Research Paper Activities for Elementary & Secondary School

For this type of "connect activity" the students will write a research paper. Research is a very unique skill that teaches children to think on their own. It teaches them to gather, analyze, and report on information. “Rote memorization of facts will not do. There is too much to learn, and what is accurate and applicable today is erroneous and inappropriate tomorrow” (Horton, W. 2006).

In the book E-Learning by Design the author William Horton remarks that research could be classified as an “absorb activity” since it involves information. Also, it could be referred to as a “do-activity” because they are carrying out activities. Yet, the author Horton refers to research activities as “connect-type activities.” This is because the primary result is to connect learner to a universe of knowledge. This knowledge they will need to be successful in their lives.

In our technological world today knowing how to use the Internet provides access to large bodies of information. So that now the real meaning of education is giving people the tools they will need when they need it so they can manage and conduct research.

There are two main types of research activities, scavenger hunts and guided research. They are different in that scavenger hunts teach students to find reliable sources of information; whereas, the guided research teaches learners to extract conclusions from information. Within research, the learner thinks about a question, then gathers data, and then employs the data to answer questions or solve a problem.

Scavenger hunts are great practice for finding the most up-to-date and accurate information on the internet. It is a skill in itself to navigate through the document and obtain information from the database. It is best to keep the scavenger hunt simple, for example, five questions. The goal is to identify excellent sources of information to use in future research.

For example, if you are managing an educational internet scavenger hunt for fifth graders to use the internet as am academic research tool, you should first decide on a search engine. Chose a topic that is not too broad such as the influence of Anne Frank’s diary following World War II. When teaching, make a list of trustworthy websites that can be identified by .gov, .edu, etc. Next, create five in-depth questions such as: “When was Anne Frank’s diary published and what was society’s response to the diary?” This way students have to think about answers, not only memorize the facts. Plan on having a classroom discussion to share aloud their answers. Lastly, have them write a paragraph about what they learned to further reinforce learning and give you a way to evaluate their understanding.

Another type of research, guided research coaches students on performing learning on subject areas. The topic may be simple questions or a more complex topic. Learners then gather information, select applicable facts and organize the material. The assessment comes from the depth of research, truthfulness of facts and logic of organization.

New learners can be taught to work in teams, individually or as an entire class to begin to do informal research. This will help with writing skills later in their life. Guided research teaches us more of a way “to evaluate, select and organize information” (Horton, 2009). Information gathering uses scavenger hunts to teach how to accomplish this.

A few creative ideas on how to teach guided research include: different perspectives of a complex subject, a scrap book or “a day in the life of” a character who has contributed to the subject matter. To understand perspective assign a subject such as the sinking of the Titanic. Different perspectives would include: engineering, managerial, social, legal, historical, aesthetic, and scientific.

A scrap book can be a cutting and pasting of resources to be displayed as an art work. “A day in the life of” might be an admirable historical person or a typical person in a profession or social class. When it is a representative of a particular field of study ask students what characteristics helped make them this way.

Connect-activities in research should emphasize analyzing data and not simply collecting it. In this way, students can decipher fact from opinion when accessing multiple sources of information. Teachers should guide the research so as to assist in finding really reliable sources of information. Through research students learn to gather information, judge accuracy and evidence and fuse it all together into an intelligent argument and/or explanation.

Another idea is to have students “spot, analyze and express best practices in examples of excellent work in the field of study” (Horton, 2009). These could be from award winners, museum exhibits or matters cited by experts. Another idea is to have learners find the best example in a group or field and find what they have in common.

The idea behind connect-type activities is to connect new information students learn now to what they already know. In other words, they make connections to previous knowledge and integrate this into their daily lives. Constructivism is an older educational theory that gives us a theoretical framework to work with connect-type activities. Piaget, Vygotsky and others first stated:"constructivism learning theory is
defined as active construction of new knowledge based on a learner's
prior experience" (Koohang, Riley, Smith, & Schreurs, 2009, p.92).

The preceding writers thought e-learning should include: Conceptual interrelateness and intedisciplinary learnng, exploration, higher-order thinking skills, learner's driven goals and objectives, learner's own previous experiences, learner's self-mediating and control of learning, learner's self-reflection, real world and relevant examples, and scaffolding that can be used to make learners think above and beyond what they normally know. (Miron, C., 2011)

In conclusion, I have reviewed several methods of using “connect-type activities” to help students learn to connect to learning through research in elementary and secondary school. In addition, I have reviewed how historically, this is not a new idea, but first encouraged by Piaget, Vygotsky, and others.

References:

Horton, W. (2006). E-Learning by design. San Francisco: Wiley. P.194-202.

Koohang, A., Riley, L., Smith, T., & Schreurs, J. (2009). E-learning and constructivism: From theory to application. Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objectives, 5, 91-109.

Miron, C., PhD. (2011). EDU652:Instructional Design and Delivery Faculty Guidance Week 4 Overview.

Rajan, Sara (2011). E-How Family. Demand Media. How to Create an Educational Internet Scavenger Hunt for the Fifth Grade. Retrieved on August 14, 2011 from website: http://www.ehow.com/how_7762296_create-scavenger-hunt-fifth-grade.html.