Saturday, March 23, 2013

Ahh the Brick

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In my paper, I stated a Claim, and did not support it, so I was awarded with the brick. I would like to restate my claim here and support it if possible, or at least explain how I would support it. I claimed that: "Sometimes parents, whom have experienced disconnect, can teach their children the value of disconnect by taking them somewhere like camping, and taking away electronics, but that generation is dying out, and parents are taking their children camping less and less." In my first attempt to support this claim, per usual I started with Google, and typed the claim into the search bar. There were really no sources with data supporting my claim. The only websites that popped up were about how to take children camping, or tips and benefits written by bloggers, or magazine articles. This could mean that parents these days do have a general interest in taking their children camping, but once again, I cannot support this claim, because I have very little evidence, so I continued to look for more information. I then turned to more academic sources to find information like JSTOR, and Google scholar. I found several articles that talked about how parents spend time with their children and how to plan a camping trip at first. After adjusting my search terms, I found articles about organized camping that actually refuted my claim. One stated in the abstract that camping has actually increased in the twentieth century. It talked about how camping is used to sort of re-establish familiarity with one another and the outdoors and there has been an increase in camping activities for youth groups and for educational purposes, which makes sense, but when I was writing my paper I didn't consider this option. I now see the opposite of my claim is plausible, and supportable. I assumed my claim was true, but now I see it is in fact not, and I support the claim proposing the opposite. Below, I have attached some of the sources I found that support my new claim, and I understand now how important it is to support a claim, or at least to not assume it is true without first checking the facts.


Sources I found on google:
http://www.michianafamilymagazine.com/The-Family-Magazine-of-Michiana/February-2013/Camping-Tips-for-Parents/ 

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/09/08/camping-with-kids/
Sources I found on JSTOR
Organized Camping
Reynold E. Carlson
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , Vol. 313, Recreation in the Age of Automation (Sep., 1957), pp. 83-86

How American Children Spend Their Time
Sandra L. Hofferth and John F. Sandberg
Journal of Marriage and Family , Vol. 63, No. 2 (May, 2001), pp. 295-308 my 

1 comment:

  1. CONGRATULATIONS! You have earned back those 4 points, plus the extra-credit one I gave you for going first.

    There is support for your original claim, but perhaps not definitive proof. The book Last Child in the Woods explores how young people are spending less time outdoors today. Books, by their nature, can cover a topic in great detail (poorly or well).

    By casting that "big net" when doing research, you'd want to look for sources such as the ones you found, as well as the book I note. Empirical data--based on numbers, and well designed surveys free of bias--could reveal what is happening with camping.

    So could data from, say, state and national parks for overnight stays. Day-trippers would not count :)

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