not at all the intended audience of these talks. Despite this, I was able to listen in on some incredibly knowledgeable undergraduate students who are doing amazing work with Lakehead University.

The presentation that I understood the most had to do with medical research that was aimed at early detection of cancerous tumors. While the medical jargon was way way way over my head, I did understand and connect with this study. The methodology seemed to make sense as he was explaining using MRIs to target a specific abnormality in cells or masses to detect cancer even earlier on that is currently possible. As far as I could understand, he was working with MRIs and various samples to perfect the identifying methods of cancerous tissue.

It is difficult to identify any specific challenges or successes of the methodology since I couldn’t fully understand the research being done. However, based on how the findings were presented it was clear that there was some success in the research that would require further study. In some ways this would imply that the methodology was successful enough to pursue further. The presentation didn’t go in depth into research approaches and their effectiveness so I’m not able to comment on that unfortunately.

It would be interesting to learn about the ethical implications of the study and if there are any challenges there. Obviously, the goals of the study are ethical, as it’s aiming to identify cancerous tissue earlier than is currently possible. However, the way the research is being done most likely has to get approval from an ethics board. It wasn’t clear where they were getting their samples or how that process takes place. It was very clear however, that the undergraduate student is under the guidance and direct supervision of one of their professors during the research process. I think this would of helped guide the ethics and research methodologies in an effective way while still giving enough freedom to the student to do the research necessary.

Overall, the study seemed to be effective and have clear goals and future direction of study. I wish I could of understood it a bit more as I think we would all love to know that cancer could be detected much earlier on in order to increase survival rate. I do wish I could understand the research better so that I could dissect the challenges and successes of their methodology in more detail but found it incredibly difficult to stay on the same page during the presentation.

[tgoutd2511]

Blog 6: Skating Trail Interview

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!). 

Response:

Since my group is researching the impacts of the new ice skating trails in Thunder Bay, I would choose to interview a parent using the trails with their family. Ideally I would interview them face-to-face after they are finished skating for the day. I would be interviewing a member of the general public in order to better understand the communities perception of the new skating trails in Thunder Bay.

My interview questions:

1) What brought you here today?

         With this question I am hoping to learn about their motivations for coming to the skating trails. Is it for exercise? A new hobby? Is it just to get out of the house? It’s important to get a better idea of what brings people to the trails to gauge the audience that the skating trails may cater to.

2) How did you hear about the trail?

         I would love to know how people hear about the skating trails as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of advertising for them other than the original publicity they got through the Thunder Bay news. Are people spreading the news by word of mouth or do people just see the trail and come back with their skates?

3) How do you and your family feel about the new skating trail?

         It would be great to get an understanding of the public’s perception of the skating trails. I want to ask a very open-ended question that doesn’t point them towards giving either a positive or negative answer to this question, but rather gauges their overall feelings towards the skating trails. Leaving the question very general means that they could go any direction with their answer and express how they truly feel.

4) Do you think the new ice skating trails are beneficial to the fabric of the community? How so?

         I want to gain a better understanding of how the community feels about the new skating trails and if they think it is beneficial to their community. If so, I would like to know why they think it is or isn’t beneficial to their community.

5) Would you come skating again or possibly recommend the trails to others?

         I think it would be important to get a sense of how the experience of the skating trails lived up to their expectations. If individuals aren’t willing to come back over and over then it would appear that the hype of the trails exceeded the trails themselves. If the trails are not able to retain visitors, then any impact they have on the community would dissipate as well.

 The questions I chose allow me to learn more about the general publics perspective on the ice skating trails. I decided to have open ended questions in a funneling sequence to elicit the best answers out of my participant. As the textbook explains, a funneling sequence starts broad and gets more specific as the interview goes on (Neuman, 2017 p. 177). This does a couple of things, first it gives the participant easy questions to answer to start off interview and get the conversation going. The textbook explains that “it is best to make opening questions pleasant, interesting, and easy to answer to help a respondent feel comfortable” (Neuman, 2017 p. 176). I wanted to do exactly that by providing an easy question to get them comfortable such as “what brought you here?” and “how did you hear about the skating trails?”. I then start to ask more difficult open-ended questions that allow the participant to answer honestly. Since this would be a face-to-face interview, I would have more flexibility in asking open ended questions as highlighted in table 8.3 of the class textbook (Neuman, 2017 p. 182).

 References:

Neuman, W. L., Robson, K. (20170102). Basics of Social Research (Canadian Edition), 4th Edition. [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]]. Retrieved from vbk://9780134649078

[tgoutd2511]

Hi Annie, I really enjoyed your blog post from this week. I think you did a really good job crafting each individual question. They allow for detailed and informative responses from Lindsay that would be extremely beneficial for your podcast assignment. If I did have any critique it would be with question #4 due to it essentially being a yes or no question. I understand the reason for asking the question but do think it could be worded differently to elicit a more thorough response from Lindsay. A possible option for rewording the question might be something like “do you think that shared experiences in skiing culture can influence an athlete’s motivation? How so?” 

Overall, I think you did a great job. That would be a stellar interview to witness!

Tait

Interviewing Lindsey Vonn

My group is focusing on how skiing builds community for its participants. As someone who has been within the ski community (and is a very big fan of Lindsey Vonn), I would interview her, as she is considered one of the best women alpine skiers. 

Interviewing someone like Lindsey Vonn would help my group gain a deeper understanding of the different types of community that can be formed, as there is a difference between racing and freestyle, or mountains vs small hills. Lindsey Vonn would be able to provide this insight as she has been skiing her whole life and would have skied in various places with various people. 

My Questions: 

1. What got you into racing and motivated you to stay in it? 

- This question is an open question, which could lead to an in-depth answer about the racing community, the support she was given, or the friends she made. 

2. Do you think there is a difference between racing teams in small communities (hills) versus in large communities (mountains)? If so, what do you think is the difference? 

-   This will get her opinion on how the size of the hill affects the sense of community, which helps my group determine which creates a larger sense of belonging. 

3. in your experience, is there a general attitude that you find among fellow skiers?

- this question opens the idea that community can be created by a general positivity or excitement shared by a large group. It can be seen most in lift lines or when you share a lift with a stranger and start a conversation. 

4.  Do you think the shared enjoyment of skiing and the connections made keep people coming back each winter? 

- while this is a closed question, only requiring a yes or no answer, there is room for elaboration. This would allow my group to get a professional’s opinion on whether she has found that connections were easy to make in her long career due to a shared love of the sport. 

5.  How did you find the atmosphere at the Olympics?

This question will help my group understand the sense of community at a significant and international skiing competition, which will help us determine the sense of camaraderie shared between athletes. 

Summary: 

This interview aims to gain the insight of someone who has been involved in racing and has skied in many different places and atmospheres. This will help my group develop a better understanding of how a community is built in skiing and what can foster a better environment for a community to grow.

[tgoutd2511]

What’s on my mind?

Prompt:

Response:

What’s on my mind this week revolves almost entirely around school. I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to get back in person in time for the OSAT 2 winter camping trip this weekend. While I’m looking ahead to the weekend in anticipation for the trip and am pretty excited for the experience, I am a little nervous that the weather is good to us, and it doesn’t get to the chilling -40°C that students experienced pre-covid. Building and sleeping in a quinzhee sounds like a ton of fun, that is until you have to get out of your sleeping bag in the morning to make coffee. While I work on getting my gear in order for the trip and practicing for the fire lighting test, I’m also trying to stay caught up on other schoolwork and make sure everything is organized before the upcoming reading week. I feel like this might be similar to some other students since quite a few of us are going to be on the trip this weekend and are probably all looking forward to the upcoming break from school.

Another bonus to having in-person classes start this week was being able to begin work on the voyageur canoe. We were able to start ripping it apart, scraping old paint off and sanding down the exterior. It’s a very satisfying and rewarding process to get to be a part of. Having talked about the project for some time now it feels great to finally get started and see some real progress, even though there’s still a long way to go.

My mind has also been occupied with new information surrounding ice skating trails, which is what my group is focusing on for our podcast assignment. It has been really interesting to research the increasing popularity of these trails. I can’t help but think of my experiences visiting my aunt and uncle in Ottawa when we would tie up our skates and get beaver tails along the Rideau Canal in the winter. I always thought that was really cool (and very Canadian) so the increasing popularity and accessibility of these skating trails across Ontario is really great to see. When properly implemented they can really help build up a community. I’m looking forward to researching the topic further and working on the project with my other group members.

  References:

Me, myself, and I

[tgoutd2511]

Hey Brenton!

I have really enjoyed reading the large variety of topics that people in our class would like to research and your post this week was really interesting to me. Your research topic is quite complex and would be really fascinating to explore in depth. I do wonder however, similar to yourself, if answers to these questions are possible to find. Like you mentioned in your post without a time machine it’s hard to say… but it’s funny to think about what would be possible if we did have access to one. Say for instance we did have a time machine in this limitless study, what research methods do you think you would use? I would imagine that going back that far it would have to be primarily observational research. Realistically though, you proposed some great methodology including archeological work, preservation of artifacts and interpretation.

I am quite interested in the questions you are asking as well as the purpose and implications you mentioned your study would have. I agree that a better understanding of our past would help us establish our place in the present and guide us towards a better future. An interesting book I read that explores some of these concepts is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It’s a pretty popular book so you may have already heard of it or read it yourself, but if not I highly recommend it. Yuval Noah Harari explores “the thrilling account of our extraordinary history – from insignificant apes to rulers of the world.” Harari has a Ph.D. in history and is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he specializes in World History. I think you might enjoy his work if you are not already familiar with him. Great work this week, it was a pleasure to read!

  - Tait

 References:

Harari, Y. N., Vandermeulen, D., Casanave, D., & Champion, C. (2020). Sapiens. Albin Michel.

What would I like to research?

As a student of Outdoor Recreation and History, and an enthusiast of anthropology and evolution, I think that if I had access to unlimited resources to conduct a research project, I would probably want to combine these topics in order to create my research question. 

I think it would be extremely fascinating and enlightening to try and find out more about how archaic humans conducted themselves in their daily lives. How different or alike were they to how humans behave today? It is the general consensus that Homo sapiens in Sub-Saharan Africa, so I believe that this would be the correct place to conduct my research. My research project would likely include qualitative and quantitative work, including archeological excavations, preservation of artifacts, (or belongings, as it has recently been suggested to call them) and interpretation of what the findings may mean. I do not know a great deal about the subject of archaeology, but I would hope that by using these methods over a large area, and spanning large distance of archeological time, we could identify certain individuals, and hopefully make educated inferences as to what behaviours they may have exhibited beyond mere survival techniques. What could we learn about family? About pre-historic religious thought? What were social hierarchies like, and were our distant relatives peaceful, or war mongering like ourselves? These are all questions that I would like to know, but I do not know if they could ever be answered without a time machine.

Obviously we will never know exactly how the people of the distant past lived, but I believe that there is still more to be found out, which could connect all living people to their own pasts and to each other. 

I think that it would be difficult to propose such a huge task like this to get it approved by any modern state government. However, given the fact that I have “unlimited funding” I would highlight the many benefits I could see this having, such as creating a more complete family tree of our ancestors, and providing more clear insight into our own minds and behaviours than we have ever had before. I think that if a project like this were possible, and tangible results could be acquired as to how our ancestors really thought and lived, it would be as important, or more so, than the Human Genome Project of the late nineties and two-thousands. I would like to think that by gaining a true understanding of our distant past, we could better understand how to conduct ourselves in the present, and into the future.

[tgoutd2511]

My Research Project: long term effects of nature based therapy

Prompt:

If you were to conduct research as a graduated student with limitless resources (but you still require ethics approval!), describe your ultimate research project. What would be the focus (it could be anything!)? How might you propose it? Who might it benefit? Shine a light on "you" as researcher a decade from now

Response:

If I had limitless resources as a graduate student, I would want to research the long-term effects of nature based therapeutic experiences on physical and mental wellbeing.

I have been interested in this subject for quite some time but was recently inspired by Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods explaining his concept of ‘nature deficit disorder’ and its prevalence in today’s society. I believe this research project would help shine a light on the concept of nature deficit disorder and help lead people towards possible solutions to the problem. My hope is that it would help shift people’s perception of nature, influence schools to prioritize the amount of quality time students spend outdoors and normalize therapeutic practices in children and young adults to improve mental and physical wellbeing. I also hope this project would encourage others to research the subject in the future and incorporate its findings into their day-to-day life.

In terms of logistics, it would ideally take place over a 5 – 10 year period depending on the willingness of the participants over time. Participants would have to opt-in to the research project and continue to give consent throughout, knowing they can quit at any time. The project would run for 10 years if enough participants stay involved in the project. Since I have limitless resources, I would have three groups of participants for this project. The first group would be the control group and would not be influenced in any way despite collecting data in all the same ways. The second group would participate in regular nature therapy sessions and various experiences that incorporate effective therapeutic practices in a natural environment. It would also involve vital debriefing sessions with help from outdoor and mental health professionals to incorporate their teachings into their day-to-day life. As for the third group, they would partake in exactly half of the guided experiences in nature and consultations with professionals. Each group will have a diverse set of participants from various ages and backgrounds, with a common goal of improving their mental and physical health through nature.  

In regard to research methods, I would utilize both qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather information throughout the project. The majority of the research would come from qualitative methods such as interviews, self assessments, journaling components, and professional logs/reports. The self reporting would be a huge part of the study as self perception over time would be an important component to track in terms of mental well being over time. The logs from psychologists and other professionals involved would be vital to the study as well, but it all relies on the honesty and openness of the participants to self report/journal their experience. The textbook states that “techniques for quantitative data collection include experiments, surveys, content analysis, and existing statistics” (Neuman, 2017, p16). I would try and utilize all four components in my study to maximize findings. Since there is already some research in other parts of the world on this topic, existing statistics can be studied and compared with our findings of Canadians. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods would be necessary to get the most out of this study.

 References:

Louv, R. (2013). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Atlantic Books.

Neuman, W. L., Robson, K. (20170102). Basics of Social Research (Canadian Edition),  4th Edition. [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]].  Retrieved from vbk://9780134649078

Song, C., Ikei, H., & Miyazaki, Y. (2016). Physiological Effects of Nature Therapy: A Review of the Research in Japan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(8), 781. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13080781

[tgoutd2511]

Hey Zach! Great blog post this week. I think you did a great job summarizing the case study by Vice. Agafia’s life is so unique and it still amazes me that she is surviving in the Siberian wilderness to this day (from what I can find online she is still alive and well at the age of 77). I think you did a great job highlighting the invisible backpack that the filmmakers carry with them. They obviously had access to a large amount of money from Vice and North Face in order to make the documentary. As you mentioned, the process would not have been possible without the necessary camera and camping gear provided for them.

I agree with your point about the translator. I think this was an ethical decision they made in order for the filming process to be easier on both Agafia and the filmmakers by breaking the communication barrier. I also agree that the trip did seem relatively short. To try and gather enough information to truly understand this person’s life of 70 years in mere days is ridiculous to me. I mentioned in my blog post that if I was to make this documentary I would visit in the summer months to allow for a more flexible timeline of filming. I think this can be important for the research involved as well as making it more comfortable for Agafia since the researchers could then leave at any time she wanted them to. This obviously wasn’t the case since they filmed it in the winter and could only leave when the helicopter came back for them. What are your thoughts on filming in the summer despite the increased limitations of the 7-day canoe trip? Would you do it a different way? 

Great job overall!

- Tait

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

[tgoutd2511]

Surviving 70 years in the Siberian Wilderness

Prompt:

Outline the case study (who, what, where, when, why, how). Identify the research techniques being employed - to the best of your ability at this point in the term. Determine the invisible backpack of the documentary filmmaker – as best you can. Comment on whether this is directly identified or somehow noted in the film. Describe some key ethics considerations that were made in the production of this film and how they might have been addressed. 

If you were given the same opportunity (to both research the family and to communicate your findings to a larger audience of peers), how would you approach this research assignment? Outline your own identity and “who” you are as a student researcher approaching this topic. What are some key ethical considerations you might have and how might you address them?

Response:

The case study in question highlights the life of 70-year-old Agafia Lykov who was born into the Siberian wilderness. Agafia was born into the off-grid lifestyle in 1944 after her family of Old Believers fled Russia seeking refuge from the dangers of Stalin in 1936. Her family survived in the wilderness 160 km from the nearest city for 40 years with no contact to the outside world. Life was by no means easy in this harsh wilderness; Agafia’s mother starved to death in 1961 in order to feed her four children. When they were finally discovered by a group of geologists in 1978, illness was passed on to the family and took the life of Agafia’s three siblings. Her father passed in 1988 leaving her alone in the mountains for 25 years until one of the geologists moved into a cabin down the hill from her.

Agafia Lykov photographed by Alexander Ryumin / TASS  https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/11/11/famed-siberian-hermit-agafya-lykova-gets-billionaires-help-ahead-of-harsh-winter-a72014 

The video was made in 2013 sponsored by North Face and was a collaborative effort between Americans and Russian employees of Vice. The filmmakers carry with them an invisible backpack that goes unnoted in the film. The backpack includes large amounts of funding that allowed the filmmaking process to take place. The funding allowed them to fly in by helicopter during the winter rather than experience the 7-day canoe trip that’s possible in the summer. They were able to bring expensive cameras and camping gear in order to document Agafia’s life and live along side her for a brief time. The filmmakers also have the privilege of returning home after the trip while they leave Agafia behind to continue living her day-to-day life in the wilderness. Although this case study is only possible out of the kindness of Agafia, it seems that she has very little to gain from the experience in comparison to the filmmakers who are being financially compensated for their work. Despite being given a goat and rooster, it seemed that the chance of visitors transferring disease poses more risk than reward to Agafia. The privilege of the filmmakers in this situation should not go unnoted.

The filmmakers utilized interviews with Agafia as well as direct observation of her daily life to collect information. This is primarily qualitative research as discussed in class. In regard to key ethics considerations made in this film, we are left largely in the dark. They failed to provide a lot of background information regarding how the film took place to begin with and how they received consent from Agafia to visit, film, ask intimate questions, leave abruptly, and then share her story with the entire world. It is clear that she has been a part of numerous studies over the years, but it isn’t clear if she enjoys the attention or fears it due to her family’s history. They directly addressed this danger, but then failed to mention any precautions they were taking to keep Agafia safe during their visit.

If I was making this film, I would make sure to visit in the summer months when it’s less work for Agafia to have visitors. It’s unclear exactly how the crew survived while they were out there and how much Agafia provided for them (food, water, firewood, etc.). This also would have allowed them to stay for a shorter or longer period of time to film depending on what Agafia wanted. Having the helicopter leave them and only return at a set time seems like it could be very restricting to both Agafia and the filmmakers. I also would have taken precautions to avoid transferring illness to Agafia and then made that process very transparent in the film. I am curious to know what other students may have done if they had the chance to research and document the life of such a unique person like Agafia Lykov. 

References

The Moscow Times. (2022, January 24). Famed siberian hermit gets billionaire's help ahead of harsh winter. The Moscow Times. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/11/11/famed-siberian-hermit-agafya-lykova-gets-billionaires-help-ahead-of-harsh-winter-a72014

VICE. (2013, April 9). Surviving in the siberian wilderness for 70 years (full length) [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68

- Tait

[tgoutd2511]

Hey Griffin! I find it super cool that so many Outdoor Rec students come from a camp background similar to yourself. It sounds like you had a really amazing experience as a camp counsellor, and I can see how it would lead you to pursue a future in the outdoors. What camp did you go to growing up? Similar to you, I took a gap year to travel and try and figure out what I wanted to do with myself after high school. Your experience in the Austrian Alps sounds amazing and it’s so cool that you heard of ORPT from someone all the way in Austria! I think that speaks to just how influential and well known this program is. Where did you travel to while in Germany? Would you go back to either Germany or Austria if you had the chance?

Our list of sources are also quite similar. Google scholar and the omni database are great resources to find reliable peer reviewed articles. I would agree that they are pretty straight forward and easy to use. Although I don’t have it in my top three sources, I also tend to rely on documentaries for new information. I find new information easily digestible when it’s accompanied by dramatic and attention-grabbing visuals and documentaries tend to do a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat. Are there any documentaries you have seen recently or some past favorites that you would recommend? Some of my favorites right now are Seaspiracy and The Social Dilemma on Netflix.

Blog 1

What has drawn me to the program? 

Going to camp when I was young had a big impact on me because it allowed me to try so many different outdoor activities such as windsurfing, kayaking, sailing, mountain biking, and canoeing. Camp helped me to grow a passion for the outdoors which eventually lead to me becoming a camp counselor. I was a camp councilor all through high school because I really  enjoyed teaching and doing  the outdoor activities and I wanted to spend as much time out in nature. After grade 12 I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I took a gap year and spent three months at Taurenhof Bible school in Austria. We would spend our days going on hikes in the Austrian alps and playing a ton of different sports. It was not until I was in Austria when I found out about Outdoor Recreation at Lakehead. One of the instructors from Alberta told me about the Outdoor Rec program and that she thought it would be a program I would enjoy. After the three months and some time traveling around in Germany I went home. When I got home my parents also heard about the program from some friends and suggested it to me. After looking into it, Lakehead looked like the perfect program that is best suited for me. I had spent some time before in Thunder Bay when I would go to Weagamow First Nations Reserve with a group of alumni high school hockey players to teach and donate equipment. I have grown to love Northern Ontario which is another reason why this program seemed like such a good fit.

Reliable sources I use: 

Sources of information that I rely on are Lakehead Omni database, Documentaries and Google Scholar. The Omni database is a great resource to find information for topics on outdoor recreation that I can use for the program. It is also good for navigating around as it is pretty easy and straight forward to filter and find specific information. Documentaries are a great resource for me because I am a huge visual learner so watching documentaries are a great way to learn. Documentaries provide a great insight on getting different perspectives on different topics, and even if i may not agree it is still interesting to see it from a different point of view. Nature documentaries can be very helpful with showing first hand how the environment and wildlife in it are changing as the world changes. If you pick the right documentaries they are for the most part reliable especially documentaries made by well known names. Google Scholar has been one of my go to’s when I am doing research since I was in high school. It is similar to the Lakehead Omni database and it has some good peer reviewed articles I can find information on. 

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Blog #1 - An ORPT student and a Consumer of Knowledge

Blog Prompt

Firstly, what has drawn you to this academic program? Secondly, as a consumer of knowledge, who do you rely upon for information? Consider perhaps three or more "sources". How do you ensure this information is reliable? How does this relate to this program?

Response

I came to the Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism program at Lakehead after spending a couple years at the University of Waterloo in their School of Environment, Resource, and Sustainability program. I decided to transfer into ORPT as it’s more aligned with what I want to do in the future - building a career in the outdoor industry. Although I am grateful for what I learnt at Waterloo and am still passionate about the environment, I believe ORPT is a much better fit for me.

My passion for the outdoors stems from a childhood spent outside. Over the years I have spent a ton of time front and backcountry camping, in the water or on the water with various forms of paddling, surfing, rock climbing, hiking, snowboarding, and much more. I discovered that a career in the outdoor industry would be possible while spending my summers working in the Muskoka’s, and most recently just outside Algonquin Park for a company called Swift Canoe and Kayak. Working there I was able to meet a lot of amazing people who have turned their passion for the outdoors into careers guiding and instructing various activities. I also met a lot of people who had gone through similar outdoor programs at places like Algonquin College, which is how I heard about ORPT for the first time.

From a sunrise paddle outside Algonquin Park, ON (June, 2021)

In regard to the second part of the prompt, there are three main sources that I get my information from:

1.       Lakehead University resources (Lakehead library & peer reviewed articles)

2.       Books

3.       Word of mouth (casual conversations with family, friends, coworkers etc)

 The list above shows my three main sources of information in order of importance and reliability. These sources reflect how I obtain information as a general consumer of knowledge, both from an academic and a personal perspective. As a student at Lakehead University the library provides some great reliable resources. It’s important to always check references and understand what biases the writer may have on the given topic, even in peer reviewed articles. It’s also important to find a few different sources of information when reading peer reviewed articles and not solely rely on a single paper for all the answers. Meta-analysis studies are great sources of information as they examine a number of independent studies to combine results.

Books are one of my favorite ways to consume information and easily take the number two spot in regard to reliability and use. I enjoy reading a variety of non-fiction books on subjects that interest me. I think doing research on the author is an important way to understand where they are coming from and what kind of expertise they have, helping to determine their overall reliability. For example, are they an expert in that field with a PhD, or are they a journalist doing research on the topic? One of my favorite authors as of late is Michael Pollan. He is a professor at both Harvard University and the University of California where he teaches writing. Although he is a well-known and esteemed writer, I think it’s important to understand that he is still a journalist at the end of the day and does all his own research in order to cumulate information for a book. I try to remember that everyone is biased to some degree, even esteemed writers.

Similarly, I am often reluctant to believe everything that I hear through word of mouth despite it being my third most used source of information. I like to do my own research to better understand complex topics and recent events. That being said, since I don’t regularly watch the news and try to limit my time on social media, I get a lot of information from general conversations with friends and family. I think having genuine conversations are a great way to understand a topic from various perspectives. As great as it is to have genuine conversations with people a lot of this information must be taken with a grain of salt.

I believe all three of these sources are valuable when it comes to this program. There are a lot of very experienced and knowledgeable people surrounding the ORPT program that can share their knowledge with students through conversation and shared experience. Furthermore, the Lakehead library provides easily accessible sources of information with peer reviewed articles and books for students to use when doing research. In regard to this class specifically, I will be heavily relying on Lakehead’s resources and books to gather information, and less so relying on casual conversations. I am curious what others think of my sources and how it relates to their own list when it comes to being a consumer of knowledge.

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