Chapter One "The human Brain is the most complex system on earth, yet, too often it is used in schools primarily as a simple device for storage and retrieval of information" (Dickson, 2002). Background Manzanita Public Charter School (MPCS) is located outside of Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) with 42% of its students from VAFB and 58% from Lompoc and the surrounding area (MilitaryK12Partners, 2012). MPCS provides free public education to any student who wishes to attend until classrooms are full. MPCS welcomes students of all nationalities, races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientation and feels the schools strength is in the diversity of the students attending. MPCS was conceived based on the belief that the Lompoc community needed a broader range of choices in educational options, specifically a school that initiated progressive research-based educational practices that responded to the changing demographics in the community (MPCS, 2012). According to cyburbua.org a community is considered urban or a city if there is more than 100,000 people and it is suburban if it has between 10,000-100,000 people in a semi-dense population area (Cyburbia, 2011). Lompoc has a population of 43,260 which would classify it as suburban. Of the 43,260 there are 26% who are under 18 and are influenced by local schools and 73% of these individuals will graduate from high school. The ethnicity break down of Lompoc is roughly 36% Caucasian, 6% African American, 2% American India, 4% Asian, 50% Hispanic, and 2% other (US Census, 2010). 25% of Lompoc residences have foreign born parents and 44% of the households in Lompoc speak a language other than English. Approximately 15% of Lompoc adults have a bachelor’s degree and the median household income is $47,177 with 21% of households below the poverty level (US Census, 2010). Vandenberg AFB is the largest
small group of youth who were playing. The youth were observed in two locations: one inside and one outside. Both situations were recreational and not academic in nature. Ideally, the observation would have been done in the classroom; however as school is out right now, a handful of neighborhood children of different ages were observed in a natural setting. The idea of observing their interactions with each other correlates with the research question because researchers need to establish a baseline of information prior to doing research. As a researcher, one needs to understand what is "normal", un-influenced behavior with a group of students prior to beginning the research project. This will do two things: it will help determine what areas to focus your attention in regards to positive and negative behaviors; it will provide data to determine if the interventions have any impact. The observation of these behaviors applies as it is similar to the behaviors that would be observed for the initial observation for the research project. Another component which would be needed but was not observable was the student's academic performance/participation in class and grades. To complete this situational observation, two locations or settings were selected which were natural environment for students. A primary advantage to observing children in a natural setting is that students will behave in a natural way which will correlate with how they would act in other natural environments. The group spent 20 minutes at the park. While there, the kids all played at the basketball court, the playground, or on the grass. The group brought a couple of balls and a jump rope to the playground. The kids did not play as a group, rather they paired up and played together in small groups. The observer was sitting on a bench about equal distance from the three locations. Twice the observer got up to help kids work out issues but for the most part the observer was not distracted from note taking/observation.