Students spent a month in Bullet Tree Falls, Cayo district, Belize with Dr. Alexander, who has conducted research in Belize on Ecotourism as a Development Strategy over the past 15 years. The field school course was oriented around Third World development issues in general. While living in the village, students were exposed to a number of ethnographic field research techniques -- map making, proxemic behavior observation, kinship charts, life hitsories, key informant interviews, survey design and administration, and photography.
Given that the main topic of the course focused on ecotourism, students also learned participant observation techniques through a number of field trips -- Xunantunich, San Pedro, Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary, the Community Baboon Sanctuary, and Tikal, Guatemala.
Each student completed a research report on their chosen topics:
Perceptions of Water Quality in Bullet Tree Falls (Blake Arrington)
The Itegration of Religious Beliefs in Everyday Life (Stephanie Blaiko)
Attitides towards various Health Care Options (Stephanie Carnahan)
Funerary Rituals in Bullet Tree Falls (Ali Clark)
Health Issues Among Poor Women (Kacia Huddleston)
The Dependence on Bush Doctors for Health Care in Bullet Tree Falls(Mark Ruth)
Environmental Awareness and Related Behavior Among Belizean Youth (Laura Taylor)