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Middle School Research Assignments

Instructors
Joe Cyr
Mrs. Julia Cronin
Tulani Gant
Term
2019-2020 School Year
Department
7th & 8th Grade
Description

7th and 8th graders have two researches during the school year. The first round of researches will be presented in December. Research Night will be May 6th.

Research is broken down into weekly assignments that are due every Thursday.

 

 


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Past Assignments

Due:

Assignment

This week students are focusing on finding background information to support their research topic.  As they go through the research process, they should be tracking where they are getting their information from and continuing to come up with additional questions to drive the research process.  We are also encouraging students to start brainstorming visual ideas early in the process.  They have a place in their notebook specifically for this process.

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Assignment

This week you should finalize your topic for Research Night.  In addition to the topic, you will need to generate a minimum of 5 questions and find 3 sources to support your topic.

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Assignment

This week you will need to narrow down your research night project to two topics.  Your job is to do some background research on BOTH topics.  No need to take notes but you should keep the following in mind when you are doing your reading:
  • Am I interested in studying this topic, will I stay interested in it until May?
  • Is there enough information available and can I understand it?
  • Can I create a critical question from this topic?
  • Is it broad enough/narrow enough to allow me to go in-depth and gather 100+ notes?
  • Will I be able to create informative and appealing visuals?
 
 

Due:

Assignment

This week you should have five potential topics for research night.  Once you have determined what those 5 topics are, you will need to write a paragraph for EACH topic, explaining why you are interested in in researching it.
 
Some things to consider when choosing your topics:
Will I be able to have SUSTAINED interest in this topic?
Is this something that I don't know much about and will be able to research?
Is it broad enough that I'll be able to get enough information, is it narrow enough that I can go in depth?
Will I be able to create interesting and informative visuals?
***Will I be able to come up with a critical question?***

Due:

Assignment

Research Presentations will be the week of December 9-13!  All work should be completed and students prepared to present their information during this week.

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Assignment

By the end of Thanksgiving Break, you should have 90% of your information represented by your visuals.  On Wednesday, December 4th, we will conduct a Peer Review of your visual display.  It is strongly recommended you do not mount any of your visuals on your trifold board until after the peer review.

Due:

Assignment

By the end of the week, you should have 50% of your research visuals completed and the other 50% planned out/rough draft format.  You should aim to have all of your visuals completed by the end of Thanksgiving break.
 
There will be an after school research workshop this Wednesday from 3:00 until 4:30.
 
Now is a great time to make sure you have your trifold board!

Due:

Assignment

By now, you should have completed 3-5 visuals and created 3-5 more rough drafts.

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Assignment

This week students have three things to work on:
 
1.  Continue working on areas where you need to take additional notees
2.  Create a storyboard for your research - figure out what will go where on your trifold board.
3.  Create 3-5 rough draft visuals
 

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Assignment

10/31 – Gap Analysis, Develop Outline

During this week you are going to see what you know and what information you still need to find.  By Thursday, you will have created an outline that organized your material by subtopic.  You will have categorized your notes by subtopic and begun brainstorming ideas for visuals for each of your subtopics.  You should begin to create a storyboard for your tri-fold board.

Due:

Assignment

This week should be spent answering the rest of the questions you have generated.  By the end of the week, you should have about 90% of your notetaking complete and nearly 100 notes.  You may still have some unanswered questions, but don’t worry, you’ll have the next few weeks to organize and finish up the notes.

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Assignment

 

10/17 – Notetaking #2

This week you want to delve a little deeper into the questions you have formulated.  You may find that during the previous week of notetaking, you came up with even more questions!  During this week, you should aim to answer 2-3 of your questions and have a minimum of 30 additional notes.

Notes can be taken by hand or can be recorded on the computer.  As before, it is important that sources must be cited and notes must be taken in their own words - not copied directly from the source material.  Remember that all your work needs to be kept in your research notebook.  One question/page - this will give you space if you come back and want to add more information!

By the end of this week, you should be just about halfway done with your notetaking for this research cycle!