I have been keeping in touch with my campus organization, AniMent. They were very helpful in trying to get some background information for my literature review and also to help me know more about what SCSU has done for Earth Day in the past and what their goals for the future are too. This project has really helped to open my eyes to the importance of Earth Day and taking care of our planet in general. I hope that the result of this project will increase campus awareness about Earth Day.
I am still in the process of completing my literature review. To be honest, it is a lot more work than I thought it would be but, I am still having fun doing it because I think the information is relevant and I enjoy learning more about it. My next step is to start the project proposal which I plan to do this week.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
blog due mon 4/6
1. Please let me know if you were able to find the information that I requested you add to your literature review, and if you have made revisions where necessary.
I was able to find most of the information that you requested I add to my literature review. Some of it was harder to find than others and took more effort but I think it will be worth it in the end so that my literature review is as complete as possible. I haven't yet made the revisions due to a test at the end of last week. My goal is to finish it up this week and make it ready for the due date.
2. Based on class discussions, are you going to write a research proposal or a project proposal to address your campus organization's multicultural issue or challenge? Why or why not?
I think a project proposal would be the best choice for my project because I don't think there is a need for research on the issue we are looking at. All the research needed for the issue can be represented in the literature review and no new information is really required.
I was able to find most of the information that you requested I add to my literature review. Some of it was harder to find than others and took more effort but I think it will be worth it in the end so that my literature review is as complete as possible. I haven't yet made the revisions due to a test at the end of last week. My goal is to finish it up this week and make it ready for the due date.
2. Based on class discussions, are you going to write a research proposal or a project proposal to address your campus organization's multicultural issue or challenge? Why or why not?
I think a project proposal would be the best choice for my project because I don't think there is a need for research on the issue we are looking at. All the research needed for the issue can be represented in the literature review and no new information is really required.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Research Progress Report
There isn't much to report on my research project this week. I have been talking with my organization more this week and continuing to gather information from them as well as from articles, books, and etc. I have also started to work on my literature review, which I believe is a component of this project, and its a little hard to get started on but with more time I'm sure it will become easier.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Earth Day and Its Precursors
Webber, David J. "Earth Day and Its Precursors: Continuity and Change in the Evolution of Mid twentieth-Century U.S. Environmental Policy." Review of Policy Research Vol. 25 Issue 4 (July 2008): 313-332.
This article looks at the formation of Earth Day in the 1970's and how public opinions of the current presidency and congress led them to reevaluate how they looked at and treated the environment in the United States. The article looks at the positive and negative effects of the establishment of Earth Day. While it looks to protect the environment and raise awareness to the citizens of the United States, many believe that it often belittles the real natural dangers the environment is in and doesn't put a more thoughtful approach to fix them.
The purpose of this literature review is to reexamine the importance of the Earth Day and to see if it really is all that positive on the environment of the United States. It uses previous information, that is all cited so others can read it as well, and analyzes it to see if it was helpful to the cause or not. I think it is to be used by everyone to raise awareness that just by having a day dedicated to celebrating the Earth, is not necessarily helping the environment out.
This is a qualitative study because it is more a complete description rather than looking at numbers or surveys. The researcher collects data by having in-depth interviews with people closely related to the topic. This way of collecting data is sound because it helps to show the different sides of the topic by talking to the most informed people on the topic.
I think this article violates the rule about avoiding emotional reasoning. I think the research would have been better examined and presented if the researcher didn't immediately say how he felt Earth Day had a negative connotation. It put a taint on the whole article and was hard to overlook and to examine the other side to make an informed opinion on my own.
This article looks at the formation of Earth Day in the 1970's and how public opinions of the current presidency and congress led them to reevaluate how they looked at and treated the environment in the United States. The article looks at the positive and negative effects of the establishment of Earth Day. While it looks to protect the environment and raise awareness to the citizens of the United States, many believe that it often belittles the real natural dangers the environment is in and doesn't put a more thoughtful approach to fix them.
The purpose of this literature review is to reexamine the importance of the Earth Day and to see if it really is all that positive on the environment of the United States. It uses previous information, that is all cited so others can read it as well, and analyzes it to see if it was helpful to the cause or not. I think it is to be used by everyone to raise awareness that just by having a day dedicated to celebrating the Earth, is not necessarily helping the environment out.
This is a qualitative study because it is more a complete description rather than looking at numbers or surveys. The researcher collects data by having in-depth interviews with people closely related to the topic. This way of collecting data is sound because it helps to show the different sides of the topic by talking to the most informed people on the topic.
I think this article violates the rule about avoiding emotional reasoning. I think the research would have been better examined and presented if the researcher didn't immediately say how he felt Earth Day had a negative connotation. It put a taint on the whole article and was hard to overlook and to examine the other side to make an informed opinion on my own.
Foster Children
Orme, John G. and Buehler, Cheryl. "Foster Family Characteristics and Behavioral and Emotional Problems of Foster Children: A Narrative Review." Family Relations Vol. 50 No. 1 (Jan. 2001): 3-15.
The research done in this studies mainly looks at the growing amount of children being placed in foster children and what the effects, whether positive or negative, are on the child. The objective of the article is to review data and better link it to a large number of foster children and their families so it can "provide the best possible basis for practice with foster families and children." It looks at things such as the difference between parenting, home environment, martial functioning, demographic characteristics, temperament, parent's mental health, and social support for foster children and the general population.
This article was neatly organized to make it easiest to understand. It started off with a vague description about foster children trends since 1982. It then goes to give a description of what constitutes a foster child and their family and it looks at the positive and negative aspects that are generally associated with it. It then talks about the different groups that the information came from that they're going to look at to analyze. It then goes into a detailed description of each topic they looked at for the general population compared to the foster families and children. It also contained a well laid out table that shows how which characteristics were associated with each study they looked at.
The purpose of the literature review in this article is to analyze and better link the studies done on foster children and their families so it can provide the best basis for comparison to foster children cases now a days. It is to be used by practitioners who work with foster children and their families on a daily basis.
I don't think this article really violated any critical thinking guidelines. It was very unbiased and attempted to look at all interpretations. It also defined the problem right away and then examine all the evidence they could find. The only thing I would say that could have possibly been violated was be willing to ask questions. The article poses no questions for the reader or allows people to question what is being said. I am sure that in their research and the formulation of this article they did ask questions though so I don't really think that that is relevant.
The research done in this studies mainly looks at the growing amount of children being placed in foster children and what the effects, whether positive or negative, are on the child. The objective of the article is to review data and better link it to a large number of foster children and their families so it can "provide the best possible basis for practice with foster families and children." It looks at things such as the difference between parenting, home environment, martial functioning, demographic characteristics, temperament, parent's mental health, and social support for foster children and the general population.
This article was neatly organized to make it easiest to understand. It started off with a vague description about foster children trends since 1982. It then goes to give a description of what constitutes a foster child and their family and it looks at the positive and negative aspects that are generally associated with it. It then talks about the different groups that the information came from that they're going to look at to analyze. It then goes into a detailed description of each topic they looked at for the general population compared to the foster families and children. It also contained a well laid out table that shows how which characteristics were associated with each study they looked at.
The purpose of the literature review in this article is to analyze and better link the studies done on foster children and their families so it can provide the best basis for comparison to foster children cases now a days. It is to be used by practitioners who work with foster children and their families on a daily basis.
I don't think this article really violated any critical thinking guidelines. It was very unbiased and attempted to look at all interpretations. It also defined the problem right away and then examine all the evidence they could find. The only thing I would say that could have possibly been violated was be willing to ask questions. The article poses no questions for the reader or allows people to question what is being said. I am sure that in their research and the formulation of this article they did ask questions though so I don't really think that that is relevant.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Google Tricks
The google trick I found the most helpful in my researching was to put quotes around the words I was searching so it would look for them as one. Without the quotes I got a ton of results and had a hard time finding ones that actually related to my topic. By putting the quotes around the search words I was able to find things that were more closely related to my topic and to cut the number of things I found by a considerable amount. I am glad I learned this trick, as I feel it will be helpful in future projects as well.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Research Progress Report
So far this week for my campus organization research project, I have sent a few e-mails back and forth with them but we still really haven't gotten very far. Our schedules seem to be always different but we are working on making them work together. I hope to have a good handle on my project and what I want to do before we leave for spring break.
On the other hand, I have been researching articles and books and it has been going very well. I am finding many results and trying to narrow it down now so I only have the most pertinent ones.
On the other hand, I have been researching articles and books and it has been going very well. I am finding many results and trying to narrow it down now so I only have the most pertinent ones.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Research Challenges
The biggest research challenge I am facing is being able to decide which sources and information I want to use. I have been finding a lot of sources and have been able to narrow it down a little bit but I am still stuck with a lot of possibilities. I think the best solution to the problem would be to spend more time on it and decide which sources work best for my topic and which ones are the most informative. The only thing I need is time. I'm hoping to work on this over the weekend, after this week of multiple tests and projects is finally over I will have the time to sit down and work out this challenge a little better.
Research Progress Report
I have talked with my organization only a couple times since I last posted a blog. I have been really sick the last couple of weeks so I haven't had a lot of time to get together with them and discuss things. I plan on putting in a lot of work next week to get caught up and feel like I am on top of things again. On the other hand, I have been researching articles, books, and etc. to better inform myself about my topic and have been having rather good luck with that. Hope to have more to report on next week. Sorry for the lack of progress.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Discussion #6
Visit the Great River Regional Library OPAC and search for materials on your topic. What features were the same, and which were different? How many results did you get through the Great River OPAC compared to the Miller Center OPAC? Were they the type of books that you expected? Why or why not?
When using the different OPAC search systems, I found the Great River OPAC easier to use becuase it was more like the one I had used in highschool and other places too. The only thing I found in common between the two was the search bar. Beyond that they were suprisingly different. I think the Miller Center OPAC was more thorough though and probably more helpful then the other one. I got many more results on the Miller Center OPAC which could potentially lead to finding more information. The search results I recieved are basically what I expected. I found more books on the Great Rivers OPAC and more articles and the like on the Miller Center OPAC.
When using the different OPAC search systems, I found the Great River OPAC easier to use becuase it was more like the one I had used in highschool and other places too. The only thing I found in common between the two was the search bar. Beyond that they were suprisingly different. I think the Miller Center OPAC was more thorough though and probably more helpful then the other one. I got many more results on the Miller Center OPAC which could potentially lead to finding more information. The search results I recieved are basically what I expected. I found more books on the Great Rivers OPAC and more articles and the like on the Miller Center OPAC.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Campus Organization
So I have decided to work the campus organization AniMent (Animal + Environment). The reason I chose this campus organization was because I am interested in those things and how people are finding ways to inform the community and others about it. I think it's an important issue that needs to be looked at a little closer if we want to keep what we have around.
I was in an environmental class last year and that is when I really got interested in this topic. We learned things from pollution rates to specific animals on the endangered species lists and etc. I was never really interested in it before that class but afterwards I have tried to keep tabs on both topics in the news and everything else. I think this campus organization is important and it seems like they have a couple ideas of how they would like to address multi-cultural issues.
We haven't made much contact back and forth so we are still deciding on the finer points of the project and the semester ahead. I have explained the project to them and they are eager to have someone help them figure out a way to address the issues they have come up with. I hope that I am able to learn more information through them and the project about these topics. I also hope that I am able to do my part in helping them to achieve their goal of informing more people too.
Without this project, I would have probably never gotten involved with a campus organization due to being shy. I am glad I have this push from a class to make me do something I wouldn't have before.
I was in an environmental class last year and that is when I really got interested in this topic. We learned things from pollution rates to specific animals on the endangered species lists and etc. I was never really interested in it before that class but afterwards I have tried to keep tabs on both topics in the news and everything else. I think this campus organization is important and it seems like they have a couple ideas of how they would like to address multi-cultural issues.
We haven't made much contact back and forth so we are still deciding on the finer points of the project and the semester ahead. I have explained the project to them and they are eager to have someone help them figure out a way to address the issues they have come up with. I hope that I am able to learn more information through them and the project about these topics. I also hope that I am able to do my part in helping them to achieve their goal of informing more people too.
Without this project, I would have probably never gotten involved with a campus organization due to being shy. I am glad I have this push from a class to make me do something I wouldn't have before.
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