English 222

Oct. 3 In Class Activity, HW for Oct. 5

During class, you will research various topics related to your field.  The first step is to go to http://dir.yahoo.com/ and identify the topic that best describes your field and then click on that link.  For instance, if your field is education you would click on the education link.  After you do this, you should narrow your field down more.  For instance, in education, if you were interested in K-12 education, you would click on this link.  Then, if you are interested in teaching, you would click on this link.  Then, if you are interested in classroom management, you would click on this link.  Using this example, you would find a list of resources related to this topic.

While you are doing this, you should jot down notes of interesting sites, ideas, topics, etc.  You can open a MS word document and write these ideas down or cut and paste interesting information.

Once you have used Yahoo as a resource in this way, search various ideas/phrases/topics you found interesting in three other search engines.  Here is a list of some possible search engines:

http://www.dmoz.org/
http://www.altavista.com/
http://www.google.com/
http://www.lycos.com/
http://www.ask.com/
http://www.dogpile.com/
http://search.msn.com/
http://www.excite.com/
http://www.webcrawler.com/

In your MS Word, jot down more ideas of interesting sites, ideas and/or topics.

This class activity is not designed for you to come up with sources.  It is to help you narrow down and think about what you would like to research about.

HW:
Come up with a list of 5 topics based in your field that you really want to research.  Formulate the topic into a question.  Instead of “Gas Prices”, for example, write: “Why are gas prices so high?”  For each topic question, explain why this is important to your field and why it is an issue in society right now.  For example:

List of 5 topics

1) “Why are Gas Prices so High?”
This question is important to my field, economics, because gas prices reflects global growth and demand for energy.  It is especially important right now because recent events have shown that our dependency on oil and gas affects our economy.

2) “What cause stock market crashes?”
This question is important to my field because the stock markets reflect the health and emergence of various financial systems.  This is important right now because the stock market has undergone crashes, booms and recessions that have affected our economy.

3) “Do tax breaks help the wealthy or the poor?”
This question is important to my field because knowing the results of tax breaks help economists make assessments in terms of whether they are needed or not.  It is especially important right now because of the controversies surrounding Bush’s decisions about tax breaks.

4) “Can we predict global markets?”
This question is important to my field because predications and whether they are possible affect what recommendations economists make.  It is important right now because the move to a global economy.

5) “Will interest rates go up?”
This is important to my field because interest rates affect various markets.  It is important right now because the Fed keeps raising interest rates.

The above is just an example to help you…your list of questions, etc, must be your own based on your field.  After you have done this list, post it as a comment to this message.

posted by Melissa @ 10:54 AM