Tag: Problem statement (Page 1 of 2)

My problem statement is the environmental impacts on poorer redlined communities of St. Louis caused by the city’s industrial parks, predominantly populated by minorities. In other words, the lower income residents of St. Louis’s neighborhoods experiencing health complications such as asthma, lead poisoning, air poisoning, etc. due to their proximity to factories emitting high levels of pollution and waste. What drew me to this issue is my interest in the socioeconomic conditions of how cities are planned and constructed. How larger cities plan residential neighborhoods can determine the economic outcomes of millions of people making the issue a priority. I also empathize with the minorities who have unjustly suffered as most of them have, most likely, been the blue collared workers employing the factories and supplying profits for the corporations who have failed to assist and support them in return. I am approaching the problem as an outsider to St. Louis with limited to no background in the structure of St. Louis. It is important to note that I, myself, am not a member of a minority group and am approaching from an outsider’s perspective, in that respect and the privilege that comes with it. This problem is also well suited for digital humanities. Due to the problem centering around the geography and layout of the city, maps, diagrams, and other visual resources will be very helpful. It is not only helpful for me but helps the audience understand the severity of the problem without large paragraphs of text. A visual timeline would be helpful to convey how the neighborhoods have changed over time in relation to the factories causing the health issues experienced. Even further, color could be utilized in distinguishing the different neighborhoods and layout of the city socioeconomically to demonstrate how the upper-class residents were not affected by the pollution and waste. For research purposes, this issue has been well documented spanning decades of potential sources.

Primary Source: https://www.environmentalracismstl.com/

Secondary Source: https://source.washu.edu/2019/09/environmental-racism-in-st-louis/

St. Louis has been an important center for public health innovation, especially in nursing. During research into the city’s medical history, the role of nursing in civil war healthcare and the 20th century became evident. Notably, there were Native American army hospitals, early public health campaigns, and the formation of nursing schools during segregation. These institutions illustrate the evolution of medical care and the cultural, racial, and technological dynamics that influenced the nursing profession in the region. The core question arising from this observation is: How has the development of nursing in St. Louis reflected broader cultural, racial, and social transformations in the region from the 19th century onward? This inquiry aims to understand how nurses—particularly women and people of color—managed professionalization, community care, and institutional power in a changing urban environment. This topic is approached from a historical-cultural perspective, considering both marginalized voices and institutional narratives. The viewpoint is guided by an interest in how local histories can challenge national ideas about healthcare progress and how nursing, as a gendered and racialized profession, has influenced and been influenced by the city’s development.

Primary Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1943 article: “Negro Nurses Graduate from Homer G. Phillips Hospital,” which documents one of the few institutions that trained Black nurses during segregation.

Secondary Source: D’Antonio, Patricia. American Nursing: A History of Knowledge, Authority, and the Meaning of Work (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010). This book situates nursing within broader social and institutional structures, helping frame St. Louis within a national narrative.

StoryMapJS, an interactive storytelling tool, is proposed to visualize the evolution of nursing in St. Louis. The map will include key locations and institutions, such as Native American army hospitals, early Black nursing schools, and postwar medical centers, with archival photos, news clippings, and short narratives to explore how nursing evolved alongside regional social change. This format allows engagement with the historical development both spatially and narratively, showing how place, race, and care intersected in St. Louis’s past.

For my final project I will be the covering the near 100 year history of Hollywood coming to St Louis to shoot films and television shows and the decline and hopeful rise of these productions coming to Missouri.

OBSERVATION: I am a Mass Communications major focusing in video production, this means I care a lot about how the film industry works and understanding the way it operates. I already had some history of films from the 40s-60s being filmed in St Louis. I was also remembered that Missouri recently passed an incentive involving tax breaks for productions to come here, to help promote more exposure and revenue for the state.

PROBLEM: I want to gain more context as to what caused the decline in productions in St Louis and the rest of Missouri, even when certain stories being told in film take place in the state. I also want to clarify through my research what is being done to promote productions to return to St Louis.

FRAME: I want to conduct research involving the specific timeline of when productions shifted from St Louis and Missouri to other locations. I will take myself through the history of film specifically taking place in the St Louis area and surrounding locations.

PROPOSED TECHNOLOGY: I have two specific pieces of technology in mind. I will be creating a visual timeline to better show the amount of time passed and each specific moment that I feel plays a part in answering my question. I will also use a guide map of North America specifically to show the vast locations that are popular for film productions, specifically in what they cost for a production to shoot there, as that plays a major part in why St Louis has not been involved heavily in any piece of Hollywood.

This research examines the role of urban farming in addressing food insecurity in North St. Louis, a historically marginalized area with limited access to fresh, affordable food, by analyzing the impact of community-based farming initiatives through a socio-technological lens using GIS mapping, data visualization, and storytelling tools, while investigating challenges such as land access, funding, and policy barriers, with reference to primary sources like local urban farm initiatives and secondary sources on urban agriculture’s role in food justice and city planning, ultimately aiming to determine whether these efforts offer a viable long-term solution to food deserts and community resilience.

Problem Statement: The Role of Music Venues that Shaped St. Louis’s Culture Identity.

Observation, Background, and Context: St. Louis is to be recognized as one of many central points for Music, specifically Jazz, Blues and rock. Some venues like the Pageant, Gaslight Square, and Blueberry Hill have provided performance spaces for iconic musicians while also giving and showcasing local talents. What inspired me to do this topic was I use to be in the band in middle school and played Saxaphone and clarinet. It’s interesting how these venues not only serve as entertainment for these musicians but also cultural spaces, which can mold the city’s identity and give the community a sense as well. As time continues with anything in life, there are economic shifts and gentrification that have affected these historic sites. Some thrive and expand while others have closed or shut down due not to meeting certain expectations. This brings me to the question as the impact of music venues on the city’s culture in the face of economic changes.

Problem at Hand: The challenge in understanding how music venues have impacted St. Louis cultural identity over time. What roles have these venues played in a social life of the city of St. Louis, and how they have molded to changing times? Another question to consider is how the impact of some places does be closed and not closed impact the local community, the musicians and the city’s landscape itself?

Technology to present this work: To do this research effectively, I will use an interactive storytelling map to visualize the changes in St. Louis’s music venues over time. By integrating these digital tools, I seek to get my audience attention and interact with the material while also having these informative resources that showcase the relationship between music, space and cultural identity.

I want to explore the timeline of when libraries were established and built in Madison County and perhaps the surrounding area. I grew up in an area that only had one local library, with the nearest Wisconsin branch being a thirty-minute drive away – and as a child there was no reciprocal borrowing between the branches (at least not in a way that was available to me). When I moved to the St. Louis, I was struck by the number of branches the library system had, though it was more of a necessity with a population as large as the St. Louis region. I never got a card when I lived in STL, so when I moved to Edwardsville I made a point to put my money where my mouth was and support local libraries. I was very surprised when I received my card and was told that my card was able to be used in most libraries in southern Illinois, so long as it was in good standing.

Having worked in libraries now for over five years I’m intimately familiar with the ways in which libraries are connected, and learned – at least in a vague way – the history of the libraries I have worked in. This last October Glen Carbon Centennial Library celebrated it’s twentieth anniversary from being built, and to celebrate the library went through many of its records and compiled a history of the library, and how it was established well before the physical building went up in 2004. I have previously explored the ways in which different library districts may not meet the needs of the population, as districts tend to leave gaps in coverage (Illinois Public Library Service Area Populations). In doing that geospatial project last semester, and in watching my library build its own history, it made me curious as to when and how different libraries in the region came to be – especially considering the politics of the time (e.g., Edwardsville’s library district was unwilling to allow another local library to join the consortium, as tax revenue from participating Glen Carbon residents would be routed away from the Edwardsville Public Library, making the library a contentious topic for the region).

Luckily, as many libraries are subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements surrounding transparency, most libraries have at least a partial history of their building on their website, or listed in their policy/procedure/personnel manuals. Glen Carbon Centennial Library, which of course would be included in my work, has its own webpage dedicated to the history of the library: Library History (glencarbonlibrary.org). In addition, there are some sources that can be found via news articles kept by the libraries in question, as well as histories provided by the Illinois Heartland Library System, specifically about how IHLS was implemented and when (illinoisheartland.org).

I think in terms of this project, it would make the most sense to use either an interactive timeline, such as KnightLab’s Timeline software, or StoryMap, since both would allow for a visual representation of when and how the locations were built. StoryMap specifically might be more visually appealing, but I’m unsure what data I will be able to find outside of date, place, and some basic surrounding information, such as how funding was sourced, so I think I’ll narrow down my focus as I move forward.

Since my major is nursing, I’ve decided to tackle the health disparities in St. Louis. The health disparities problems facing St. Louis are emphasized by two factors: division between the city and county and extreme racial segregation. St. Louis is one of the most segregated metropolitan areas in the United States. Racial and ethnic health inequities seem to be what we are currently facing in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis. This includes equitable healthcare access, mental health disparities, heart disease, and cancer disparities. Social determinants play a key factor in the quality of healthcare. Health is affected by education, housing, access to health care, food security, and employment. This is highly important because it can have a significant impact on our daily lives. The questions that arise from my observations are, are there any adequate resources available that people may not be aware of, and if so how are healthcare providers, community organizations, and programs collaborating to reduce and promote these disparities? What interventions/tools are in place to address them.? To approach this, I would focus on engaging with the community, implementing accessible health programs, upholding policies, and ensuring funding is available. The method I intend to use in my project would be a distribution map or website. I also wouldn’t mind creating an organization to help others better understand its impacts on local individuals in the community.

Observation, background, context

I am drawn to this topic since I’ve always found the digital divide between race, age, and wealth to be very interesting. Most forms of technology feel simple to use, almost as an extension of my body, so when I see someone genuinely struggling to understand or use it, it’s interesting. Being aware of people’s lack of practice with a device, inability to use a piece of technology due to price, or technology being overly convoluted for someone to understand, is crucial to understanding the digital divide.

Problem

What causes the digital divide? My guess is the quarantine 4 years ago, as well as a person’s finance. As much as I’d like to say using technology is easy, if you didn’t grow up with it, it’s rather tricky. With technology becoming more and more ingrained into society, it’s especially important that the ability to understand the tools that are used in day to day life is common knowledge.

Frame

I am approaching this problem as someone who has experienced the divide firsthand. Not only am I the person my family calls when some technology needs fixing, I taught a group of senior citizens how to use various Microsoft products over last summer. What I learned from teaching is that people that don’t understand the technology are overwhelmed by the interface, so when there are no search options, the rate at which a person can work is substantially slower (considering they have to click through every option to find what they are looking for.)

Example sources

According to the “St. Louis Digital Divide Summary,” “Based on the five key components of the digital divide, it is apparent that income-related issues
such as service and device affordability are key drivers of the digital divide for most residents in St. Louis.” A person can’t begin to understand something they can’t use. The article, “Conquering the St. Louis Digital Divide: New Report Outlines Steps Necessary to Bridge the Gap” states that, “Exacerbated by poverty, the report found that nearly half of all households in St. Louis City and County are affected by at least one aspect of the digital divide.” Once again highlighting that large part of the issue seems to be the inability to afford technology.

Proposed technology

I intend to use charts and graphs to put a picture to the digital divide, and then use a roadmap of steps I believe would lead to a solution of the problem.

Sources

(https://stlgives.org/digital-divide-new-report/)

(https://stlgives.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Digital-Divide-Summary-Report_22.pdf)

• Observation, background, context: Here you might talk about what drew your attention to this topic, what struck you as interesting about it, and/or any important context for the topic.
  
• I have recent visited the Saint louis science center, for the first time since i was young. The building and displays hadn’t changed too much, it was a very nostalgic trip all together. One thing in particular caught my eye though, Across the skybridge over the highway with the radar guns. (Fun fact, my father Bill Kingsley made the circuit boards for those radar guns, the ones they still use! Over 30 years ago when he worked at the science center.) Across that bridge, there are about 6 or 8 display cases, showing off various collections of different antiques. Random stuff like jade idols, jewelry, rock collections, all sorts of stuff. When I was there looking at those collections of interesting artifacts, I saw the placard which said these were only some of the collections the science center has in its possession.
  
• Problem: What problem or question arises from your observation?
  
  My question is, if the Science center has more interesting collections in storage, why do they only display some of them? Why dont they digitize these collections so they can be viewed even if the center does not have the display room?
  
• Frame: How are you approaching that problem? What’s your point of view?
  
  I would like to write a sort of call to action to prompt the Science Center to digitize their collections, so they can be viewed and enjoyed rather than just stored away somewhere.
  
• Example sources: Provide citations for one primary source (something that is direct evidence for the question you’re asking) and one secondary source (something that uses direct evidence to make an argument) that relate to your research question.
  
  Primary source: You searched for collections – Saint Louis Science Center
  The Science center’s current digitization efforts, show casing only some of their collections. I believe this shows they have the ability to digitize their collections.
  
  Secondary source: Historical Preservation using an Artec Spider 3D Scanner – Central Scanning -Explaining how 3d scanning is used in archeology. I believe this same technology can be adapted and used to 3d image the collections so they can be viewed in great detail online.
  
• Proposed technology: What tool or method do you intend to use in your project?
  
  The tool would be 3d scanning technology, there are various different programs which can take a serious of images and stich them together into 1 3d model.