Field Notes 12

For my twelfth week of field notes I performed similar observations to the ones that I had done during the first week of field work. To accomplish this I conducted my observation between the times of 12:30 and 1:30 pm on Thursday November twentieth.

I began my observations in the commons area of the nitrogen building to see if there was any substantial activity in that building at this point in time. Despite the normal level of activity being somewhat unsubstantial at this time the level of activity in this building was even lower s there was only one student in the building at and this student was on their phone seemingly playing a game. This student only remained in the commons area for a few minutes before returning t there classroom indicating to me that this student had been in a class before my observations began and that they had either been taking a break from or where going in late to their class. Other than this student it seemed that all activity in this building was in the classrooms and that very few students came into that hallway or commons except to use the restrooms or water fountains.

Despite this level of inactivity in the nitrogen building the area underneath the awnings had slightly more activity than normal with both of the original groups, the drawers and the doors, as well as another group consisting of three female students and four male students who I had most frequently observed in the carbon building at this time. This made me curious as to why the students were not in that building at the moment and why they came to this area. To accomplish this I went to the carbon building but was sent away from the commons before I was able to observe the students’ behavior I was told to leave as the janitorial staff was gleaning up a large mess in the corner of the commons. This would explain the group of students under the awnings not being in there usual location. The selection of the awnings was likely just a decision made on the convenience of the location and not another factor like the students already there as there was no mingling going on between the new group and the other two groups of students.

Despite being a more recent formation than the other two groups the new group displayed similar behavior to the others with the majority of the activity taking place in that group being conversation and occasionally playing with their phones. In addition to being similar to the other groups at the time all three groups present continued the trend I notice the previous week of heavier clothing being worn as the went on continued but the clothing seemed to be lighter than it had been during the earlier part of the day. This was like ly due to the increase in temperatures as the day went on.