Abstract:
ABSTRACT
DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVITY SPACE AND SPATIAL
KNOWLEDGE AMONG FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE
STUDENTS
by
© Janna Lynn Waligorski Hudson 2011
Master of Arts in Geography
California State University, Chico
Summer 2011
This thesis explores the development of activity space and spatial knowledge
among first-year college students through the use of sketch maps. Sketch maps were
drawn of Chico by first-year students during the first, fifth, and fifteenth week of the
Fall 2007 semester at California State University. The students' sketch maps were analyzed
over time to determine the rate of their spatial knowledge acquisition, and to examine
how various activities create opportunities to explore and develop students' subjective
sense of place. The contents of the sketch maps were compared to the classic
work in sketch map methodology and the map elements of paths, edges, districts, nodes,
and landmarks. Similar to the results of other researchers, paths and landmarks are the
most frequently used map elements. The further categorization of landmarks (visually
and functionally prominent, functionally important, and personally functional) were
found to be neither applicable nor appropriate for this study group. It was determined
that the manner in which elements were used did not change over time as earlier work
found, but did coincided with one researcher's findings of stable map element usage.
The map elements were also analyzed for the number of landmarks included, types of
landmarks, number of labeled roads, and a comparison between roads included and traffic
volumes. Further spatial analysis was performed by creating secondary digital versions
of the students’ sketch maps in GIS, thereby, enabling the comparison of activity
space for all participating students and illustrating the most commonly included activity
spaces. In general, the growth trend of student activity space and spatial literacy can be
summarized as limited to a pedestrian scale and focused on food and shopping. The students’
sense of place regarding Chico is positive, but limited in scale. University retention
programs might respond to this by providing or promoting off-campus activities
that still occur within Chico. It is possible that building a first-year student’s knowledge
of what Chico has to offer may help them further develop a greater sense of place and
potentially leading to a higher retention rate.
