Analyzing Student Journals to Identify Themes from a Summer Field Study

Student joumal entries were analyzed from a two-week field study offered as a college-level course through a natural resource and environmental management program. The course content for the field course incorporated natural resource management, park management, and environmental history with the western United States. Students enrolling in the course were from a midwestem unlversity, and, for many, it was their first experience in the western states. Students were required to maintain a journal throughout the two-week field study. They were also required to read texts for the course and to make presentations to the group as experts on specific topics. The research study focuses on the journal entries students completed in response to specific program evaluation questions that were given to them in the final days of the field course