Exercise 1.5 - 10/28/13

For this exercise, I will be determining my research question and whether it will lead to a successful project.  This will include a brief proposal that outlines my research plan.  I may change my mind or change the inquiry question later once I start researching.

For step 1, I will be determining my inquiry question on the topic that I plan to research.

Step 1: Inquiry Question
What is the relationship between dogs and law enforcement?

For step 2, I will be determining the primary purpose to explore and argue this inquiry question by asking more questions that will help in the research process and finding a hypothesis and/or a tentative main claim.

Step 2: Primary Purpose
Explore -
What kind of training do K-9 dogs go through?
How often are K-9 dogs used?
Why are dogs used in law enforcement?
What kind of dogs are used in law enforcement?
When do K-9 dogs start training?
When were dogs first used in law enforcement?  Who thought of this idea?
Do K-9 dogs suffer abuse of any kind?
Argue -
I do not know enough about this topic to adequately give a theory, hypothesis, or tentative thesis about this subject until I know more about it.

For step 3, I will be including any prior knowledge that may be based on personal experiences or mindsets and any previous or current thoughts about this topic.

Step 3:
Without knowing much about this topic, one of my previous beliefs is that dogs are used to help police hunt down criminals and sniff out illegal substances.  I still believe that is true today, but I want to know why they began using dogs in the first place and who thought of the idea.  Also, when I was in public high school, there were a few times when the police would do random locker searches and bring in K-9 dogs to search for any drugs that may have been stored in the lockers.  There were a couple times when the dogs did find drugs hidden in the lockers and those students were arrested and taken to the police station.  I have also seen TV shows such as NCIS that show depict scenes where K-9 dogs are used to smell out drugs and to follow the scent of the criminals in order for the police to find them.  This is the only kind of experience and preconceptions of using dogs in law enforcement, and I want to know more about the history of it and everything that goes into making a dog suitable for K-9 status.
 

Exercise 1.1 - 10/25/13

This exercise is a way for breaking out of the "I can't think of anything" mindset and embrace brainstorming.  It is helpful in thinking about anything and everything in order to get ideas down and out of your head, and it does not matter if you know about it or you just want to know about it.  This will help you find something that interests you or makes you ask questions about it.  These ideas do not have to be censored, nor does it have to make sense to others, as long as you understand it.

For the first step, I will be brainstorming a list of ideas under my choice of four of these specific categories:  places, trends, things, technologies, people, controversies, history, jobs, habitats, and hobbies.  These ideas will come from what I think I know and what I might want to know about the category. 

Step 1:
Places -
Hawaii
Europe
Paris
Italy
Tokyo
Chile
Alaska
Zoo
National Parks
Cruise Ship
Police Station
Fire Station
Australia
New Zealand
Sydney Opera House
Tennessee
Florida
Disneyworld
Disneyland
SeaWorld
Bahamas
Thailand
Dominican Republic
Costa Rica
Africa
Amazon Rainforest
Niagara Falls
Seven Wonders of the World
What country has the prettiest landscape?
What country is the richest?
Which is the poorest?

Trends -
Brands
Clothing
Shoes
Food
Sports/Sport teams
Animals
Family Vacations
What makes something popular?
Why are people obsessed with sports?
Does culture affect trends and popularity?
Music
College
Board Games
iPhones
Celebrities
Wikipedia
Nutrisystem
Energy Drinks
Caffeine
Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Instagram
Sports Cars
Antique Cars
GMO crops
Organic Food
Health Conscious

Jobs -
Veterinarian
Physical Therapist
Neurosurgeon
Doctor
Musician
Rancher
Zoo Keeper
Scientist
Dentist
Garbage man
Police Officer
Interior Decorator
Coach
Athletic Director
Athlete
Congressman
Nurse
Factory Worker
Electrician
Estimator
Ice Fisher
Truck Driver
Postal Worker
Dog Trainer
Park Ranger
Firefighter
Nanny
Baker

Hobbies -
Sports
Photography
Cooking
Scrapbooking
Movies
Friends
Hiking
Sight-seeing
Bird Watching
Star-gazing
Gardening
Art
Why do people have hobbies?
Do people only have hobbies because they like them?
Are hobbies coping mechanisms?
Travelling
Collecting Items
Reading
Music
What makes people like doing these things?
What is classified as a hobby?

For step 2, I am choosing a topic that interests me the most out of the four lists I have previously brainstormed.

Step 2:
Animals

For step 3, I am generating a list of questions that I want to explore about this topic.

Step 3:
What training do drug dogs go through?
Why are animals becoming endangered so fast?
What factors cause animals to become extinct?
How can animals tell emotions in humans?
Why do people abuse animals?
Do different breeds of animals have specific problems or benefits?
Why are horses my favorite animal?
How do I train a dog?
How can I train a horse?
Can animals understand words?
Do animals have their own languages?
Can different types of animals understand each other?
Why do celebrities keep exotic animals as pets?
Why do people smuggle exotic animals?
How did animals evolve on Galapagos Island?
Are all animals colorblind?

Exercise #1 10/23/13

This first exercise stated in Curious Researcher is a fastwrite, meaning you write down whatever comes to mind in three minutes without stopping.  This exercise helps the writer to think through writing rather than before, which lets the words on the page lead you to what you want to say. 

For the first step, I will be doing a fastwrite on a statement that has to do with the research paper assignment.  I will be asking myself questions while I write and trying to answer them.  The questions will include:  Why do I think it is true or false?  Where did I get these ideas?  Is there a logic behind my beliefs?  What might that be?  This is a statement that I believe is false:  You can't use the pronoun "I". 

Step 1:  I feel like you should definitely be able to use the pronoun "I" in your writing because it helps the readers understand your viewpoint in an academic argument.  However, because of always being taught not to use, I have never actually used it in papers for high school because one, they are not academic writings, and two, because I was not supposed to put in personal experience.  All of the papers I had to write in high school were open-ended topic wise, but I was given a strict set of rules to follow and that hindered my ability to add in any form of creativity, and I think that's why I never actually liked writing.  I wish I was given more freedom in my writings so I could actually use "I" and put in my own personal experience because some of my papers would have flowed better and understood easier with the addition of my personal experiences and opinions.

For the second step, I will be doing another fastwrite, but this one is more focused on how I see facts, information, and knowledge and how they are created.  I will first start by writing whether I agree or disagree and then explore why.  I will be looking for concrete connections between what I think and what I have seen or experienced.

Step 2:  I completely agree that people are entitled to their own opinions and no one opinion is better than another.  I have always had personal opinions about topics that have been argued about with others because they do not see things the way I see them.  they have a completely different opinion on the topic and there are times where I do not see where they are coming from either.  Each person has his or her own beliefs and they have them because of their personal worldviews and their own experiences that they have gone through to gain these opinions.  Every story is different and sometimes it is hard to see things from other people's perspectives.  However, I feel that it is necessary to try and put yourself in the other person's shoes because then you can expand your own worldview by seeing what it is that they see.