Research/Technology DIGEST 2

[Monica Biswas]

Message 1:
From: "Mowry, Donald D." <dmowry at uwec.edu>

There are some good web resources that I share with college students--I am 
sure there a similar sites for high school. Another way would be to get 
them excited about a topic they are interested in and actually DO research 
on the topic as a group and produce a report or some other product (such 
as a presentation). For example, is downloading music for free fair to the 
persons who authored, produced, distributed, and sold the music as CD's?
------------------------------

Message 2:
From: Gayle Orange <gayle.orange at campfireusawmc.org>

Hi All,
Camp Fire USA has Middle School service-learning curriculum - A Gift of 
Giving that includes research methods with an end result - the service 
project.  Youth are engaged in the learning process.   The beauty of the 
curriculum is the process that youth go through to select a service 
learning project.  The brainstorming, research, reflection, cooperative 
learning and all the steps that are necessary to make decisions are 
included.   Level 1 is 6th grade and Level 2 is designed for 7th and 8th 
grades.  Check National Camp Fire USA website.  http://www.campfireusa.org
------------------------------

Message 3:
From: "Rachel Kimboko" <rkimboko at edc.org>

Corey,
Why not use the YouthLearn materials to have the students guide their own 
research question? While the process is pretty simple, it allows for 
really deep exploration of questions that interest the youth. You could 
end actually stretch the process out for a semester, I'd imagine ... first 
a session or two on identifying meaningful questions, then a few weeks 
doing research and refining their questions (maybe with some 
learning/discussion about evaluating information or using "primary 
resources"), then a few weeks preparing a presentation or poster, and a 
fun culminating event like a "poster session" at a research conference 
where friends and family -- or just each other -- ask questions about what 
the student has learned.

If you are allowed to let students follow their own interests, then they 
might conclude that research and exploration are lots of fun. Wouldn't 
that be cool!

Here are some links that I'd start with:
* http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/teaching/questions.asp
* http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/howto.asp

Best of luck! Feel free to contact me offlist if you want to talk more.

Rachel

o~~~o~~~o~~o~~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o~~~o

Rachel Kimboko
Research/Development Associate
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street, Newton MA  02458
rkimboko at edc.org     (v) 617.618.2626     (f) 617.332.4318
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Message 4:
From: "Patty Schmidt" <pschmidt at numbersix.com>

Nothing very innovative, but here are some subject areas to cover:
-Library skills (how to look up and find what you want at the library 
-they may even have a class developed that they could share with you)
-effective searching on the Internet (using boolean searching and 
selecting effective descriptors to get the best results) narrowing or 
broadening depending on results
-evaluating the validity/reliability of information you find, citing 
references 
-note taking from your research and organizing what you've found into 
appropriate 'chunks' of information

to teach Internet searching skills to our adult community ed class, we 
used a scavenger hunt approach - give the students a list of things to 
find out, and let them work in small groups to find the answers - kind of 
an online trivial pursuit.
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Message 5:
From: "Smith, Robin" <smithr2 at ocps.k12.fl.us>

The Big6 is a skills approach to information and problem solving that 
offers some research tips, lessons ,etc. that you may find helpful. The 
website www.big6.com would be a good place to start.  I work with middle 
school students integrating futures studies with research and information 
management. To get the students interested in research, I ask that they 
select an issue or topic they are concerned about especially in their 
futures. From that students are introduced to tools used to forecast and 
prepare for future possibilities. Some examples of tools are: 
environmental scanning, trend analysis, futures wheels and scenario 
writing. The student then apply the future tools and conduct generative 
research on their issue with scenario writing as a conclusion to their 
research.=20

Robin Smith
Information/Futures Resource
Corner Lake Middle School
1700 Chuluota Rd
Orlando, FL 32820
407.568.0510 ext. 227
"At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for 
all our national problems - the answer for all the problems of the world - 
comes to a single word. That word is 'education'." President Lyndon B. 
Johnson=20

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