Day 116 — Listening: Planning a Research Project on Urban Green Spaces — Section 3

Dr. Bennett: So, Emma, Josh — thanks for coming in. I've had a look at your project outline, and overall it's a solid start. Talk me through where you've got to with the research question.

Emma: Sure. So originally we wanted to look at whether access to parks improves physical health — things like exercise levels. But the more we read, the more we felt that angle's already been covered pretty extensively.

Josh: Yeah, and honestly, I think the more interesting question is around mental wellbeing rather than physical health. There's less existing research specifically on urban green spaces and stress reduction.

Dr. Bennett: That's a fair point, although I'd push back slightly — "mental wellbeing" is quite a broad term. You'll need to narrow it down, or you'll end up with a project that's impossible to manage in the time you've got.

Emma: That's actually something we were debating. I wanted to focus on stress levels specifically, measured through a self-reported survey. Josh was leaning towards something more about social connection — like whether green spaces increase interaction between neighbours.

Josh: I still think the social angle is worth pursuing, but I take your point that combining both stress and social connection might be too much for one project.

Dr. Bennett: Right, I'd agree with that. My recommendation would be to go with Emma's suggestion — stress reduction — as your primary focus, but you could still include one or two questions about social interaction in the survey, just as secondary data. That way you're not throwing away Josh's idea entirely.

Emma: That sounds like a good compromise, actually.

Josh: Yeah, I'm happy with that. So our core question becomes something like: "Does proximity to urban green space reduce self-reported stress levels among city residents?"

Dr. Bennett: That's much more manageable, and it's got a clear methodology — a survey. Now, in terms of your sample, what were you thinking?

Emma: We were going to survey residents from three neighbourhoods with different levels of green space access — one with a large park nearby, one with a small pocket park, and one with almost no green space at all.

Dr. Bennett: Good, that's a sensible comparative design. How many participants are you aiming for?

Josh: We were thinking around fifty per neighbourhood, so a hundred and fifty total.

Dr. Bennett: That should be sufficient for the statistical tests you'll need, although I'd recommend aiming a little higher if you can — say sixty per neighbourhood — in case some responses are incomplete or unusable.

Emma: That makes sense, we can adjust the target.

Dr. Bennett: One more thing — how are you planning to recruit participants?

Josh: I was going to suggest going door-to-door in each neighbourhood, but Emma pointed out that could take a huge amount of time given our deadline.

Emma: Right, so instead, I proposed distributing the survey through community centres and local noticeboards, which should be much faster.

Dr. Bennett: I'd actually go one step further and suggest an online version of the survey as well, shared through neighbourhood community groups — that combination should get you a much wider reach without eating up all your time.

Josh: That's a good idea, we hadn't really considered the online option.

Dr. Bennett: Lastly, for your timeline — when are you aiming to have the data collection finished?

Emma: We were hoping to have it all done by the end of this month, but given everything we've just discussed, that might be a bit tight.

Dr. Bennett: I'd agree — I'd allow yourselves an extra two weeks for data collection, and make sure you leave enough time afterwards for analysis. Rushing the analysis stage is where most projects lose marks.

Josh: Understood, we'll build that buffer in.

Dr. Bennett: Great, this all sounds like a much stronger project now. Send me the revised proposal once you've updated it.