Social Ecology 195 - Saphores                                     Julia Gelfand

Field Study                                                                               Science Library 228

Spring 2006                                                                             jgelfand@uci.edu, x44971

 

In order to complete the research and writing project for this class, I have pulled together a basic strategy that seems to work in which the final product links the field work experience with a theoretical foundation and some critical thinking skills and your ideas in an intersection that blends the entire experience and allows for a reflection and sense of completion.

 

This handout will introduce you to some resources and tools that will allow you to determine the background of your ideas, substantiate your hypotheses and suggest ways of treating the work you have just observed or engaged in.  Since many of you are working in a variety of environments engaged in a range of activities, the outline is suggested to meet the majority of needs in the social and behavioral sciences, legal and criminal justice and environmental and medical research settings.

 

Proposed OUTLINE:

  1. Introduction / Background - you should try and make sure the reader of your paper and attendee of your presentation understands these issues and gets answers to these questions:

1.      where did you conduct your field work

2.      under whose supervision did you work

3.      describe the mission and goals of that organization or institution

4.      what is the location of where you worked

5.      what was your role

6.      what kind of people work there

7.      what kind of services are rendered and for or to whom

8.      is it a profit/non-profit; governmental; private enterprise - describe this rather fully

9.      when was the organization founded or how long has it been operational as it currently practices

 

  1. Academic Links

1.      what disciplines informed the background of the professional staff at this field placement

2.      what disciplines inform the primary activity of service - counseling, legal, education, social services, etc.

3.      in order to describe an experience or project that you were involved in, dissect the different component parts

 

  1. Research Component - you should find some articles or information to substantiate your ideas, reinforce the theoretical framework of social ecology and use appropriate sources and cite the information appropriately

1.      Reference Sources - some have been reassigned to the circulating collection and others are in the ML & SL Reference Collections and some are available as Quick Online Reference

2.      use the Subject Guides for Social Ecology - an individual page is available for each department listing specialized resources in those disciplines

3.      International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2001 - Langson Ref H41 .I58 2001

4.      Westlaw Campus - a legal database of case law & legal resources

 

5.      Finding Journal Articles via "Online Resources" - the most frequently used article databases by Social Ecology undergraduates are:

6.      Expanded Academic Index

7.      PsycINFO*

8.      Child Development and Adolescent Studies Abstracts

9.      PubMed

10.  PAIS International* and the Archive

11.  ERIC*

12.  Sociological Abstracts*

13.  Social Services Abstracts*

14.  Criminal Justice Abstracts*

15.  National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)

16.  LegalTrac

17.  LexisNexis Academic Universe- News section for fulltext news; Legal Resources section for law reviews, cases, etc.

18.  Business Source Premier

19.  Factiva

20.  Environment Sciences & Pollution Management*

 

  1. Proper Citation Methods - be consistent in your practices - APA or Legal citation methods are the most common - formats can be verified at http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/reference/citation.html.  You may also want to learn how to use RefWorks, a new tool that collects references and organizes them and is particularly well suited for content from the CSA Illumina Databases (*)- for more additional information see http://www.lib.uci.edu/libraries/new/refworks.html and there will be sessions for how to learn RefWorks during the quarter

 

  1. Reflections - organize your paper so that there is a context, developmental, social, environmental, legal, historical and that the organization of your paper is logical

 

  1. Conclusions - insights gained; did it provide you with a sense of professional opportunities; can you imagine continuing this work; how valuable was the experience; lessons learned; next steps, if any?

 

  1. Presentation - you may want to consider preparing a Powerpoint presentation that can capture your ideas with some visual elements including images, graphs, photographs, etc.  For some background in creating an appropriate presentation, consider the needs of your audience and play to that group.  You may find the following resources and tutorials helpful:

 

Mastering Powerpoint 2000 - Science Library Bar  T385 .M8863 1999 

 

And tutorials at:

http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/library/HHCL_New_Web/Teach_Learn_tutor_ppoint.htm

 

http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/tutorials/pptscratch-text.htm

 

For additional information, please contact the liaison librarian or use the Ask-a-Librarian service for eMail or Live CHAT reference, or to schedule a Research Consultation Appointment at the Langson or Science Library Reference Desk.