Research Paper and Presentation

Research Paper and Presentation

RECREATION Research Paper and Presentation:  This is your chance to explore, in depth, an outdoor recreational activity and discuss that activity’s relevance to the themes of this class.

Research on Outdoor Recreation Impact:   Select an outdoor recreational activity and research the activity to build a profile about that outdoor pursuit and its relevance to the themes of the class.  The focus of the report is not on ‘how-to’ or ‘where-to’ do the recreational activity (e.g. mountain biking, caving, four wheeling, rain forest tours, etc.) but a profile of the activity followed by examining how this activity impacts the natural environment.

Outdoor Recreation Research Presentation Profile/Outline  

The paper is intended to be a research on an outdoor recreation activity and the environmental issues (physical and social) that affects that recreational use of the outdoors.  The profile begins by a clear statement about the activity which would create a 2-3 paragraphs summary of the state of the sport.  The student then reports the research on the impact issues. The impact issues will in some part be a physical impact of the activity itself (e.g. Off road vehicle use impacts include erosion issues, noise, and the desert tortoise in southern CA).  Everyone from scuba divers to bird watchers to horse riders have some type of physical impact question.  In addition, there is often a social impact issue wrapped into the activity which may be one of conflict between users (mountain bikers versus hikers) or conflicts of access in who should get to use an area (priority access or access at all due to safety or ‘holy sites’ issues). 

Topic Selection:

Choose something that is motivational.  Motivation may be because of your personal interests in doing the activity, a curiosity of why others would do something you never would, or maybe even because you don’t like some class of outdoor enthusiast (e.g. snowboarders or ATVers or surfers or whoever is your bad boy of the moment).  What you choose as a topic will be up to you but make sure it has sufficient scope to create a profile and adequate focus to create a profile.

Paper Outline:

1. History – when & where did activity begin
2. Current Use and Patterns – who participates, how many, what is the range and what is the stereotypical user, (look for international as well as U.S. statistics but segment the data), what are the trends – is it growing or in decline – does the current user have other characteristics related to income level, race, gender or ethnicity
3. Safety and Mortality – who is getting hurt, any data on accident rates or mortality rates
4. Cost to Participate – calculate what it costs to participate both in terms of start-up costs for the novice and on-going costs.  (e.g a golfer needs clubs, balls and then faces green fees).
5. Organizations and Support Industries – professional groups or voluntary organizations that are involved in controlling or supporting the sport.
6. Impact Issues:

What seems to be the problem (s)?  What data or research supports this?

What responses have been made to this problem (or suggested) by political and/or social entities and/or recreation resource managers (e.g park personnel).

7. Summary and conclusion including your recommendations of what needs to happen for the good of participants and for the environment.

 Reference list:

Use APA format to list your references.  In addition to general resources that build the profile for the outdoor recreation activity make sure you review scientific journals for any studies done on the environmental impact of the sport or user based studies that might reference participation, safety, or conflicts.   The paper will probably average at least 6 references of which 2 will be journal citations.

Presentation

The presentation will be created using Power Point or another presentation software.  The presentation needs to be posted on the forum for other students to interact with your thinking. The total number of slides should be approximately 10-12 (or more) once the essential information from the outline is all included.