THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Department of Geography

#217-1984 West Mall

Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z2

Elvin K. Wyly, Associate Professor

778 899 7906

sur videre

(‘survey,’ from the Old French sur + veoir, from the Latin videre)

Geography 450 Introductions

Welcome to the Urban Research Studio! Please take some time to introduce yourself. (Some of the results of this survey may be shared with members of the class, but none of the information will be used for any other purpose or distributed to individuals not enrolled in this course).

Name:

Major field:

Phone Number:

E-mail:

1. Introduce yourself. Please take a few sentences to describe your focus, interests, and expertise.

2. What are your specialties and preferences? Urban research involves a variety of separate components. Many people prefer some tasks over others, and few people enjoy every single stage of the research process. Please take time to think carefully about what you like to do, and then rank the activities below from 1 (your favorite) to 14 (simply can’t stand it).

Searching for literature, tracking down citations, etc.

Reading theoretical scholarship and discussing it.

Reading and discussing empirical or applied policy documents, newspaper articles, etc.

Investigating policies, laws, regulations, parliamentary or legislative records, etc.

Tracking down and organizing data, tables, worksheets, etc.

Designing and creating maps.

Performing geocoding, buffers, overlays, and other GIS operations.

Analyzing and interpreting remote sensing images.

Designing and estimating statistical models.

Designing and creating tables, charts, and graphs.

Brainstorming and exploring alternative ways to organize a project.

Creating outlines for papers.

Writing and editing papers.

Designing and creating websites.

If I’ve neglected an important activity from the list above, write it below and assign it a rank.

3. What courses on methods -- either qualitative or quantitative -- have you taken? What specific methods have you found most useful, interesting, or challenging?

4. What kinds of analytical software have you worked with? Don’t worry, these are not prerequisites; but it’s useful to know how many of us have experience (or interest) in particular tools and applications. [Examples: Excel, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Atlas.ti, NVivo, SPSS, SAS, STATA, R, ArcGIS, MapInfo, AutoCAD, GeoDA, GWR, IDRISI ... and many others...]

5. What would you like to be doing in your career five years from now?

6. Sign the terms of use. Most of the data we’ll be using in this course are in the public domain, but some of the information is subject to certain legal restrictions that prohibit its use beyond the academic setting of the classroom. Therefore, we’re required to ask that you abide by these limitations, and not distribute any materials to students not enrolled in this course.

“I understand that data and other materials made available to me in this course are subject to legal restrictions on distribution and use. I will not share, copy, or distribute these data to anyone not enrolled in this course, without first obtaining written permission from the relevant copyright holder.”

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Date Signature

Name: