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Course:SOWK551/2025/Substance Use in an Aging Population

2026-07-02T22:43:35Z

EverettHo:

[[File:Pexels-rdne-8139238.jpg|thumb|Pexel photo by RDNE stock project]]

= '''Background''' =
Palliative approaches in end-of-life care are increasingly gaining recognition for their utility in supporting people to access care in ways that reflect individual values and wishes at the end of life. The applicability of palliative approaches at the end of life is important within the health care system, with the proportion of Canadians aged 65 and older projected to account for 25% of the population by 2030 (National Institute on Ageing, 2021). With aging, individuals face changes in their health care needs, and this is increasingly complicated within the health care system supporting individuals who use substances in end-of-life care due to the complex barriers this population faces. People who use substances experience poor health outcomes and complex health challenges compared to those who do not use substances (Homayra et al., 2020). Despite this understanding, people who use substances often face fragmented care delivery and significant barriers to health care at the end of life (Homayra et al., 2020).

In order to better understand the barriers older adults who use substances face within the healthcare system, it is important to understand palliative care and end-of-life approaches, as well as the facilities themselves that work to support individuals at the end of life. Palliative care is an approach that prioritizes patients' quality of life when they are faced with serious, life-threatening illnesses and primarily focuses on symptom management and addressing physical, psychosocial, and spiritual care for the individual and their family (National Institute on Aging, 2021; Stajduhar & Mollison, 2018). Within this scope, end-of-life care is a term that is often used interchangeably with palliative care and utilizes similar approaches, with the specific distinction being care provision when the illness is terminal and death is expected in the near future (National Institute on Aging, 2021; Stajduhar & Mollison, 2018). End-of-life care and palliative care can be provided anywhere the client is living; however, it is well documented that older adults who use substances face barriers in accessing this care despite findings indicating people living with substance use disorders have increased risks of facing poorer health outcomes and life-threatening conditions (Government of British Columbia, 2025; Ebenau et al., 2019; Homayra et al., 2020).

Provision of end-of-life care often occurs within long-term care, hospice, or in patients' homes. Long-term care provides 24-hour professional health care “in a protective and supportive environment for individuals with complex care needs who can no longer be cared for in their own home or assisted living residence” (Government of British Columbia, 2025). Hospice care facilities offer similar 24-hour services; however, they uniquely focus on comfort care and quality of life optimization for individuals with a serious illness who are approaching the end of life (National Institute on Aging, 2021). Notably, people who use substances and face barriers to end-of-life care may be precariously housed, unhoused, or otherwise undetected by health care professionals to provide end-of-life support. Palliative and end-of-life approaches are inherently trauma-informed and focused on harm reduction as this approach is intended to position care around the needs of individuals in ways that are meaningful to them; however, people who use substances are often excluded from this care. People who use substances face unique challenges in receiving palliative care within the health care system due to intersecting experiences of oppression, resistance to accessing care due to previous experiences, and stigma within the health care system, limiting access to services such as hospice or long-term care.

=== '''Social Determinants of Health''' ===
Social determinants of health uniquely impact individuals' access to care and influence their overall health outcomes. It is important to consider how a person’s age, gender, ethnicity, housing, income, education, and food security, among other factors, interact to determine individuals’ wellbeing and access to appropriate resources (Stajduhar & Mollison, 2018). Differential access based on these variables strongly influences unfair outcomes related to power, oppression, and health inequities experienced by certain individuals (World Health Organization, 2025). Additionally, consideration of the outcomes related to social determinants of health from an intersectional perspective is necessary to understand health outcomes and equitable access to palliative care approaches. Intersectional perspectives seek to understand how outcomes shaped by individuals’ social circumstances and identities create experiences of inclusion and exclusion (Walsh et al., 2025). Consideration of accessibility to end-of-life care for older adults who use substances is critical through these lenses to best understand how social and systemic structures interact to disproportionately lead to poorer health outcomes and health inequity.

Individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder (SUD) have been closely linked with other structural forms of health inequities, such as experiences of economic disadvantage, limited formal education, and inadequate housing, which hold consequences related to higher rates of disease and poorer health outcomes compared to those who do not face similar health inequities (Higgs, 2022; Stajduhar & Mollison, 2018). Further, navigation of services to access basic needs such as shelter, food, and social insurance income becomes considerably difficult at the end of life (Stajduhar & Mollison, 2018). Fragmented support and lack of connection to community health care practitioners for these older adults to access palliative care at the end of life leave individuals isolated and without strong relationships to support their health care needs. Challenges with accessing care to support their intersecting identities of age and substance use, among other structural disadvantages individuals with a SUD face, make it difficult for them to focus on seeking out palliative end-of-life care support. As a result, individuals who are unhoused or precariously housed have understandably been found to prioritize focusing on immediate survival needs, such as food and shelter (Baines et al., 2025; McNeil, Guirguis-Younger & Dilley, 2012; Song et al., 2007), in lieu of seeking care for their serious illness. Older adults who use substances and are surviving within complex structures of oppression have been found to face increasingly poor physical and mental health outcomes, which impact their overall access to palliative care and facility-based admissions to support their complex care needs (Higgs, 2022).

'''Harm Reduction Approaches'''

Many solutions for working with individuals with SUD at the end of life throughout the health care system appear to point towards abstinence as the standard by which care can best be provided. While this may work for some, many older adults who would benefit from palliative approaches at the end of life do not have goals of abstaining from substances, which does not negate the fact that they still require, and are deserving of care.

Harm reduction is an increasingly implemented policy and practice approach that is grounded in person-centered care from a social justice lens (Baines et al., 2025). Harm reduction policies are based on the acceptance that substance use is part of many individuals’ lives; rather than criminalizing substance use, harm reduction practices are based on the understanding that there are many ways to reduce individuals’ risk of harm, respect their human rights, and improve overall health outcomes (Baines et al., 2025; Kerman et al., 2021). Supporting individuals in accessing regulated supply and addressing social conditions of use are harm reduction approaches that work to minimize poor health outcomes and risks associated with unregulated substance use (Baines et al., 2025; National Harm Reduction Coalition, 2020; Jordan, 2023). Additionally, engaging in safer use, managed use, alternative use, or reduced use has centered this approach to support non-judgemental collaboration and prioritize autonomy in decision-making for people who use substances (Baines et al., 2025; National Harm Reduction Coalition, 2020; Jordan, 2023).

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) does not provide specific Harm Reduction policies on any of their LTC sites. However, May’s Place Hospice is in the Downtown Eastside and proudly practices a harm-reduction philosophy with dignity and respect (Li, 2024). With an aging population of people who use drugs, there is a clear need for long-term care homes to define and create policies on harm reduction.

'''Stigma'''

Older adults with a SUD face many barriers to accessing end-of-life care, reflected by stigma from health care providers and past experiences influencing trust and willingness to engage with health care services at the end of life. Mistrust in the health care system can result in individuals opting not to disclose their substance use, which can contribute to incorrect symptom representations and inadequate pain management (Ebenau et al., 2019), carrying consequences related to poor quality of life and a lack of meaningful palliative approaches for individuals. Health care providers’ perceptions associated with substance use at the end of life have been linked to suboptimal palliative approaches to care focused on comfort and minimizing pain, as health care providers have stated fears of individuals abusing prescribed medications and label individuals as ‘drug seekers’ when requesting medication for pain management (Tayba et al., 2025).

In the long-term care context, older adults with a SUD encounter challenges with even being admitted despite their care needs requiring 24-hour care, and for those who are admitted, they often experience stigma and isolation within the home. Complex health outcomes necessitating long-term care earlier than others who have not faced the same extent of health inequities pose barriers in and of themselves. The role of age is a consideration for admission to long-term care, and research has found that this raises challenges on admission as staff share concerns that people who use substances would not be a good fit in these homes and that “mixing” populations would impact sociability with others in the home (Baines et al., 2025; Yang et al., 2023). Stigma and negative perceptions of older adults who use substances as being time-intensive, unpredictable, or challenging make cases for admission at the end of life more difficult; these perceptions were found to be exacerbated in long-term care homes that are understaffed (Yang et al., 2023). Additionally, older adults who use substances confront challenges in long-term care homes as many require abstinence over harm reduction approaches (Yang et al., 2023). This presents a major barrier for older adults at the end of life when their intention is not to abstain from substances, and their values misalign with those of the long-term care homes providing end-of-life care. As a result, long-term care admissions at the end of life may not be feasible despite a person being eligible due to high barriers requiring abstinence, or the risk of eviction due to reports of challenging behavioural characteristics (Baines et al., 2025).

'''Application to Practice'''

Canada’s population is aging, and older adults who use substances will continue to require increased accessibility to strong palliative approaches to care at the end of life. Social workers play a vital role in the provision of health care accessibility for this population, and advocacy for better connection to this necessary care can be pivotal for older adults who use substances at the end of life.

Specialized training and education for social workers are an essential first step in this work to best understand the needs of this population on an individual level and the complex barriers to adequate health care that they experience, which impact their accessibility to end-of-life care. Providing education within health care to decrease stigma associated with substance use will be an important role when working on integrated care teams to ensure person-centered care is maintained and the health care team is utilizing harm reduction approaches to care. Facilities providing palliative and end-of-life care, such as long-term care, hospice, hospitals, and home supports offered from home, must all practice from a trauma-informed and harm reduction lens that is person-centered and cognizant of the dynamic barriers older adults who use substances face in accessing health care.

Developing policies to standardize more appropriate continuity of care would also be fundamental to ensure community, hospital, and bed-based facilities can provide consistent care and support, while also being prepared to best approach care for individuals with various levels of care needs. The benefits of this policy development would be multifaceted and impact individuals across the health care continuum to support end-of-life care. This would provide an opportunity for health care relationships to be initiated much earlier in an individual’s health trajectory once they have been diagnosed with a serious illness, and even before. Social workers can build trust earlier and support navigation of the complicated health system, with a strong role in harm reduction approaches and addressing social determinants of health to improve health outcomes. Social workers advocating for continuity of care is another harm reduction approach that is a necessary practice to ensure older adults receiving palliative care are well supported at every point within the health care system and to prioritize the older adults’ wishes at every step of care.

'''References'''

Baines, D., Braedley, S., Daly, T., Hillier, S. and Cabahug, F. (2025) Low-barrier harm reduction and housing for older people in Vancouver’s opiate crisis: meeting people where they are, Critical and Radical Social Work, 13(1): 41–56, DOI: 10.1332/20498608Y2024D000000031

Ebenau, A., Dijkstra, B., ter Huurne, C., Hasselaar, J., Vissers, K., & Groot, M. (2019). Palliative care for people with substance use disorder and multiple problems: A qualitative study on experiences of patients and proxies. ''BMC Palliative Care'', ''18''(1). <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-019-0443-4</nowiki>

Government of British Columbia. (2025). ''End-of-life care''. Province of British Columbia. <nowiki>https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/accessing-health-care/home-community-care/care-options-and-cost/end-of-life-care</nowiki>

Higgs, P. (2022). Ageing (dis)gracefully: People who inject drugs living with hepatitis C and the provision of end-of-life care. In ''Substance Use, End-of-Life Care and Multiple Deprivation'' (1st ed., pp. 105–117). essay, Routledge.

Homayra F, Pearce LA, Wang L, Panagiotoglou D, Sambo TF, Smith N, McKendry R, Wilson B, Joe R, Hawkins K, Barrios R, Mitton C, Nosyk B. Cohort profile: The provincial substance use disorder cohort in British Columbia, Canada. Int J Epidemiol. 2021 Jan 23;49(6):1776. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyaa150. PMID: 33097934; PMCID: PMC7825959.

Kerman, N., Polillo, A., Bardwell, G., Gran-Ruaz, S., Savage, C., Felteau, C. and Tsemberis, S. (2021) Harm reduction outcomes and practices in Housing First: a mixed-methods systematic review, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 228: 109052. Doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109052

McNeil, R., & Guirguis-Younger, M. (2011). Illicit drug use as a challenge to the delivery of end-of-life care services to homeless persons: Perceptions of Health and Social Services Professionals. ''Palliative Medicine'', ''26''(4), 350–359. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216311402713</nowiki>

National Institute on Aging. (2021). What are palliative care and Hospice Care? . <nowiki>https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/hospice-and-palliative-care/what-are-palliative-care-and-hospice-care</nowiki>

Stajduhar & Mollison, 2018 Too Little, Too Late: How we fail vulnerable Canadians as they die and what to do about it. Final Project Report for the Equitable Access to Care Study in Victoria, British Columbia <nowiki>https://www.uvic.ca/research/groups/peol/assets/docs/too-little-too-late.pdf</nowiki>

Tayba L, Cuesta-Briand B, Auret K, Coleman M. Palliative care for people with substance use disorders: a qualitative study of the experiences of rural primary care providers. BMC Palliat Care. 2025 Jul 23;24(1):210. doi: 10.1186/s12904-025-01828-w. PMID: 40702457; PMCID: PMC12285175.

Walsh, J. J., Sussman, T., Bosma, H., Carter, R. Z., Cormier, É., & Canham, S. L. (2025). The intersections of palliative care and homelessness in social policy: A content analysis of Canadian policy documents. ''BMC Palliative Care'', ''24''(1). <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-025-01866-4</nowiki>

World Health Organization. (2025). Social Determinants of Health. <nowiki>https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1</nowiki>

Yang, M., Beiting, K. J., & Levine, S. (2023). Barriers to care for nursing home residents with Substance Use Disorders: A qualitative study. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 17(2), 155–162. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1097/adm.0000000000001061</nowiki>

Course:GEOG350/Archive/Neighbourhood Project

2025-10-08T16:58:05Z

EverettHo:

=Geography 350 Urban Landscape Project=

The project is a major product of this course. I have aimed to create a project that hopefully will be an exciting and unique learning opportunity. The project will allow you to utilize and draw on the material you study in this course from the course notes and textbook. Specifically, the intent of the project is threefold: First, the project provides you with the opportunity to explore an urban neighbourhood of your choice, or geographically identifiable community, by investigating a specific issue facing the neighbourhood. Second, the project encourages you to take advantage of all the creative possibilities that Internet technology offers to analyze and display information. Third, working in small groups in an on–line forum provides an exciting opportunity to learn about the possibilities and challenges of working with other people using communication and information technology. To add 'real' world relevance to the course, we will also consider avenues for submitting your final projects to policy-makers or politicians in the city where your neighbourhood is located as a way to help connect academic research and policy.

The project is based on the pedagogical notion of "problem–based learning". This means that students will learn through the process of identifying problems and working in groups to solve them. This requires that students take initiative and become active participants. The project requires you to choose a suitable neighbourhood for analysis, seek out resources, perform analysis—and grapple with analytic and technical challenges during the process—and draw recommendations from your findings for urban policy.

It is up to you to:

* Identify an urban issue in a specific neighbourhood;
* Analyze the neighbourhood’s features and the issue it faces;
* Relate the issues you have identify to the broader factors and theories of urban change that you are learning about in the course (textbook and on–line course material);
* And finally, recommend policies as to how we might best deal with the specific neighbourhood issue you have identified.

Your project will culminate in a wiki entry hosted on the [http://wiki.ubc.ca UBC wiki] and must draw on academic sources to interpret your findings and produce an overall argument. During the course of the project, I will be your guide; pointing you toward useful resources and helping you answer questions that come up along the way. You will be randomly assigned into groups of four or five. I suggest you use the Connect system (Live classroom, discussion forums) as well as e–mail to communicate with your group members. Each group will have a dedicated workspace within Connect in which to plan your project. Note that only 20% of the course grade is truly derived from group work; participation in the group and the peer-review are graded individually.

As a group, you will choose a neighbourhood and complete the project requirements as described below.

Read through the project in detail!

=Project Introduction=
'' "Urban social scientists have treated ‘neighbourhood’ in much the same way as courts of law have treated pornography:
as a term that is hard to define precisely, but everyone knows it when they see it."'' ([http://usj.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/38/12/2111 Galster], 2001, p.2111).

Every once in a while, I hear people tell visitors to Vancouver where to find the Downtown Eastside (DTES): "It's the few blocks surrounding Main and Hastings", is a common answer. They look puzzled when I tell them that according to the City of Vancouver, the DTES actually encompasses a number of neighbourhoods, such as Chinatown, Gastown, Oppenheimer, Strathcone, Thorton Park and Victory Square.

There is, of course, no absolute answer to the question of "what is a neighbourhood". The concept of a neighbourhood is a socially constructed one. But more importantly, I would argue, is to consider ''how'' a neighbourhood is socially constructed and what the implications are. Clearly, it is the high concentration of homelessness, drug use and prostitution in the area near Main and Hastings street that has lead many people to impose a geographic definition upon this are based on the acute social problems.

[[File:downtown_Eastside_Van.png|link=http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/dtes/]]

Thus, for many observers the DTES is delineated by the high concentration of visible poverty and drug use; and this deliniation results in a negative stigma that further marginalizes the people living there. Due to the low-income status of residents and years of disinvestment by governments and private landlords, the housing stock in the DTES also provides clues as to how we may define an area as a neighbourhood in our minds. When one walks from the DTES to nearby Yaletown (one of the more wealthy neighbourhoods in the city) the housing stock visibly changes from modest, at times dilapidated, medium height, rental housing to flashy, high-rise condominium towers.

The key point in the context of our class project is that cities consist of distinct neighbourhoods that are visibly distinguishable. Neighbourhoods differ by various characteristics, such as the age of housing, the type and physical condition of homes, the ethnicity, income, age and household composition of residents, presence or absence of transit systems, highways, businesses, cultural amenities among many other factors. As such, each neighbourhood likely has very different issues to deal with.

In this project, you are asked to choose one neighbourhood and analyze one specific issue facing it. There is a long history of neighbourhood level research in urban geography, and more recently urban planning as well. Of course, as with any research method there are drawbacks. Some have argued that studying cities at the neighbourhood level comes with the risk of getting lost in every detail of social life; in other words, we can't see the forest for the trees. Others believe that the explanations of urban issues and change are to be found at a larger scale, arguing that it is, for example, shifts in government policy or changes in the national and global economy that explain urban phenomena.

We ought to also consider the dangers of generalizing findings from one neighbourhood to other parts of the city, or even just how the act of operationalizing a specific area as a unit of analysis influences our perceptions and understanding of urban life. In a time of globalization, people are now often turning to the local level for solutions and as students of the city and society we may ask about both the pros and cons of such an approach, and whether the neighbourhood is even an appropriate scale for policy intervention.

<blockquote>''"The neighbourhood is prominent in contemporary urban policy and research, but why should this be so? And can we be clear as to what 'the neighbourhood' is in any case?...In answer to his own question "Does neighbourhood still matter in a globalized world?", Forrest declares that it does, "but its degree of importance depends on who you are and where you are" (Forrest 2000, p.30). The complexity of the neighbourhood and its varying relevance to inhabitants are, in a way, the key to this conundrum: governments and policy-makers are neither able to control global capitalism and its effects, nor at the other end of the scale to direct or manage the fortunes of individual neighbourhoods within their jurisdiction. Neighbourhood change is proving unpredictable and resulting in ever-wider gaps in fortune and propserity between places within single regions and countries"'' (Kearns and Parkinson, 2001, p.2103).</blockquote>

Keeping the limitations in mind, policy-makers and a range of academics often highlight the unique insight that can be attained by studying specific neighbourhoods. Local activists, but also researchers, commonly point to the need to empower existing residents in an area to find solutions to pertinent problems. Many researchers and policy-makers see neighbourhood analysis as an essential component of better comprehending and producing solutions to urban issues, such as poverty, homelessness, housing affordability and even environmental sustainability. Thus, I have aimed to create a project that hopefully will be an exciting and unique learning opportunity that also has practical relevance.

The following is a list of suggested readings that provide you with background information on neighbourhood studies in urban geography and the closely related field of urban planning. It is useful to have at least some background information from the literature on how and why neighbourhoods are being studied before embarking on your own project. I recommend that you read at least one of these and skim the content of one or two more.

* Butler, T. and Robson, G. (2001). Social capital, gentrification and neighbourhood change in London: A comparison of three south London neighbourhoods. Urban Studies, 38(12), 2145-2162.
* Galster, G. (2001). On the nature of neighbourhood. Urban Studies, 38(12), 2111-2124.
* Kearns, A. and Parkinson, M. (2001). The significance of neighbourhood. Urban Studies, 38(12), 2103-2110.
* MacDonnell et al. (2004). Poverty by Postal Code: The Geography of Neighbourhood Poverty 1981-2001. Toronto, ON: United Way of Greater Toronto and The Canadian Council on Social Development.
* Silver, C. (1985). Neighbourhood planning in historical perspective. Journal of the American Planning Association, 51(2), 161-174.

There are six project components:

=Project Components=
==1. Choose a neighbourhood==

The first project component requires you to choose a neighbourhood/community as a group, set up the wiki page and provide me with a one page overview of the issue you have identified. Select an issue that is affecting and/or important to your neighbourhood. Before deciding on an issue (and neighbourhood), you may want to spend some time reviewing newspapers or other forms of media. No grade is assigned, but your group will lose 1% of your final course grade for each day late.

A penalty also applies if your proposal does not include all required components. In your one-page proposal, you need to introduce me to the issue, very briefly explain why it is worth analyzing (i.e., why is it an issue and why does it need resolution?) and finally provide me with at least two academic sources (simply list the citations as a bibliography) that deal with your issue. Your textbook is a valuable source, but here you need to include at least two other academic sources. The bibliography in your text is a helpful starting point.

For information on setting up your wiki page, go to http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1

When you are ready to submit your proposal, upload it to the Assignments drop box on Connect. You can upload only one document per group, so make sure you decide who is going to submit the work beforehand.

==2. Analyze issue & neighbourhood==

The second project component requires you to begin analyzing an issue and your neighbourhood. This portion of the project is worth 10% of your final course grade.

Your wiki entry needs to introduce the neighbourhood, define its boundaries, provide relevant background information on the neighbourhood (e.g., history, demography, characteristics of the built form, transportation infrastructure), introduce the issue and explain in detail why it is worth analyzing (i.e., why is it an issue, why should we analyze it, why does it need resolution, who is affected, why and how etc.). At this stage you also need to have a preliminary explanation of the factors that are causing the issue you have identified to come about (i.e., what are the underlying causes of this issue? Explain why). In preparing the assignment, you are encouraged to draw upon a range of sources. However, in making sense of and presenting the issue (and its underlying causes) you must draw on academic sources! This can include material from the course text or sources cited therein, but you must also find academic sources other than the text.

When your wiki entry is ready, update the course wiki page, located at http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1

Late penalties apply at 1% of your final course grade per school day.

==3. Make Site Public==

If you have not alredy updated the course page, all groups must make their draft project sites public for all classmates to view (so that everyone has plenty of time to conduct their peer-reviews). I will deduct 1% of your final course grade for each day that your project site is not made public for others to view. The wiki entry should include at least a draft overview of all the major parts by this date and the bulk of the writing should be nearing completion. You should have also addressed my comments from the draft stage at this point. Proof read your writing.

==4. Peer Review==

Every student is required to provide peer–review for two other groups (I will randomly assign these), See the project web page for further information on how to conduct this assignment. This assignment is conducted individually.

To see the URL of the groups you have been assigned, go to http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1

Submit your peer review to me via the Assignments drop box in Connect. You must also submit your comments as an attachment to the other two groups via the e–mail tool.

Your comments (peer-review) count toward 15% of your final grade and are graded individually (i.e., each student receives a grade for their own comments only).

==5. Final project==

The final version of your project should now be posted on the wiki. The final project is worth 15% of your final course grade. You need to send me an e–mail when your site is ready for me to grade. Late penalties apply at 1% of your final course grade per school day.

Your project needs to include a clear argument as to why your issue is important (and worth analyzing), who it affects and how. You need to clearly introduce your neighbourhood, providing sufficient background information for the reader. The background information cannot just be 'filler'; it needs to be relevant to the issue you are addressing in your project. Your project also needs to include a coherent argument about the underlying factors that are causing the issue to come about. Finally, from your analysis of the underlying factors you need to draw detailed and well-explained conclusions about possible solutions to deal with the issue (make policy recommendations). The merits of your proposed solutions need to be substantiated by the literature and a well-reasoned argument.

Remember, be creative and have fun with it!

==6. Project participation==

This mark will be assigned by your peers at the end of the course

At the end of the project, you will be asked to grade the other members of your group. Group participation is worth 10% of your final course grade. Late penalties apply at 1% of your final course grade per school day.

Submit your group grades to me via the Assignments drop box in Connect. I will provide you with a form toward the end of the course that explains how to grade your peers. I do not anticipate that this would take you more than about 15 minutes at the most. Everyone is required to complete this evaluation.

=Choosing a neighbourhood/issue=

You may choose any neighbourhood in any city as long as there are defining characteristics for your neighbourhood: This could include official municipal boundaries, name recognition by residents or the presence of distinct socio-economic or ethnic communities. The only restriction is that at least one of your group members has to currently live in the city where your case study neighbourhood is located as visiting the neighbourhood will provide you with key information needed to complete this project (i.e., photographs, description of the built form, presence of amenities etc.). You will also want to make sure that there is sufficient information available about your neighbourhood, so do some research before making a final decision.

Deciding on an urban issue that interests you first may help you in deciding what neighbourhood to study. Maybe you are particularly interested in housing affordability, environmental sustainability, poverty, gentrification, public transportation, urban entertainment venues, real estate development or any other urban issue. Doing some research on the issue first can help you identify a neighbourhood where the issue is predominant or worth investigating for other reasons. Note that you do not have to necessarily find an academic article that specifically talks about your neighbourhood (although if you do that is great). However, you will have to find information about your neighbourhood in the popular press, urban history documents etc. and you will have to find academic sources on the types of issues that are relevant to your neighbourhood.

=How to Cite Sources=

You must cite all sources in your project; that includes newspaper articles, books, academic journals, reports, films, photos, data, sounds and web pages etc. It does not matter to me what citation style you use, as long as your consistent throughout your project. Given the format of this project, it may be easiest to cite your sources in the text (author, year), and provide a separate page listing sources in alphabetical order. Even though I encourage you to link your project to other web sites, creating a hyperlink (or web link) to your sources alone is NOT an acceptable citation style.

{{Documentation:Distance_and_Blended_Learning_Course_Support/Academic_Integrity}}

=Useful Sources=

You will likely find a large number of academic articles about your city or particular urban issue, but not all (or perhaps any) will necessarily be specific to your neighbourhood. While academic sources (books and articles) and government reports should form a bulk of your sources, these need not be specific to your neighbourhood as long as you can draw inference from the sources to your particular case. For instance, you may find reports and journal articles on the decline of social housing in Canadian cities but the work is not specific to your neighbourhood. This is okay as you could document the existence of social housing in your neighbourhood using photos, newspaper articles and describing their physical characteristics as a specific example of disinvestment in social housing, as long as you can still set the case of your neighbourhood in the context of the academic literature.

The following sources are meant as a useful starting point. They are by no means required readings or sources. It is up to you to decide whether these sources are useful for your particular project. I do expect you to go beyond the sources I have listed here. Note that this resource page is not formatted as a formal bibliography.

===Empirical evidence:===

Canadian Census data

[http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-597/index.cfm?Lang=E Census tract profiles]

[http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/census/2006/localareas/index.htm City of Vancouver neighbourhood statistics]

[http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns83.htm City of Toronto neighbourhood profiles]

===Maps:===

UBC library map resources

[http://www.geog.ubc.ca/resources/gic/index.html GIC map resources]

[http://www.statcan.gc.ca/mgeo/index-eng.htm Statistics Canada maps and geography]

[http://maps.google.com/ Google Maps] and [http://earth.google.com/ Google Earth]

How to create your own [http://maps.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=23523 customized Google maps]

===Method: How to collect, analyze and display information to make an argument*===

Dandekar, H. (1988). The Planner's Use of Information. Stroudburg, PA : Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.

Klass, G. (2008). Just Plain Data Analysis: Finding, Presenting, and Interpreting Social Science Data. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publisher. [http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jpda/#What Klass also has an informative website on presenting simple data.]

Weston, A. (2009). A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th Ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

[http://www.statcan.gc.ca/edu/power-pouvoir/toc-tdm/5214718-eng.htm Statistics: Power from Data!] is a product from Statistics Canada that will assist readers in getting the most from statistics.

A guide to [http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/help/newuser.jsp simple data use] and analysis hosted by the University of Michigan.

*Also consult your textbook for examples on how to use qualitative and quantiative evidence in your writing.

===Useful urban academic journals that can be found in the UBC library system:===

* Urban Studies
* Environment and Planning A
* Journal of the American Planning Association
* Journal of Planning Education and Research
* Journal of Urban Affairs
* The Canadian Geographer
* Housing Studies
* Journal of Urban Design
* The Urban Geographer
* The Professional Geographer

===Other interesting sources:===

Calculate the [http://www.walkscore.com/ 'Walkability'] of your neighbourhood

[http://maps.google.co.uk/help/maps/streetview/ Google Streetview maps]

[http://sketchup.google.com/ Google Sketch-Up]

[http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/transit/#mdy Google Transit]: How long does it take from your neighbourhood to major retail locations, the city centre, the train station using public transit or by walking? Collect the information from Google transit and summarize it in a spreadsheet table.

=Grading=
Given that this is a group project, you will necessarily have to delegate the work. I will assign one grade for the whole group, except for the peer-review component. At the end of the project, you will be asked to grade the other members of your group. I will use these feedback forms to adjust your final project grade by 10% of the total:

This means, the project is worth 50% of your final grade. 25% of this is assigned to all group members by me based on the sum of your project outputs. The group evaluations account for 10% of your project grade. Your peer-review comments, which you complete individually, are graded by me and account for 15% of your grade.

An example: If I assign your group a grade of 90% for your draft project, a student in this group receives 70% on their peer-review comments, the group receives a 82% on their final project, and his/her classmates assign this same student a 60% for their group participation; this student's project grade will be calculated as follows:

[10% * .9 + 15% * .7 + 15% * .82 + 10% * .6] / 50% = 37.8/50 * 100% = 75.6%

When grading your projects, I will be looking for synthesis and analysis. To receive an A-grade you must move beyond simple description. I will expect you to include a variety of evidence from various sources (qualitative and quantitative). Academic sources (books and journal articles) should be the main source of information to help you interpret your findings, but you will necessarily have to turn to various other sources (web, newspapers, census, government reports etc.) to describe and analyze your neighbourhood. You will be graded on your ability to collect, analyze and synthesis information. Your arguments have to be supported by evidence. A project that merely reproduces information will be considered insufficient. I do not expect you to conduct any in-depth statistical or quantitative analysis, but I will be looking for some evidence of inclusion and interpretation of numerical information. While there are no specific requirements on the inclusion of graphics, visual illustrations (such as maps, tables, photos, figures etc.) are strongly encouraged.

I will be following the Faculty of Arts guidelines in determining your grades. The guidelines offer a broad-brush characterization of the type of work that might be associated with various ranges of grades:

{| border="1"
|'''Grade'''
|'''Performance'''
|'''Description'''
|-
|80% to 100%(A- to A+)
|Exceptional performance
|Strong evidence of original thinking; good organization; capacity to analyze and synthesize; superior grasp of subject matter with sound critical evaluations; evidence of extensive knowledge base.
|-
|68% to 79%(B- to B+)
|Competent performance
|Evidence of grasp of subject matter; some evidence of critical capacity and analytic ability; reasonable understanding of relevant issues; evidence of familiarity with the literature.
|-
|50% to 67%(D to C+)
|Adequate performance
|Understanding of the subject matter; ability to develop solutions to simple problems in the material; acceptable but uninspired work, not seriously faulty but lacking style and vigour.
|-
|00% to 49%(F)
|Inadequate performance
|Little or no evidence of understanding of the subject matter; weakness in critical and analytic skills; limited or irrelevant use of the literature
|}

KEEP A BACK-UP OF YOUR WORK ON YOUR COMPUTER AND MEMORY CARD AT ALL TIMES. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS CAN AND DO OCCUR. You are responsible to have a back-up copy of your work (in MS Word) in case there is a technical issue.

[[Category:Geography]][[Category:GEOG]][[Category:Courses]]

Course:GEOG350/Archive/Neighbourhood Project

2025-10-08T16:57:25Z

EverettHo: /* Geography 350 Urban Landscape Project */

=Geography 350 Urban Landscape Project=

=Something Cool=

The project is a major product of this course. I have aimed to create a project that hopefully will be an exciting and unique learning opportunity. The project will allow you to utilize and draw on the material you study in this course from the course notes and textbook. Specifically, the intent of the project is threefold: First, the project provides you with the opportunity to explore an urban neighbourhood of your choice, or geographically identifiable community, by investigating a specific issue facing the neighbourhood. Second, the project encourages you to take advantage of all the creative possibilities that Internet technology offers to analyze and display information. Third, working in small groups in an on–line forum provides an exciting opportunity to learn about the possibilities and challenges of working with other people using communication and information technology. To add 'real' world relevance to the course, we will also consider avenues for submitting your final projects to policy-makers or politicians in the city where your neighbourhood is located as a way to help connect academic research and policy.

The project is based on the pedagogical notion of "problem–based learning". This means that students will learn through the process of identifying problems and working in groups to solve them. This requires that students take initiative and become active participants. The project requires you to choose a suitable neighbourhood for analysis, seek out resources, perform analysis—and grapple with analytic and technical challenges during the process—and draw recommendations from your findings for urban policy.

It is up to you to:

* Identify an urban issue in a specific neighbourhood;
* Analyze the neighbourhood’s features and the issue it faces;
* Relate the issues you have identify to the broader factors and theories of urban change that you are learning about in the course (textbook and on–line course material);
* And finally, recommend policies as to how we might best deal with the specific neighbourhood issue you have identified.

Your project will culminate in a wiki entry hosted on the [http://wiki.ubc.ca UBC wiki] and must draw on academic sources to interpret your findings and produce an overall argument. During the course of the project, I will be your guide; pointing you toward useful resources and helping you answer questions that come up along the way. You will be randomly assigned into groups of four or five. I suggest you use the Connect system (Live classroom, discussion forums) as well as e–mail to communicate with your group members. Each group will have a dedicated workspace within Connect in which to plan your project. Note that only 20% of the course grade is truly derived from group work; participation in the group and the peer-review are graded individually.

As a group, you will choose a neighbourhood and complete the project requirements as described below.

Read through the project in detail!

=Project Introduction=
'' "Urban social scientists have treated ‘neighbourhood’ in much the same way as courts of law have treated pornography:
as a term that is hard to define precisely, but everyone knows it when they see it."'' ([http://usj.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/38/12/2111 Galster], 2001, p.2111).

Every once in a while, I hear people tell visitors to Vancouver where to find the Downtown Eastside (DTES): "It's the few blocks surrounding Main and Hastings", is a common answer. They look puzzled when I tell them that according to the City of Vancouver, the DTES actually encompasses a number of neighbourhoods, such as Chinatown, Gastown, Oppenheimer, Strathcone, Thorton Park and Victory Square.

There is, of course, no absolute answer to the question of "what is a neighbourhood". The concept of a neighbourhood is a socially constructed one. But more importantly, I would argue, is to consider ''how'' a neighbourhood is socially constructed and what the implications are. Clearly, it is the high concentration of homelessness, drug use and prostitution in the area near Main and Hastings street that has lead many people to impose a geographic definition upon this are based on the acute social problems.

[[File:downtown_Eastside_Van.png|link=http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/dtes/]]

Thus, for many observers the DTES is delineated by the high concentration of visible poverty and drug use; and this deliniation results in a negative stigma that further marginalizes the people living there. Due to the low-income status of residents and years of disinvestment by governments and private landlords, the housing stock in the DTES also provides clues as to how we may define an area as a neighbourhood in our minds. When one walks from the DTES to nearby Yaletown (one of the more wealthy neighbourhoods in the city) the housing stock visibly changes from modest, at times dilapidated, medium height, rental housing to flashy, high-rise condominium towers.

The key point in the context of our class project is that cities consist of distinct neighbourhoods that are visibly distinguishable. Neighbourhoods differ by various characteristics, such as the age of housing, the type and physical condition of homes, the ethnicity, income, age and household composition of residents, presence or absence of transit systems, highways, businesses, cultural amenities among many other factors. As such, each neighbourhood likely has very different issues to deal with.

In this project, you are asked to choose one neighbourhood and analyze one specific issue facing it. There is a long history of neighbourhood level research in urban geography, and more recently urban planning as well. Of course, as with any research method there are drawbacks. Some have argued that studying cities at the neighbourhood level comes with the risk of getting lost in every detail of social life; in other words, we can't see the forest for the trees. Others believe that the explanations of urban issues and change are to be found at a larger scale, arguing that it is, for example, shifts in government policy or changes in the national and global economy that explain urban phenomena.

We ought to also consider the dangers of generalizing findings from one neighbourhood to other parts of the city, or even just how the act of operationalizing a specific area as a unit of analysis influences our perceptions and understanding of urban life. In a time of globalization, people are now often turning to the local level for solutions and as students of the city and society we may ask about both the pros and cons of such an approach, and whether the neighbourhood is even an appropriate scale for policy intervention.

<blockquote>''"The neighbourhood is prominent in contemporary urban policy and research, but why should this be so? And can we be clear as to what 'the neighbourhood' is in any case?...In answer to his own question "Does neighbourhood still matter in a globalized world?", Forrest declares that it does, "but its degree of importance depends on who you are and where you are" (Forrest 2000, p.30). The complexity of the neighbourhood and its varying relevance to inhabitants are, in a way, the key to this conundrum: governments and policy-makers are neither able to control global capitalism and its effects, nor at the other end of the scale to direct or manage the fortunes of individual neighbourhoods within their jurisdiction. Neighbourhood change is proving unpredictable and resulting in ever-wider gaps in fortune and propserity between places within single regions and countries"'' (Kearns and Parkinson, 2001, p.2103).</blockquote>

Keeping the limitations in mind, policy-makers and a range of academics often highlight the unique insight that can be attained by studying specific neighbourhoods. Local activists, but also researchers, commonly point to the need to empower existing residents in an area to find solutions to pertinent problems. Many researchers and policy-makers see neighbourhood analysis as an essential component of better comprehending and producing solutions to urban issues, such as poverty, homelessness, housing affordability and even environmental sustainability. Thus, I have aimed to create a project that hopefully will be an exciting and unique learning opportunity that also has practical relevance.

The following is a list of suggested readings that provide you with background information on neighbourhood studies in urban geography and the closely related field of urban planning. It is useful to have at least some background information from the literature on how and why neighbourhoods are being studied before embarking on your own project. I recommend that you read at least one of these and skim the content of one or two more.

* Butler, T. and Robson, G. (2001). Social capital, gentrification and neighbourhood change in London: A comparison of three south London neighbourhoods. Urban Studies, 38(12), 2145-2162.
* Galster, G. (2001). On the nature of neighbourhood. Urban Studies, 38(12), 2111-2124.
* Kearns, A. and Parkinson, M. (2001). The significance of neighbourhood. Urban Studies, 38(12), 2103-2110.
* MacDonnell et al. (2004). Poverty by Postal Code: The Geography of Neighbourhood Poverty 1981-2001. Toronto, ON: United Way of Greater Toronto and The Canadian Council on Social Development.
* Silver, C. (1985). Neighbourhood planning in historical perspective. Journal of the American Planning Association, 51(2), 161-174.

There are six project components:

=Project Components=
==1. Choose a neighbourhood==

The first project component requires you to choose a neighbourhood/community as a group, set up the wiki page and provide me with a one page overview of the issue you have identified. Select an issue that is affecting and/or important to your neighbourhood. Before deciding on an issue (and neighbourhood), you may want to spend some time reviewing newspapers or other forms of media. No grade is assigned, but your group will lose 1% of your final course grade for each day late.

A penalty also applies if your proposal does not include all required components. In your one-page proposal, you need to introduce me to the issue, very briefly explain why it is worth analyzing (i.e., why is it an issue and why does it need resolution?) and finally provide me with at least two academic sources (simply list the citations as a bibliography) that deal with your issue. Your textbook is a valuable source, but here you need to include at least two other academic sources. The bibliography in your text is a helpful starting point.

For information on setting up your wiki page, go to http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1

When you are ready to submit your proposal, upload it to the Assignments drop box on Connect. You can upload only one document per group, so make sure you decide who is going to submit the work beforehand.

==2. Analyze issue & neighbourhood==

The second project component requires you to begin analyzing an issue and your neighbourhood. This portion of the project is worth 10% of your final course grade.

Your wiki entry needs to introduce the neighbourhood, define its boundaries, provide relevant background information on the neighbourhood (e.g., history, demography, characteristics of the built form, transportation infrastructure), introduce the issue and explain in detail why it is worth analyzing (i.e., why is it an issue, why should we analyze it, why does it need resolution, who is affected, why and how etc.). At this stage you also need to have a preliminary explanation of the factors that are causing the issue you have identified to come about (i.e., what are the underlying causes of this issue? Explain why). In preparing the assignment, you are encouraged to draw upon a range of sources. However, in making sense of and presenting the issue (and its underlying causes) you must draw on academic sources! This can include material from the course text or sources cited therein, but you must also find academic sources other than the text.

When your wiki entry is ready, update the course wiki page, located at http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1

Late penalties apply at 1% of your final course grade per school day.

==3. Make Site Public==

If you have not alredy updated the course page, all groups must make their draft project sites public for all classmates to view (so that everyone has plenty of time to conduct their peer-reviews). I will deduct 1% of your final course grade for each day that your project site is not made public for others to view. The wiki entry should include at least a draft overview of all the major parts by this date and the bulk of the writing should be nearing completion. You should have also addressed my comments from the draft stage at this point. Proof read your writing.

==4. Peer Review==

Every student is required to provide peer–review for two other groups (I will randomly assign these), See the project web page for further information on how to conduct this assignment. This assignment is conducted individually.

To see the URL of the groups you have been assigned, go to http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:GEOG350/2013ST1

Submit your peer review to me via the Assignments drop box in Connect. You must also submit your comments as an attachment to the other two groups via the e–mail tool.

Your comments (peer-review) count toward 15% of your final grade and are graded individually (i.e., each student receives a grade for their own comments only).

==5. Final project==

The final version of your project should now be posted on the wiki. The final project is worth 15% of your final course grade. You need to send me an e–mail when your site is ready for me to grade. Late penalties apply at 1% of your final course grade per school day.

Your project needs to include a clear argument as to why your issue is important (and worth analyzing), who it affects and how. You need to clearly introduce your neighbourhood, providing sufficient background information for the reader. The background information cannot just be 'filler'; it needs to be relevant to the issue you are addressing in your project. Your project also needs to include a coherent argument about the underlying factors that are causing the issue to come about. Finally, from your analysis of the underlying factors you need to draw detailed and well-explained conclusions about possible solutions to deal with the issue (make policy recommendations). The merits of your proposed solutions need to be substantiated by the literature and a well-reasoned argument.

Remember, be creative and have fun with it!

==6. Project participation==

This mark will be assigned by your peers at the end of the course

At the end of the project, you will be asked to grade the other members of your group. Group participation is worth 10% of your final course grade. Late penalties apply at 1% of your final course grade per school day.

Submit your group grades to me via the Assignments drop box in Connect. I will provide you with a form toward the end of the course that explains how to grade your peers. I do not anticipate that this would take you more than about 15 minutes at the most. Everyone is required to complete this evaluation.

=Choosing a neighbourhood/issue=

You may choose any neighbourhood in any city as long as there are defining characteristics for your neighbourhood: This could include official municipal boundaries, name recognition by residents or the presence of distinct socio-economic or ethnic communities. The only restriction is that at least one of your group members has to currently live in the city where your case study neighbourhood is located as visiting the neighbourhood will provide you with key information needed to complete this project (i.e., photographs, description of the built form, presence of amenities etc.). You will also want to make sure that there is sufficient information available about your neighbourhood, so do some research before making a final decision.

Deciding on an urban issue that interests you first may help you in deciding what neighbourhood to study. Maybe you are particularly interested in housing affordability, environmental sustainability, poverty, gentrification, public transportation, urban entertainment venues, real estate development or any other urban issue. Doing some research on the issue first can help you identify a neighbourhood where the issue is predominant or worth investigating for other reasons. Note that you do not have to necessarily find an academic article that specifically talks about your neighbourhood (although if you do that is great). However, you will have to find information about your neighbourhood in the popular press, urban history documents etc. and you will have to find academic sources on the types of issues that are relevant to your neighbourhood.

=How to Cite Sources=

You must cite all sources in your project; that includes newspaper articles, books, academic journals, reports, films, photos, data, sounds and web pages etc. It does not matter to me what citation style you use, as long as your consistent throughout your project. Given the format of this project, it may be easiest to cite your sources in the text (author, year), and provide a separate page listing sources in alphabetical order. Even though I encourage you to link your project to other web sites, creating a hyperlink (or web link) to your sources alone is NOT an acceptable citation style.

{{Documentation:Distance_and_Blended_Learning_Course_Support/Academic_Integrity}}

=Useful Sources=

You will likely find a large number of academic articles about your city or particular urban issue, but not all (or perhaps any) will necessarily be specific to your neighbourhood. While academic sources (books and articles) and government reports should form a bulk of your sources, these need not be specific to your neighbourhood as long as you can draw inference from the sources to your particular case. For instance, you may find reports and journal articles on the decline of social housing in Canadian cities but the work is not specific to your neighbourhood. This is okay as you could document the existence of social housing in your neighbourhood using photos, newspaper articles and describing their physical characteristics as a specific example of disinvestment in social housing, as long as you can still set the case of your neighbourhood in the context of the academic literature.

The following sources are meant as a useful starting point. They are by no means required readings or sources. It is up to you to decide whether these sources are useful for your particular project. I do expect you to go beyond the sources I have listed here. Note that this resource page is not formatted as a formal bibliography.

===Empirical evidence:===

Canadian Census data

[http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-597/index.cfm?Lang=E Census tract profiles]

[http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/census/2006/localareas/index.htm City of Vancouver neighbourhood statistics]

[http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns83.htm City of Toronto neighbourhood profiles]

===Maps:===

UBC library map resources

[http://www.geog.ubc.ca/resources/gic/index.html GIC map resources]

[http://www.statcan.gc.ca/mgeo/index-eng.htm Statistics Canada maps and geography]

[http://maps.google.com/ Google Maps] and [http://earth.google.com/ Google Earth]

How to create your own [http://maps.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=23523 customized Google maps]

===Method: How to collect, analyze and display information to make an argument*===

Dandekar, H. (1988). The Planner's Use of Information. Stroudburg, PA : Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.

Klass, G. (2008). Just Plain Data Analysis: Finding, Presenting, and Interpreting Social Science Data. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publisher. [http://lilt.ilstu.edu/jpda/#What Klass also has an informative website on presenting simple data.]

Weston, A. (2009). A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th Ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

[http://www.statcan.gc.ca/edu/power-pouvoir/toc-tdm/5214718-eng.htm Statistics: Power from Data!] is a product from Statistics Canada that will assist readers in getting the most from statistics.

A guide to [http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/help/newuser.jsp simple data use] and analysis hosted by the University of Michigan.

*Also consult your textbook for examples on how to use qualitative and quantiative evidence in your writing.

===Useful urban academic journals that can be found in the UBC library system:===

* Urban Studies
* Environment and Planning A
* Journal of the American Planning Association
* Journal of Planning Education and Research
* Journal of Urban Affairs
* The Canadian Geographer
* Housing Studies
* Journal of Urban Design
* The Urban Geographer
* The Professional Geographer

===Other interesting sources:===

Calculate the [http://www.walkscore.com/ 'Walkability'] of your neighbourhood

[http://maps.google.co.uk/help/maps/streetview/ Google Streetview maps]

[http://sketchup.google.com/ Google Sketch-Up]

[http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/transit/#mdy Google Transit]: How long does it take from your neighbourhood to major retail locations, the city centre, the train station using public transit or by walking? Collect the information from Google transit and summarize it in a spreadsheet table.

=Grading=
Given that this is a group project, you will necessarily have to delegate the work. I will assign one grade for the whole group, except for the peer-review component. At the end of the project, you will be asked to grade the other members of your group. I will use these feedback forms to adjust your final project grade by 10% of the total:

This means, the project is worth 50% of your final grade. 25% of this is assigned to all group members by me based on the sum of your project outputs. The group evaluations account for 10% of your project grade. Your peer-review comments, which you complete individually, are graded by me and account for 15% of your grade.

An example: If I assign your group a grade of 90% for your draft project, a student in this group receives 70% on their peer-review comments, the group receives a 82% on their final project, and his/her classmates assign this same student a 60% for their group participation; this student's project grade will be calculated as follows:

[10% * .9 + 15% * .7 + 15% * .82 + 10% * .6] / 50% = 37.8/50 * 100% = 75.6%

When grading your projects, I will be looking for synthesis and analysis. To receive an A-grade you must move beyond simple description. I will expect you to include a variety of evidence from various sources (qualitative and quantitative). Academic sources (books and journal articles) should be the main source of information to help you interpret your findings, but you will necessarily have to turn to various other sources (web, newspapers, census, government reports etc.) to describe and analyze your neighbourhood. You will be graded on your ability to collect, analyze and synthesis information. Your arguments have to be supported by evidence. A project that merely reproduces information will be considered insufficient. I do not expect you to conduct any in-depth statistical or quantitative analysis, but I will be looking for some evidence of inclusion and interpretation of numerical information. While there are no specific requirements on the inclusion of graphics, visual illustrations (such as maps, tables, photos, figures etc.) are strongly encouraged.

I will be following the Faculty of Arts guidelines in determining your grades. The guidelines offer a broad-brush characterization of the type of work that might be associated with various ranges of grades:

{| border="1"
|'''Grade'''
|'''Performance'''
|'''Description'''
|-
|80% to 100%(A- to A+)
|Exceptional performance
|Strong evidence of original thinking; good organization; capacity to analyze and synthesize; superior grasp of subject matter with sound critical evaluations; evidence of extensive knowledge base.
|-
|68% to 79%(B- to B+)
|Competent performance
|Evidence of grasp of subject matter; some evidence of critical capacity and analytic ability; reasonable understanding of relevant issues; evidence of familiarity with the literature.
|-
|50% to 67%(D to C+)
|Adequate performance
|Understanding of the subject matter; ability to develop solutions to simple problems in the material; acceptable but uninspired work, not seriously faulty but lacking style and vigour.
|-
|00% to 49%(F)
|Inadequate performance
|Little or no evidence of understanding of the subject matter; weakness in critical and analytic skills; limited or irrelevant use of the literature
|}

KEEP A BACK-UP OF YOUR WORK ON YOUR COMPUTER AND MEMORY CARD AT ALL TIMES. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS CAN AND DO OCCUR. You are responsible to have a back-up copy of your work (in MS Word) in case there is a technical issue.

[[Category:Geography]][[Category:GEOG]][[Category:Courses]]

Sandbox:Angela Lam

2025-10-08T16:48:45Z

EverettHo: played around with sandbox

== Header 1 ==

Hello World! Use me as a playground/test area.

test

<code>print("Hello World")</code>