High school landscapes

Venkatesha, Akshatha

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/49538 Copy

Description

Title

High school landscapes

Author(s)

Venkatesha, Akshatha

Issue Date

2014-05-30T16:48:58Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Sullivan, William C.

Department of Study

Landscape Architecture

Discipline

Landscape Architecture

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.L.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Students
• High School Landscapes
• Landscape configurations

Abstract

Today, many high school students are under considerable stress from school work, pressure to apply for college, and the burden of having to make money to pay for college or other needs. The level of stress that many students feel is likely to result in decreased academic performance and increased levels of inappropriate behaviors in classrooms and on school campuses. Fortunately, research suggests that natural landscapes can help high school students recover from this stress. Students benefit academically, socially, and behaviorally from school campuses with natural landscape features and greener window views. What we don’t know, however, is to what extent high school students prefer barren, traditional and best management landscape configurations. To what extent do variations in the density of the vegetation impact their preferences? To what extent do preferences change when we consider different landscape types and the two levels of vegetation at the same time? To what extent do these findings hold for the various spaces on high school landscapes? I investigated three public high schools in Central Illinois to examine the interests of students in different kinds of landscape configurations found on high school campuses. Based on the photo-questionnaires completed by high school students, I found that high school students prefer school campuses with best management practices landscapes more than those with traditional ¬or barren landscape configurations. Analysis also suggests that high school students prefer school campuses with a higher density of vegetation over the low density vegetation campus landscapes.

Graduation Semester

2014-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49538

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 Akshatha Venkatesha

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