ATS3787-ATS4587: Research Methods in Geography, Environment and Sustainability

20% Take home exam
20% Initial research project proposal presentation
20% Answers to SAQs based on individual research proposal40% Full project proposal.

First things first: this unit walks you through how to do a full project proposal. You do not have to do the research project that you are proposing! If you are even mildly considering the idea of Honours in Geography for Arts OR Science, this is a good unit to start with in your final year, because it means that by the end of the unit you basically already know what you will be doing next year.

This unit takes you through various methods of research in geography. It covers both qualitative and quantitative methods of research, ethics, why we do research, analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, and other such things. Classes are a mixture of lectures, discussions and various hands-on activities. Priya and Vanessa were pretty good, and are mostly very prompt at responding to emails.

In terms of assessments: the take home exam is a case study, and you have to read it, and come up with a project idea based on it, answering various questions about why you think it's a good idea, how you would answer your research question, etc. It is pretty straight forward.

The 2nd and 3rd assessment tasks are where you start to do your own thing. This unit relies on the fact that you are motivated enough to do your own research and so on. You have to basically pick an are of geography that you care about and come up with a research topic that you could theoretically do over the course of a year (in other words, it's preparation for an Honours year). The 2nd assessment is basically a speech/powerpoint presentation where you show everyone what you're thinking of doing, and the 3rd assessment is a whole heap of short answer questions about your topic.

The final assessment is the final research proposal. It has a max word limit of 4000 words. It's a bit like a research report, without the actual 'results' component. Instead you introduce your topic, give a lit review and talk about why it's an important topic. Then you talk about methodological aspects of your proposed project and what you expect to find. This is easily the most time consuming of the assessment tasks but it isn't too bad.

Your topic doesn't have to be strongly geographically related by the way -- mine was more education-related and it was still acceptable.

It's a pretty decent (but small) unit, not many people take it. Do this unit if you are thinking of an Honours/Masters project in Geography.

Vanessa Wong, Haripriya Rangan

No final exam, you do a project proposal instead.

4.5 out of 5

No

Clifford, N. French, S. And Valentine, G. (eds) (2010) Key Methods in Geography (2nd edn)
It was recommended but you don't need it. If you're that interested, there is a PDF somewhere.

Weekly 3hr seminar (usually finished about 2.5 hours in). It is not recorded.

2014 sem 2

TBA, probably a D 80