Research+Project+Ideas

=Mini-research Project= The purpose of this project is to critically examine the impact of social institutions. For example, you may look at the role of media or fashion in shaping our values, beliefs, and behaviors, or you could look at a specific aspect of the media, say stereotyping, and its effects.

Please follow the scientific model as outlined in Chaffee, Critical Thinking:


 * · Identify an event or a relationship between events to be investigated
 * Gather information about the event (or events).
 * · Develop a hypothesis or theory to explain what is happening.
 * · Test the hypothesis or theory through experimentation.
 * · Evaluate the hypothesis or theory based on experimental results.
 * · Report your findings in a paper. There should be multiple drafts of the paper.

Grading rubric


 * · Clarity of question & appropriateness of hypothesis or theory
 * · Literature review
 * · Methodology/Design of study
 * · Data gathered
 * · Analysis of data
 * · Interpretation of data (conclusions)
 * · Writing: content, development, organization, mechanics & grammar

Results of your project will be presented the last Saturday (using a PowerPoint)

I. Stereotyping a. South Park family guy crash… b. Milk, Brokeback, c. He’s just not that into you

II. Myths & fairy tales and how that shapes our belief systems a. Cinderella, etc. b. Sleeping Beauty c. Beauty and the Beast

III. Films involving ethical judgments a. Lives of others b. Crash c. Seven

IV. Media: a. Critical analysis of media products like commercials.. b. Compare contrast news programs print media, television programs…compare news coverage on daily & Colbert w/ network TV and cable…cnn … c. Social networking d. Compare social networking sites….facebook and myspace… e. Role of social networking sites in your life -- critical analysis of social networking sites… access? Friends? f. Choice of what you post….(pix to display?)

V. Text messaging a. Different texts at different times for different purposes b. Log of messages sent…present examples … text analysis

VI. Fashion a. What do different styles of clothing convey? What images? What are the consequences? b. Values reflected in clothing

VII. Lesson to model – rubric questions or points to consider – design project – presentation – report posted on portfolio