TPO 13
Conversation 1
Professor：
Good afternoon, Alex, can I help you with something?
Student：
Well, I want to talk with you about the research project you have assigned today. I um…I hope you could clarify a few things for me.
Professor：
I'll certainly try.
Student：
Ok, all we have to do is do two observations and take notes on them, right?
Professor：
Ur, that's the start, but you need to do some research, too. Then you will write a paper that is not so much about the observations, but a synthesis of what you have observed and read.
Student：
Ok….And what about the children I am suppose to observe?
Professor：
Not children, a single child observed twice.
Student：
Oh…Ok, so I should choose a child with a permission of a child's parents of course and then observed that child a couple of times and take good notes, then?
Professor：
Actually after your first observation, you go back and look through your textbook or go to a library and find a few sources concerning the stage of development, the particular child is in. Then, with that knowledge, you will make the second observation of the same child to see if these expected developmental behaviors are exhibited.
Student：
Can you give me an example?
Professor：
Well, en, if you observed a 4 year-old child, for example, my daughter is 4 years old; you might read up on cushy stage of cognitive development we covered those in class.
Student：
Aha…
Professor：
And most likely, what stage would a child of that age be in?
Student：
Um… the pre-operational stage?
Professor：
Exactly, if that's the case, her languages used to be maturing and her memory and imagination would be developed.
Student：
So she might play pretend like she can pretend when driving her toy car across a couch that the couch is actually a bridge or something.
Professor：
That is right. In addition, her thinking would be primarily egocentric.
Student：
So she would be thinking mostly about herself and her own needs, and might not be able to see things from anyone else perspective.
Professor：
En hums…
Student：
But what if she doesn't? I mean, what if she doesn't demonstrate those behaviors?
Professor：
That's fine; you'll note that in your paper. See, your paper should compare what is expected of children at certain stages of development with what you actually observed.
Student：
Ok, I have one more question now.
Professor：
What's that?
Student：
Where can I find a child to observe?
Professor：
Ur, I suggest you contact the education department secretary. She has a list of contacts at various schools and with certain families who are somehow connected to the university. Sometimes they are willing to help out students with projects like yours.
Student：
Ok, I'll stop by the educational department office this afternoon.
Professor：
And if you have any trouble or any more questions, feel free to come by during my office hours.
TPO 13 Lecture 1
City planning
Narrator：Listen to the lecture in the city planning class.
Professor：
In the last 15 years or so, many American cities have had difficulties inmaintaining a successful retail environment. Business owners in the citycenters or the downtown areas have experienced some financial losses,because of the city movement of the people out of the city and then intosuburbs. In general, downtown areas, just don’t have that many residential
areas, not that many people live there. So what did city planners decide to doabout it? While, one way they’ve came up with the some ways to attract morepeople, to shop downtown was by creating pedestrian malls.
Now, what is a pedestrian mall? It’s a pretty simple concept really, it isessentially an outdoor shopping area designed just for people on foot. And…well, unlike many of other shopping malls that are built in suburb nowadays,these pedestrian malls are typically located in the downtown areas of the city.And there are features like white sidewalks, comfortable outdoor sitting andmaybe even for tens---UN…you know art. There are variations on this model ofcourse, but the common denominators are always an idea of creating ashopping space that will get people to shop in the city without needing theircars. So I am sure you can see how heavy an area that off-limits to automobiletraffic would be ideal for heavily populated city where, well, the streets willotherwise be bustling with noise, unpleasant traffic congestion. Now theconcept which originated in Europe was adopted by American city planners inthe late 1950s. And since then, a number of Unites States’ cities have createdthe pedestrian malls. And many of them have been highly successful. So whatdoes city planner learns about ** these malls succeed?
Well, there are two critical factors to consider when creating the pedestrianmalls--- location and design. Both of which are equally important. Now let'sstart with location. In choosing a specific location for pedestrian mall, there arein fact two considerations. Proximity to potential customers, UN…that's we'llcall it customer base and accessibility to public transportation which we will getinto just a moment. Now, for a customer base, the most obvious examplewould be a large office building since the employees could theoretically goshopping after work or during their lunch hour, right? Another really goodexample is convention center which typically has a hotel and large meetingspaces to draw visitors to the city for major business conferences and events.But ideally, the pedestrian malls will be used by local residents, not just peopleworking in the city or visiting the area. So that's where access to the publictransportation comes in, if… if the designer planed to locate the malls in centraltransportation hub, like bus terminal, a major train, subway station or they workwith city officials to create sufficient parking areas, not too far from the mall,which make sense because people can drive into the mall area or then theyneed easy access to it.
OK, so that's location, but what about design? Well, design doesn't necessarilyinclude things like sculptures or decorative walkways or… or even eye catching window displays, you know art. Although I bet the first to admen thosethings are ascetically appealing, however, visually pleasing sights, while thereare not a part of pedestrian malls design that matter than most. The keyconsideration is a compact and convenient layout. One which allowspedestrians to walk from one end of the mall to the other in just a few minutes,so you can get the major stores, restraints and other central places withouthaving to take more than one or two turns. Now, this takes a careful uncreativeplanning.
But now what if one ingredient to this planning recipe is missing? There couldquite be possibly long lasting effects. And I think a good example is pedestrianmall in the Louisville Kentucky for instance. Now when the Louisville mall wasbuilt, it has lots of visual appeal, it was attractively designed, right in the smallpart of downtown and it pretty much possessed other design elements forsuccess. But now, here is my point about location comes into play. Therewasn't a convention center around to help joining visitors and was the onlynearby hotel eventually closed down for that same reason. Well, you canimagine how these malls affected local and pedestrian malls business owners.Sort of what was we called it a chain reaction. It wasn't until a conventioncenter and a parking garage was built about decades later that malls started tobe successful.
