GUIRV research workshops feedback

Over the past two days we held student workshops in Heywood and Hamilton with students from your two schools Heywood Secondary College and Monivae Secondary College. You had the chance to try a number of different research techniques/tools including guided tours, photography, video interviews, surveys and behaviour mapping. How did you like it? Any feedback? Did you like being able to participate in collecting data yourself rather than reading about information others have written for you? Any advice to others about the techniques in case they want to use them in their own projects?

Any ideas for projects?  - Karen

Comments

[sir jean-claude boulos da 2end]

5 things i lernt on tusday

1 some people didn't like to be interviewed
2 they had alot of time to anser our quistons
3 some people disn't like there photo taken
4 some people like us so much they gave as free sampels
5 it was fun

[madalene]

5 things I learnt on Tuesday:
1)I learnt how to do behaviour mapping.
2)In behaviour mapping i learnt that you can study a few things for a short amount of time and come up with a page full of information.
3)I learnt alot about the likes and dislikes of people in year 8.
4)I learnt that the people around Hamilton have many different likes and dislikes about Hamilton.
5)I learnt about some of the places around Hamilton.

[laura]

5 things that i learnt about tuesday.
Cities have better shopping centres than towns.
the city has more sporting activies and sporting centres.
town shopping centres are finally changing.
the roads are safer in towns than cities

[tim hurley]

hamilton seriously needs a music shop coz we dont have 1 if we need to buy stuff like guitar strings and stuff we have 2 go 2 warrnambool

[Karen Malone]

Tim - how could you encourage a music shop to be opened? Or is there an alyternative like asking the CD music place to stock some of teh elements you need - a connnection to a music shop in another region where someone came once a week to hamilton with stuff or did repairs??? THis sounds like an intersting project and it would be important to think of some key people to talk to and to do some reserach behind where and how far people travle to go to music shops in other places... also what is the demand? How do you find that out? What music groups/forums coudl you use to find out who would use a music shops if it existed? (performing arts people) - then how do you go about lobbying? LOts of things to consider... cheers Karen

[Karen Malone]

Hi Josh and colleagues
Sounds like an intersting project - you coudl strat off by researching how many eating places are in town (using significant places photography and lists and where they are located mapping) and then getting young people to identify which ones they use the most - and why (survey). You could then provide a list of possible others and ask them if they woudl use them if they were available (survey).

You could do some reserach around Charlies diner ( I am assuming thsi is a franchise) and see what it takes to open one of these stores or could you consider creating you own Charlies diner style place? I remember in the Mornington and in Geelong some years ago the youth opened their own diners and hang out spots where they had music and food and they ran it as a shared non-for profit organisation with the support of the city council.
You should contact both Mornington peninsula and Geelong council and find tyou info on these places. Cheers Karen

[Karen Malone]

Hi Nicole and group - the roads issue is a very significant one for young peopel who spend so much time in buses/cars going to and from school/town etc... Maybe your reserach could be around looking at the many trips and distances young peopel take at your schools (maybe just keep it to the year 8s). You could get them to keep a trvale log over a week and then record the travles on a shared map of the district - showing which roads and passage ways and used the most often. YOu could then do some research on these major roads - (mapping and photographic of their condition and any pot holes etc.. you have found) you might want to interview coundil officers in charge of public works abou how they go about fixing roads - is there a system of taking inventories? prioritising bad holes or is it systematic?? - Also finding out how many hours in a week young people spend on average travelling and how (bus/car) and why (schools/sport) would all add to a very interesting and detailed study of something quiite unique to living in regional victoria.
Great work Cheers Karen

[Karen Malone]

Josh and team - Teen activities - sounds great - getting peopel to keep time schedules over an average week in their life gives you a good profile to work on - and add to this with more detailed interviews/surveys. You mgiht like to also visit those places which the young people identified as the key sites for their activities and take photographs and maybe add some images of places that young people have identified (internet research maybe?) they would like to have but dont so we can see where these places are operating for young people. You might want to work with Nicoles group who while looking at travle alos have an interest in how and why young peopel travel - the tie schedule and the travel diary might be the same thing - the two groups just take the info from them that they need!
Cheers Karen

[Karen Malone]

Beck, emma and shazza
Public toilets are an worthwhile and significant issue in towns. Who from teh council takes care of them? how many public toilets are there and where are they loocated? You could do some mapping, photographs, find out cleaning schedules (council) ... lighting issues and other places that offer alternatives - ie petrol stations, Mc Donalds - what are the differences? why?

You might even do a bit of a history of the toilet in Australia ... the cultural significance of the 'thunder box" and popular culture around toilets: red back on the toilet seat.... Paul jennings story "Skeletons in the dunny"

Cheers Karen

[Karen Malone]

Brad and group
The idea of a theme park is interesting... could youth run this? as an event say with music and skate board contest....???? Say a children/ youth festival in the country?

Who would be interested in being involved? All those questions you asked about how, costs, where etc... the maybe you could draw up a proposal to put to council and write away for some funding through the youth funds to run it like an extended FREEZA? Gilly (Gilly cafe) would be good person to speak to as he has run many of the events for the area (top of the town, sheep vention?? think that is what it was called)

Cheers karen

[Karen Malone]

Josh, John and Shaun
Yes the sporting life of country youth is intersting and it was significant that many/most young people showed they did play sports and it was an important activity in their life. Maybe you could focus on surveying the whole school just on the sport activity question of the survey and get some really indepth detail on the large population of the school and where and what they do for recreation and what there ideas for change might be to improve choices?
Cheers Karen

[Rohan and Daneil L]

hi karen

me and dan lavey are going to do an assignment on the no. 2 oval at island park, Casterton. It's state is terrible, it has dry grass everywhere and can sometimes have broken bits of glass on parts of the oval. We will use interviewing and using photography as evidence

thanx
Rohan
and Daniel

[molly]

Hey karen, how are you???
I am going to do the issue of the Melville oval netball courts and if they are too dangerours or not, we are in about round 8 and we only played our first game there last Saturday. The rest of the time we have been playing at pedrina park because apparently ‘they are to dangerous’. I am still undecided if the are or not. I like playing there because we are in the same ground as the footballers so you felll like a club. What do u think?
From molly

[Gemma]

Hey
I live in a little town in country south Australia called Naracoorte. It’s not really big with a population of 5,400. we do have a lot of teenagers though. With Naracoorte being the closest place for people who com from Lucindale, frances, Kybybolite and kingston. in Naracoorte we have the problem of not being able to have facilites to suit all the kids in our district. we have a skate park,zappers and in the summer the swimming lake. but when kids just go and hang out theres no where to go. shop owners get sick of having kids hanging around when were not bying anything. there could be a way to give a spot were kids can just go and hang out with out feeling pressure to be bying things from shops
thanks Gemma

[Sarah]

Hey
How are you?
Me and lauren have an idea for our research project and its that
teenagers dont get much respect from the shop owners and when we
go into shops they think were going to steel things so they watch
every move we make. do you think this would be an easy topic do
and have enough research for it? Hope you like the idea
From sarah and lauren

[Jess]

Hey Karen, how r u??

Myself and molly cogger are thinking of doing the big issue on Melville ovals netball courts and are they safe to play on or not. Only one or two people have actually hurt themselves on the courts, so it’s not really that dangerous……. Molly plays for Hamilton Imperials and they have only played one game at Melville ovals netball courts. The rest of the time they have been playing at Pedrina park because the courts are as some people say “are unsafe!” I am not sure…

Jess Cvetnic

[***lavey007secret spy***]

hello Karen
I am working with Cleary we are working on
The state of island park 2 in Casterton
We will go to the oval and get info on it, photograph it and we will interview the locals it will be very exciting this method is GREAT!

[Jayden 007 sercret spy oh yer]

To Karen
I am working on an issue involving our local netball courts at Melville oval.
I am working with mattew newell and I think they need more room to run around on the courts we have asked a girl in our school about the space and she said that people are getting hurt from the hard and ruff surface and people are running into the wall it is that close to the court.

From JAYDEN

[matty]

To Karen,

I and Jayden Riddle are going to do an assignment on the issue of Melville oval netball courts with people getting hurt from the hard walls and there is not enough room for the players to run the courts are tightly packed in a small space. We have also asked a girl in our class about the courts and she thinks they are dangerous.

FROM MATT

[karen malone]

Rohan and Daniel
I think your idea to do some research around the state of the oval is great! Who uses it, how often? how important ids this place to the local community- why is it in such bad conition? Is it the drought?

Could some of the local young people set up a plan to try to do some work to improve the oval - a working bee maybe?

Would be good to start the project with some background on teh oval, statistics on the use, images photographs/maps of the site and then do your research work!
Cheers Karen

[karen malone]

Molly
THe use of teh courts seems very significant - have a look on one of my earlier postings (on the other post project ideas) to the other group on how to expand some reserach around women/females and sport and then maybe narrow in on teh issue of participation/injury/condition of the courts... I like your idea also about the importance of the social aspects of being with the footy group - to feel like you are a CLUB...

some questiosn about that - alos some images of the courts that you might use to show people and ask them to respond - do you think this is dangerous... etc

Cheers karen

[karen malone]

Gemma
Sounds great - the issue of bored youth in towns across teh cuontry is not new... but i think young peple getting together and creatig their own self run space where they take some responsibility is a great idea. You could start your research by asking about how young people use their time in your town and then what kinds of things/plavces theyw oudl like to have access to to make their lives more interesting.

From you list of ideas maybe you could get a group to design or plan a proposal that you could then present to the council? Is there a space that could be converted - even just for a few hours a day?

I know Geelong city council had a youth space run and managed by kids for youth - you might contact them and ask how that happended and what went on there- what it looked like.

Cheers karen

[karen malone]

Sarah and Lauren
I think you are right and the issue of mistrust of teenagers is a big one... So why not go to the source. Ask the shopkeepers to talk about the issues for them - what would make it easier for them to trust teenagers. Then go to the teenagers and ask them if they feel that way - any particular places etc...

Maybe you could organise a roundtable where kids and shopkeepers got together and talked about a plan to increase trust between the groups... How could they resist?

Cheers Karen

[karen malone]

***lavey007secret spy*** and Cleary - sounds good - you seem to have the methods organised ... remember to do some background on teh space as well to give some substance to your reserach and find out - who uses the oval - how often, what for... keep it relevant to youth (what can they contribute to improving teh space) as well as thinking about the whole community... Cheers karen

[karen malone]

Jayden and Matty
There are a few groups looking at the netball courts (and female sport activities) - take a look at some of the suggestions I have made (on this and the other post) and connect with those groups as well - it would be good to support ecah other and also decide on which angle one of teh groups takes to the other - then you coudl combine your projects at the end and give a very strong report to the Council!!!

Certainly if people are getting hurt or feel unsafe they wont play sport and in a community where sport is a very social and physical activity this could be really bad for people's well being and sense of belonging to a community....

Cheers karen