The behavior I observed matched the types of groups that people sat with when studying and socializing by the lake in the cafeteria by Langdon. I chose to observe this behavior for two reasons. First, as I sat by the lake in the Langdon Cafeteria on Wednesday, November 20, I began to take note of the people around me. I spend a lot of time at Memorial Union doing homework, studying, meeting people, eating lunch, and generally relaxing. I find the combination of open study spaces, dining options, and quiet study areas to be a great combination for increasing productivity without feeling like you're stuck in a cluttered library. I was curious about people's interactions in this area and whether they were similar to mine or different. After about thirty minutes, I noticed that there were people sitting alone and others sitting in groups. I started to notice that men were sitting with men and women were sitting with women, for the most part. I wasn't sure if this was an exemption or if it was some sort of social norm and cafeteria rule. Initially, I wanted to observe the types of activities people were doing at the lake in the Langdon Cafeteria, but by the end of my unstructured observation, I realized it was difficult to determine exactly what actions people were doing. were performing and that it was more interesting that people seemed to separate themselves based on gender. Second, I had never noticed this gender divide before and found it interesting. On most of my visits to the union, I am with at least one other person, sometimes of the same sex and sometimes not. I was curious if this behavior I was noticing was also just a one-time phenomenon or if it was a recurring trend. For these reasons, ...... middle of paper ...... port I stated that the "assumed race" of individuals was recorded in the comments section of the structured observation guide sheet. The reason this was added is because I could only guess what people's races were from an observational standpoint. I had to make generalizations, I could not determine 100% the real race of each individual. Racial classifications were general and may not be accurate. Although these two observation periods showed separation and segregation of groups based on race and gender, more observations should be conducted to create a general rule for how groups are divided. within the cafeteria. At different times of the day or different days of the week, the composition of groups can change dramatically. Two observations involving just over 100 people do not make it possible to generalize in a precise and definitive manner the way in which groups are constructed..