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eeschneider · Joined: 16 Oct 2009 Posts: 30

So here are my questions I have so far for the final project.
My project is going to be on Lake Parker which is a Lake in West Glover, Vermont. I have 7 questions so far and need help thinking of a few more:

1. What was there before Lake Parker?
2. Why did people create Lake Parker?
3. Where did they get the fish for the lake?
4. What would happen to the lake if the farmer didn’t destroy the beaver dams?
5. Is the floor of Lake Parker different than the floor of a natural lake?
6. How did people create Lake Parker?
7. What are it’s pollution levels and how does that effect the animals who live in the water and drink the water?

mlong · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 22

Emily- I feel like questions 1 and 2 are maybe not quite as strong as the rest of the questions. I really liked the other ones though, they're really good. I especially like 3 and 7. Three is a really interesting question that I would personally love to know the answer to. And 7 is a question that, given thought and research, that I think I would have also wondered about.
4 & 5 are really strong, I wouldn't have thought of those.

My project is going to be on my house in Province Town
Here are my questions so far:

1. Given the geography of the land, how was the environment dealt with as a factor when constructing the house?
2. Why did the previous owners sell this house?
3. Since the previous owners moved after all of their kids had grown up, was that a contributing factor to why they moved?
4. Do any of the kids of the previous owners still live in the area?

ellawm · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 12

Morgan...i think you have a good start, but once you figure out the answers to 2, 3 and 4 you will be able to go deeper. I had asked my grandfather questions similar to those and after i got his answers it brought me to other questions.

For my project i am asking my grandfather questions about like where he was born, where he has moved and his life up til now. I asked him 2 sets of questions which brought me to these 2 questions so far.

1. What was the difference between the school systems in Detroit, MI and Ann Harbor, MI?
2. My grandfather moved to a part of cambridge that is considered a nice neighborhood...I wonder why in cambridge people in terms of class and race got seperated? He moved to a part mainly of white people and upper-class.

Travis Law · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 18

I am doing my film paper on the Chinatown movie. There seems to be a theme of water and land productivity in the two sources. They seem to indicate that water and other necessities to life shape how a culture works.

I am not sure exactly how I want to talk about this. I am inclined to argue that people gain power in a society by their disposable supply of water and food.

I'm not really sure where I want to go with this.

Morgan,

I think your questions could be interesting, but they don't go deep enough. What patterns can you draw from the events you know about at the house? If the family moved out because the kids were adults, what does that say/mean? What is the driving force behind the things which you observed?

Ella,

I like your questions, they are going in interesting directions. My question for you is how the environment fits in? For your second question, I can see trying to answer the question in an environmental way, but it does not feel like an environmental question. These are interesting questions, but what themes are you trying to get at? What facts do you want to emphasize?

nsheff · Joined: 11 Jan 2010 Posts: 12

I changed my idea for my final project. I wasn't feeling the whole Frog Pond thing. Now I'm talking about the reservoir in my town.

I have a lot of more basic questions that I'm using too, but these are my bigger ones.

1. The area used to be entirely forest. How did the environment respond to the clearing of this land?
2. How hard was it to bring to a working status? Did the land resist the change?
3. It is no longer used as a water source. Now, it is used for recreation. People walk their dogs and run laps around it, some people fish, families go to play in the water. Does this human activity harm the area more so than if it were not man-made?
4. Does the fact that it is man made make it unnatural? Or can it be natural if used as a water source? Does it become unnatural once used only for recreational purposes? If the people living there required a reservoir because there was no natural water source, should they be living there?
5. What did people think of the building of this reservoir at the time? Did they want it, or did it feel intrusive?
6. Why did they stop using it as a water source? Did they find a different way to get water? Why was that way not available in the first place?

Travis - This sounds like a good start. Maybe think about the different people involved in the film, and how their access to or restriction from or control over water or land in the film affects their status or role. What countries have the most power? Is this due to a favorable situation and relationship with nature?

Emily - I think a lot of those questions are more like the first or second tier questions Rachel was talking about. You can go deeper. I would try to expand on 5, and think not only about the floor of the lake, but its fish and plant life, and if it requires or produces things that a natural lake wouldn't. It was man-made, right? See what you get if you think about all the things that have been said about natural vs. unnatural. Maybe we should talk more about it, cause I'm doing an unnatural body of water too :]

emills · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 19

seeing as i am basically just starting my project, i have yet to have any solid questions.But my project is about my backyard and here are a few of my ideas (first tier questions) are:

1)Why is the land still seemingly untouched when all of the land surrounding it, for miles, is developed?

2) Could the reason for its still being here be that all the previous owners were reluctant to sell it? If so, why? could there be a problem with it, something that would make living on it difficult?

3) How much has this woods changed over the years? has it ever been developed on? how new are the trees?

4)how was the woods affected by the humans that moved in as arlington heights sprung up around it?

5)This is a very small "woods," how much a difference does it make for the animals? for people? for the climate of arlington heights?

pmillergamble · Joined: 15 Oct 2009 Posts: 24

Like you Naomi, I am alo doing a pond. My project is on the Jamaica Pond right near my house. In terms of your questions i think their really good, I'm interested though in how the reservoir has shaped the communities around, economically, politically ect... Also why did they need this reservoir? did they need it? I'm interested in the origin of it.

Here are some of my questions on Jamaica pond.

Why did Mayor Curley ban ice skating on the pond in 1929?

Why did the ice cutting industry leave the pond?

How has the presence of the pond effect the economic status of its surrounding neighborhoods?

The city prohibits swimming in the pond, but they promote fishing in it. How did they come to decide this?

Why is the pond currently used only for recreational purposes?

The city had to pay a lot purchase the property of wealthy Bostonians already living around the pond in order to convert it into a park. Why were they so keen on making it a park?

Skarman · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 27

For my project, I interviewed my grandfather who worked at our family’s scrap metal business for 42 years. He called himself a “worshipper of nature,” always telling us canoe-trip stories about how he would admire the land as he ate spam and onions. Putting aside his incoherent ramblings, I got some good information from him regarding the business and the industry itself. Here are a few of the questions that may end up in the final project:
1. What were the direct effects that the business had on the environment?
2. As someone who worships nature, how does one feel working in the scrap metal industry?
3. What were some of the reasons they were centralized in Buffalo?
4. How did the scrap yards affect the local residents?

Emily Mills, I think your questions are not first tier questions at all. If I were to first analyze a backyard, I wouldn’t start with your questions at all. They seem like third and fourth tier questions, so, good job.

Travis, I did an analysis of the Chinatown movie as well and I know how difficult it is. Maybe you could look at the two works with a “natural vs. unnatural” lens. I always thought the relationship between Hollis Mulray and Noah Cross was fascinating. I thought the two characters link accordingly to the natural and unnatural methods of providing water for the city. But, I like your idea too.

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