How visiting the U of A changed my perspective
Going to the University of Arizona and talking to some of the students
The University of Arizona is one place I thought I wouldn't be able to see especially as a middle schooler. I couldn't have imagined what I would learn from going to the U of A and talking to the students but each field trip taught me something that soon made sense the more we visited the campus.
First Trip to the U of A
On September 18, 2023, we all loaded up on the bus and headed to our first trip to the University of Arizona. After 30 minutes, we arrived at this gigantic campus that could honestly be its own little town. We walked around the Campus until we found our destination which was a lecture hall full of seats that rose the farther back they were and in the front was a big board with a desk that could fit 5 people. We spent an hour getting to know the community leaders who would teach us more about parks and what we could do to help the community.
The U of A campus
The Second Field Trip
Our second field trip to the U of A on October 30 was even more interesting. This time we participated in a scavenger hunt around the campus to observe what the U of A had to offer and use Survey 123 to collect data, which made it nice.
I realized the U of A had a lot of things some local parks don't have. The campus has a lot of shading and seating not to mention the amount of people in each place, another thing was a lot of plant life plus a CLEAN environment. A lot of local parks don't have these features. I realized that some parks don't have all the necessities they need to bring in people.
The Third Field Trip
The third field trip was a bit different from the rest instead of the lecture like the first field trip or the group scavenger hunt like the second we took a full campus tour. We got to see all the different places on the U of A. It showed me more of what the University of Arizona offers its students.
Parks In Focus: Two Local Parks
The last field trip we went on wasn't exactly to the U of A but to two local parks.
TIME TO HEAD OUT!
We got started on our amazing journey to visit parks at 8:40 am on February 5!
First Stop!
Thomas Jay Regional Park was our first stop, just 1/2 mile from our school.
Thomas Jay Regional Park
Although the park was nice several problems arose, not with the park itself but with the funding and the people who disrespect it.
The "Art" someone left behind!
There was graffiti all over the back of the signs at Thomas Jay Park that were old and painted over, making it a little thicker.
Where's the Water?
There were water fountains here and there. You might be thinking "EWW I don't wanna drink out of a public fountain," and your worries are accepted. But I brought this up because not a single fountain worked!
The Sun's Hot
There was a lot of shading in Thomas Jay Park whether it be from a tree or a roof. There was also a lot of seating that was under shade.
Next Stop!
Brandi Fenton Memorial Park was our next stop.
Brandi Fenton Memorial Park
Brandi Fenton was much nicer than Thomas Jay Park. Maybe it was the funding or maybe it's because it's a memorial park.
Sculptures
Brandi Fenton had sculptures and statues that were beautiful to look at.
Plant Life
Compared to Thomas Jay Park Brandi Fenton had a lot of plant life. There were plants at Thomas Jay but a lot of them were dead or not maintained.
Bathrooms
The bathrooms in Brandi Fenton looked decent for a public bathroom. Sadly the smell wasn't the same. (some bathrooms had a lot of graffiti that's why they were decent)
Thomas Jay Regional Park
At these parks, my perspective of the parks changed. When you go to a park you think nothing of it until you go there with a mission to find things. We were supposed to find things off of a checklist in each park.
Brandi Fenton Memorial Park
Things to find at the parks | Thomas Jay park | Brandi Fenton |
|---|---|---|
Two types of trees | ✮✮/2 | ✮✮/2 |
Two types of flowers | 0/2 | ✮✮/2 |
More than 1 type of restroom | ✮✮✮ | ✮✮✮✮ |
Types of Birds | 1 | 3 |
A landscape | ✮ | ✮ |
A sculpture | 0/1 | ✮✮✮✮/1 |
Two kinds of seating | ✮✮/2 | ✮✮/2 |
Five signs with info | ✮✮✮✮✮/5 | ✮✮✮✮✮/5 |
Four things people use to have fun | ✮✮✮✮/4 | ✮✮✮✮/4 |
A table showing data collected from our park survey.
Survey 123 Data - Thomas Jay Regional Park - January 29, 2024
Survey 123 Data - Brandi Fenton Memorial Park - January 29, 2024
I only briefly went over the things they had at the park. There is so much more to each park than what I have explained. Nevertheless, as you can see from the chart above, these parks have different things from each other. Thomas Jay met almost everything we were looking for BUT Brandi Fenton had everything on the checklist.
Whether at the U of A or the parks I learned many things from these experiences. The parks helped me realize not every park will be the same maybe it has a more fun jungle gym than another or there's more shade but you don't realize it because who pays attention to the little details? Like does this park have 2 types of flowers is not something I ask myself whenever I go there. But after going I realized the difference in cleanliness to the differences in how many seats there are under shade.
photos of the playgrounds from both Brandi Fenton and Thomas Jay park.
I talked to a lot of University of Arizona students for this project and from them I learned a lot I don't think if we just listened to teachers talk, we would have been able to do this project.
Even though College students are much older than us middle school students they are still students who understand how we don't want to sit still and listen to people talk. This change in my perspective happened because I was able to go to the U of A and talk to their students. Going to the U of A helped me see all of the ways we can make not only parks better but our community.
If we can make more areas like Brandi Fenton would more people go to them? I truly think that Brandi Fenton is a nice park. Even though very few places had shaded seating it was beautiful and there was much to do. If more public areas were as well kept as Brandi Fenton I have a feeling that people would respect it a little more. But how will we make that happen if we don't try to ourselves?
