Preliminary Ideas

For project 3 I have two potential ideas. My first idea would take place on campus and my second idea would take place off campus in my hometown. The first idea is to compare ISU students' behaviors while eating at Watterson dining center from their behavior eating at Southside in Feeny. The direct observations would be easy because there are a plethora of students in either dining center at any given time. I believe there will be many differences between students behaviors based on a number of different reasons. Watterson's dining center is set up much differently than Southside's. Southside offers two different types of meals every single day while Watterson serves generally the same type of food everyday with one "homestyle" meal that changes daily.Watterson has many more options, but they remain the same options every say. In contrast, South side offers a few of the same foods, not as much of a variety, but also different options every single day. Therefore, I feel like when students enter the Southside dining center they do not know what they are going to eat for that meal whereas students in Watterson most likely have a set destination. I feel the atmosphere of each changes the students behavior while entering the dining center, choosing their food, as well as sitting and eating their food. I can interview student workers at each dining center to get further insight as well as interview students who eat at both dining centers to see if they notice differences as well. For my second idea, I will observe children in the children's "play place" area in Orland Square Mall which is near my house. I want to research gender differences in toddlers. I will observe how boys play differently from girls, how and if they interact with each other, and how parents treat boys compared to how parents treat girls. I feel like there will be a lot of differences, especially ones that we normally would not notice. I think each of these direct observations have the potential to make a good ethnography.