Research Paper Fun

To accomplish the task students will need to do the following in groups of two or three students:

   1. First you need to pick a topic of interest in the school or community
          * examples of topics:
                * finding out where the lunch food comes from and its nutritional value; are there better food choices the school can make?
                * Bullying in school how harmful is it?
                * what are the school's policies regarding inclusion; are all students getting the best education they can get?
                * how many people in the community recycle?
                * how diverse is the community you live in?  What is being done in your community to bring diversity?


Still having trouble picking a topic? Go to websites such as Clusty, Google, and Dogpile and search for topics that are meaningful to you, your partner, and your community or school.


2. Once you have the topic you wish to research you will then submit your topic for approval; this is to make sure your topic is school appropriate and also to make sure that a good amount of research can be done on the topic.


3. Once the topic submitted has been approved, then you will be able to start your school and community research.


4. Each day over a six week period you will be given time to collect data, interview people significant to your topic, and write your ideas and thoughts down on paper.

          * Collect data in at least three of the following ways; you must use book research as one of your ways:
                * interviews with students, teachers, and members of the community
                * book and internet research
                * observations
                * surveys
                * mass media texts such as magazines, brochures, or Web pages
                * primary source research with a person connected to the topic

If you are having trouble finding collecting data search the web for effective skills!

Make sure you are researching ethically and siting sources!

5. After you have done a substancial amount of researching through books and at least two of the other sources provided above, then you and your group will be responsible for putting your collected information into a formal research paper collaboratively.


6. Go to each of the following websites for more information on research papers and take notes on information that you are not familiar with--issues with the research paper and any questions raised during your process of writing the paper will be discussed in class if need be.
Note Taking Ideas   http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetaking.systems.html
Research Skills  http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/Classes/Science/Research.html 
Grammar  http://www.etsu.edu/scitech/langskil/grammar.htm  
Research Paper Guide   http://www.aresearchguide.com/ 
MLA Documentation  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ 


7. After you have completed your research paper you will then produce a text that can be distributed to the community that deals with the issue you and your group have researched.  You will be raising awareness on the issue to your school and community by distibruting the information in one of ways listed below.

          * Please choose one of the following ways to distribute your research text:
                o letters to organizations such as Channel One
                o create brochures for health offices
                o letters to the newspaper
                o article for the school newspaper
                o documentary that can be shown to the school

Here are links that will help you in your process of research text distribution--choose the site that matches your choice of distrubution:
Writing Letters to the Editor  http://homeworktips.about.com/od/politicalscience/ht/lettertoeditor.htm
Creating a Documentary http://www.ehow.com/how_2002129_make-a-documentary.html  
Making a Brochure?   http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/16873/advertising/a_quick_guide_to_making_a_great_brochure.html  
Contact Channel One http://www.channelone.com/static/contact/ 
Writing an Article? http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/media/writing101/tensteps.htm  


8.  At the end of the group research paper and group product each student will fill out a group evalation form.
Group Evaluation Form  http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/peereval.htm