Step+1-+Research

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 Researching is a lot like being a detective. Sorting through different sources is like uncovering clues. Each clue raises questions. Questions lead to more clues, and more questions. This pushes an investigation beyond one or two easy sources and forces you to keep looking for more information. Imagine you were given the year 1963 and the Main Event Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The first thing you find is a copy of the speech. After recording your source on NoodleBib, you read:

 “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.” *


 * Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968 [|http://www.mecca.org/~crights/dream.html]

 You realize these are pretty famous words. Do you know what they mean? Do you understand why they are remembered? How many people actually saw or heard the speech when it was delivered? What affect did it have in 1963? Did it change things? How? Why? What would have happened if King had never stepped to that platform in front of the Lincoln Memorial? Would racism be more obvious in America today? Would our lives be different?

 These are the types of research questions you will need to ask to investigate your year. The answer to each will raise more questions, forcing you to find more sources of information. To help you start your detective work we have developed some basic research questions to guide the exploration of the Main Event.

 Main Event Research Questions
  1) What are the essential facts of the main event?  a. What aspect(s) of PIGEARS did it represent?  b. When and where did it take place?  c. What happened?  d. Who were the important people involved?  e. Why did it happen? How did it come to be?  2) Why was it important?  a. Did it affect a different aspect of PIGSEARS? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> b. Did it affect another part of the world? How? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> c. Why is it memorable?

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> It is important to **not** limit yourself to these questions. Each year and event raises its own set of issues. If you were an archaeologist who found a treasure chest buried on your dig site, you would try to find a key to unlock that chest. That key is like a research question. Asking it unlocks more information. Each new discovery is like another locked box. The right question continues to unlock more treasure, more information.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Undercard
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> One of the more interesting features of The Biggest Dig is to uncover two other events or accomplishments that happened in your year. We will call those two happenings The Undercard. Ideally, Undercard events should represent different aspects of PIGSEARS and have occurred in a world region different from that of the Main Event. If the Main Event of your year has nothing to do with the Arts, one Undercard event should represent the art, literature and entertainment aspect of PIGSEARS.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Undercard Research Questions
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 1) What are the essential facts of each undercard event? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> a. What aspect(s) of PIGEARS did it represent? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> b. When and where did it take place? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> c. What happened? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> d. Who were the important people involved? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> e. Why did it happen? How did it come to be? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> f. Why is it memorable? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> If you search 1963, the year of Dr. King’s speech, for Undercard events, you will find out that The Beatles began their remarkable rise to the top of the charts in the United Kingdom that year. This is perfect because it fits the criteria for the Undercard. First, the Beatles were musicians and entertainers. That’s the Arts. Their success was based in England, a world region other than North America where Dr. King made history. That’s the second criteria. You’re now ready to apply research questions to The Beatles. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> You’re still not done mining the year for Undercard events, though. You now have to find something that represents an aspect of PIGSEARS other than Politics (Dr. King) and Arts (The Beatles) that occurred on a continent other than Europe and North America. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> As you investigate Africa, you learn that in the country of South Africa Nelson Mandela was sentenced to prison in 1963. Though this is interesting when compared to Dr. King’s wonderful dream, you think you can’t use it because it is a political event. If you dig a little deeper you find that Mandela was protesting a system called apartheid. This system allowed the white minority to treat all black Africans as second class citizens. It officially separated the two races into the oppressed (the blacks) and the oppressors (the whites). That’s Social Structure! It’s Ideas! It’s an Undercard gem! Because South Africa is yet another world region, you can research away to your heart’s content on Mandela, apartheid, and South Africa in 1963.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> That’s how the //Undercard// works. Do you dig it?

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Research Requirements
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> There are some basic requirements to keep in mind while you are doing all of this research. **A minimum of thirty-five note cards** (@ twenty for the Main Event an @ seven or eight for each Undercard) must be completed before you can begin to write your chapter. **A complete note card has responses to all of the requested elements**. Two sources from a research database (like Gale Resource Center), two from a library catalogue, two internet sites, and two reference books are required. That’s a minimum of eight sources in all. **You must use NoodleBib** to record these sources.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[[file:Research.doc]]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[[file:Research.pdf]]