Southeast Asia Research and Capacity Building Initiatives
Buffalo State College
Summer Field Course, 2006
Introduction
The Chancellor’s Award for Internationalization is a response to SUNY’s long-range goal for increased internationalization. The competitive grants provide opportunities for SUNY students to have an academic experience in a country that is less commonly visited. The Department of Geography and Planning obtained a Chancellor’s Award and took 10 students on a three week field experience in Cambodia and Thailand in the summer of 2006. The students were a multidisciplinary group, with majors ranging from Environmental Planning to Theatre, but the central theme of the field experience was sustainable development in a developing country.
Students first traveled to Bangkok. Here they visited the Grand Palace/Temple complex, a cultural center, and took in the street life. The first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh. In Phnom Penh students took in new experiences including a very somber visit to the S-21 prison and a killing field. Among other activities they spent part of a day with fellow students from the Royal University of Phnom Penh and joined with some of them to sample water quality along the Mekong River and wetlands. In Kean Svay and Leavime they learned of sustainable development initiatives, staying in a Khmer village and building a well and rainwater harvesting tank. They then traveled to Sihanoukville to experience an under developed coastal community. The final stop was Siem Reap to experience the ancient Angkor temples. The common thread running through the course was an exploration of both culture and sustainable development. The course text was titled “Cry from the Forest”, a Buddhist manual for teaching about building a sustainable environment.
Placed-based field courses offer students an incredible opportunity to experience landscapes and cultures foreign to their own. While some of these opportunities are obvious, others are not. It is difficult to assess the degree to which individual students are taking in these experiences. The student’s experience depends on his/her ability to observe, internalize, and provide an analysis. It has been our experience that the taking of a prerequisite course – Geography of Asia – and preparatory meetings helped position the students to better appreciate their experience. The assessment tools chosen for the Cambodia Field Experience were designed to introduce and exercise the student’s ability to observe and provide analysis, and thus provide them with a more thorough and meaningful field experience. Assessment tools such as pre- and post testing were omitted as they predictably provide the obvious – the students learned more facts – but are too simple and rigid to truly assess the student’s experience.
Course Requirements
Notebook keeping has become a standard part of most academic disciplines. The fieldbook, used as an assessment tool, introduces and exercises the student’s ability to organize their thoughts and maintain records. During the Cambodia field course students were required to note what their instructors discussed in meetings, to record experimental results (e.g. dissolved oxygen levels in the Mekong River), and to note their own observations. It has been our experience that a number of students live for the immediate experience – the rush- but they do not take the time to truly internalize the experience. A properly maintained fieldbook requires students to make the time to do so. Fieldbooks become a source of student pride and are kept as souvenirs of their experience.
A number of assignments were given to the students. Some of the assignments were based simply on their observations, and others were based on data that they collected. For example, in Sihanoukville students were asked to observe the level of beach development and assess sustainability issues; while in Phnom Penh students collected E. coli data from sewers and wetlands and assessed the effectiveness of the wetlands in removing pollutants. In both cases the student was required to be aware of their surroundings, to internalize their observations, and to provide a written analysis. Assignments were completed and evaluated from their fieldbooks.
Excerpts from Assignment #4 – Killing Fields:
“My chest started to shutter. I felt like my ribs were vibrating. I held as much back as I could. My legs stopped working and my head was heavy. Everything was silent with the exception of the repetitive and rehearsed pleads of the children – ‘Hello Madame, some money, okay?’. I gave what I had mostly to have some peace. I hate saying that but it was too much at one time. I walked around the holes of the mass graves. As I walked I noticed fabric emerging from the soil. I leaned against a tree to catch my composure, to steady my legs. As I walked around the tree I saw a sign – ‘tree used to murder/beat children’. What did I just touch? It was as if I had just leaned next to and on a weapon for support – an innocent tree, a tree that witnessed something unimaginable.”
“…I took three pictures of skulls. I looked at my camera to see how they looked – “why are they so blurry? I realized my hand was shaking uncontrollably. Without a moments notice tears poured out of my eyes…”
Daily meetings, as well as meetings before and after significant events, were a necessary staple of the field experience. Meetings set the tone for the day ahead, alerting students to upcoming activities but also providing time for group discussions and reflections. It is during these meetings that observations and insights were shared, and any analytical work was completed. Readings from the book “Cry of the Forest” (a Buddhist workbook on sustainability) provided a common academic thread through the three weeks of the experience, and like their assignments pushed students to provide thoughtful analysis. The meetings provided the faculty with immediate assessments of the student’s learning, resulting in course changes or discussions with students on an individual bases. These meetings provided faculty with a portfolio of impressions used in grading.
A course evaluation was e-mailed to all students when they returned home and they were asked to send the evaluation to the department secretary to assure anonymity. Evaluations were returned by five of ten students. Satisfaction with the major trip locations was assessed by asking students (on a scale of 0-4, with 4 being best) how worthwhile their experience at each site was (13 individual locations); almost uniformly the score for all sites was 4/4. All students but one rated the value of keeping a log book as 4/4. Importantly, all students strongly agreed with the statements “The trip provided you with a better understanding of environmental diversity and sustainable development” and “The trip has helped you to be better prepared to be a global citizen”.
Grand Palace, Bangkok
Wat Arun, Bangok
Ceramic Filters at Resource Development International, Cambodia
Building a rainwater harvesting tank at a rural school, Lvea Em, Cambodia
Digging a well, Lvea Em, Cambodia
Ta Prohm, Eastern Angkor, Cambodia
Kampomg Som (Sihanoukville), Cambodia
Buffalo State and Royal University of Phnom Penh students meet
Kampomg Som (Sihanoukville), Cambodia
Excavated mass grave sites Cheung Ek killing field, Cambodia
Tuol Sleng (S-21) Prison and genocide museum, Phnom Penh
Sampling the Trabek sewer channel, Phnom Penh
Counting E-coli in water samples
A tasty spider, Central Market, Phnom Penh
Outdoor classroom, Lumphini Park, Bangkok
Information from a monk, Angkor, Cambodia
Recording thoughts, Angkor, Cambodia
Carvings in the riverbed, Kulen National Park, Cambodia
Sketching in notebook, Royal Palace Grounds, Phnom Penh