Research Strand of Challenge A and IEW

Don't leave your hard work in IEW behind! Bring it with you into the Research Strand of Challenge A.

Every week students will get the opportunity to do Research on a topic of their choice. A general science topic will be assigned, such as Amphibians or Invertebrates. The student will narrow down the topic into a more specific category i.e amphibians to an even more specific category like frogs. Andrew Puduew says, "Hands off content. Hands-on structure and style." For those who used sources texts for most of their IEW careers choosing your topic and sources will be new. Students love the freedom of picking their specific topics. They dig for interesting, obscure and shocking facts to write about.

In the midst of their newfound freedom sometimes students want to ignore all they have learned on how to write a research paper. Every week is basically an IEW Unit 6 paper. The goal after 3 years of IEW is that student would have internalized how to do a Unit 6 paper but alas they still forget. Frequently my student would enthusiastically work on their research paper only to have me, the teacher, have to come back and do quality control. To help students remember how to write a Unit 6 paper and encourage them to use the skills they developed in IEW I create the attached template.

Let me walk you through the process.

1. Each week there will be an assigned Topic, such as Amphibians.

2. Your student with chose a subcategory like frogs. Make sure you discuss with your director how they have the kids go about this.

3. Next, your student will come home and need to find at least two sources* for writing a 1-3 paragraph paper. The length of the paper is determined by the tutor and teacher.

4. Students will then do a Key Word Outline (KWO) for each source.

5. They will pick 1-3 subtopics, depending on how many paragraphs they are writing. For example, frog eggs, frog habits, poisonous frogs. Finding these subtopics is a skill used in our Faces of History papers and Unit 7. (Do you remember "Cotton Balls" from your IEW DVD viewing!)

6. They will fuse their KWO and write a paragraph for each topic.

I found the skills that need reminding and practicing are:

• Clear topic sentences
• Completing a paragraph with a clincher
• Adding dress ups, decorations, and sentence openers in a natural way. ( I don't require an exact number but encourage the continued practice of these elements.)
• Making sure bibliography information is collected and noted properly.

Most students want to work as independently as possible so the template I created is designed to help guide and remind them. Ideally, they will internalize the process and only need a sheet a paper. I recommend using the template for the first 4-6. Then move your student to a piece of paper as they prove they can follow the process.

One final note about sources. Talk to your director about acceptable sources. Most directors want at least one book as a source and will allow one online source. There are 2 life skills your student can learn while doing the work for this strand.

1. How to use a library and good old fashion books. Take a trip to the library and teach them how to look information up and chose a good source. If you have a good collection of resources at home make them pull the books off the shelf and read.

2. Online researching - this is a huge life skill and something we need to teach our kids. Before classes start, sit down with your student, and bookmark some credible sites. Help them to understand what makes the site credible for the research they are doing. Just Googling a topic is not research.

In the comments post links to any good sites you know for the Research Stand of Ch A. Let's share our wealth of knowledge!