Field Notes 7

For my seventh week of field notes I decided to begin my observations in the afternoon again but focus on a different part of my field location.  I chose a similar time to my other afternoon field work between 12:30 and 1:30 pm.  Despite the similar time I chose to make my observations in the hydrogen and carbon buildings and nearby area as opposed to the area under the awning and near the oxygen building.

As my observations began the first building I was in (The carbon building) was nearly empty save for a single female student on her laptop, presumably studying. This continued for approximately ten minutes with other students from some of the classrooms in the building occasionally walking to the common area to use the restrooms or drink from the water fountains. After this brief period I decided to check the hydrogen building in this area of the school to see what activity, if any, was taking place there. As I arrived at the hydrogen building it seemed to be slightly more active than the previous one. At the time I arrived there was a male student that appeared to be intently typing something on his computer, and a female student was eating lunch while simultaneously being preoccupied with her phone. Aside from these two students the majority of the activity that continued in the building was similar to the activity in the carbon building with students leaving their classrooms to use the restrooms and drink from the water fountains.

After staying in the hydrogen building for an amount of time comparable to the amount of time similar to the amount of time I was in the carbon building I began to prepare to return to the carbon building. However as I prepared to leave another female student arrived and began to converse with the female student that was already there. This student’s arrival seemed to indicate the beginning of the influx of students before the next period of the day. This influx was odd as it began far earlier than the influxes normally began ( at 12:55 this influx began forty five minutes before the beginning of classes, and a half hour before the normal influxes began), was smaller than the other influxes and seemed to be independent from the arrival of cars in the parking lot. This last observation made me think it was possible that there was at least a noticeable portion of the student body that either had not been dropped off in the previous weeks I had made my observations in the afternoon or had walked or taken a non-automobile form of transportation to the school.

During the first influx of people to the hydrogen building two male students arrived and began conversing with the male student already in the building and one female student who began to pass the time on her phone. After observing this behavior for a brief period of time, ten minutes, I decided to check the carbon building to see if any students had arrived in that building. The only students that had arrived in the building by that time where a male and female duo that appeared to be where talking flirtatiously and appeared to be a couple. I stayed in this building for the remainder of my observation period and notice nothing out of the ordinary from my normal observations in terms of student arrivals and what I had previously noticed during that day.