Yankee Doodle Research Results

[donaldlvjy]

Here is some information regarding my undergraduate research at Southern Utah University. I'm a senior in the outdoor recreation degree and decided to survey Yankee Doodle Canyon participants to find demographics and preferences. One of the more interesting parts about Yankee Doodle is the guiding aspect of the canyon. There is a very limited amount of research done on canyoneering as a sport, and much of that pertains to National Parks. i.e. Zion National Park and their visitor experience and resource protection(VERP) surveys used in their back country management plans, or even Australia's Blue Mountains National park. As most of you already know, Zion does not allow commercial guiding in their boundaries and therefore the VERP surveys do not have a solid foundation on the guiding side of the sport. Yankee Doodle however, does allow commercial guiding, which is why I decided on the canyon. Needless to say, here is what I found...

Compared with the national average, here is a break down of demographics in Yankee Doodle Canyon







Yankee Doodle Canyon

National Outdoor Participation Report (2013)



Average group size is 6.43
No information available for group sizes


69.8% are male
55% are male


70% are between ages 25-44
33% are between ages 25-44


84.9% are white/Caucasian
70% of participants are white/Caucasian


73.5% of participants have a bachelors or higher education level
38% of participants have a bachelors or higher education level






The national averages come from all outdoor activities. The full report on the national averages can be viewed at
http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/pdf/ResearchParticipation2013.pdf

As you can see, from what I found canyoneering participants in Yankee Doodle Canyon has a much higher education level than the national average.

















There is much more to my research, in which I will present at SUU Outdoor on November 21 and then post later to Bogley.

Thank you for reading!

[Jolly Green]

The age and education difference definitely stand out. You should at least be familiar with the same stats for the population in Southern Utah or larger Utah/Vegas area in general to see if this is a geographic phenomonen or if we canyoneers are simply that much younger, prettier, and smarter than everyone else (just assuming the prettier part). You should also definitely mention where you got your data from- ie most people on Bogley that responded fall into that 25-44 year old subgroup which has been overeducated in order to even compete for a low paying job.

Those would be a few questions I would ask you if I were critiquing your work. Take my comments for what they're worth, I'm just trying to be constructive. I'm a pharmacist who received way more education breaking down studies than I ever wanted and get to precept pharmacy students/residents on a regular basis, so I get to do this all the time. Wish I had thought up a study this cool in school. Well done.