Minds On

Analyzing images

In this learning activity, you are going to continue to develop your research skills. Let’s begin by examining the images in the carousel. Which one(s) interest you the most? Can you explain why? What questions do you have about these images?

You may wish to discuss what the images have in common. What is their common theme? What questions do you have about each image or theme?

Themes:

  • playing team sports
  • eating a well-balanced diet
  • regular exercise

Did you come up with any other themes?

What questions did you have about these images or themes? What do they all have in common?

If you concluded that these images and themes are related to your health in some aspect, you are correct! In this learning activity, you will be researching a topic belonging to the Grade 8 Health curriculum, Healthy Living strand.

Action

Research topic

Let’s begin by reviewing the steps involved in researching. Having a clear understanding of all the steps involved in research will help guide you through the process.

  • Brainstorm ideas
  • Narrow ideas
  • Develop an inquiry question
  • Create a timeline and plan

  • Search for reliable information or interview people with knowledge of the topic
  • Identify and use graphic and multimedia resources
  • Record sources used and information gathered in a form that makes it easy to understand and retrieve

  • Organize your ideas using a graphic organizer
  • Prioritize and refine your research
  • Present your findings

Step 1: Pre-Research

To get started, let’s review some of the expectations that fall under the Grade 8 Health curriculum, Healthy Living strand:

  • Decision-making skills, routines and habits for mental health, promoting healthy eating, and personal eating behaviours
  • assessing situations for potential danger, reducing risk of injuries and death, signs and symptoms of concussions, and impact of violent behaviours and supports, relationships and intimacy, society view and impacts of stigma
  • decisions about sexual activity and available supports, gender identity, expressions, sexual orientation, and self-concept

Brainstorm or mind mapping

Thinking about the Healthy Living strand, brainstorm the word “health” or a word or phrase connected to a topic using one of the mind map templates or a graphic organizer. This is to warm-up your brain to get your ideas rolling. Include any health-related topics you may wish to find out more about. Examine some of these examples to help you get started: fitness, balanced diet, nutrition, disease.

Narrow down your ideas

Next, you are going to narrow down your brainstorming ideas to help you choose a topic. Using your brainstorming ideas, choose a health topic you are most interested in learning more about. This will be your topic of research. You may choose a specific health-related topic or start with a broad health topic and narrow it as you go through this learning activity.

Complete the KWHLAQ chart in your notebook or use the following fillable and printable document to help you get started.

Fill in the first 3 columns as follows:

In the “What do I Know” column, include what you learned and remember about your topic.

In the “What do I want to know” column, ask questions you would like to find out more about in your research. Include higher order questions that address cause and effect and address concepts of significance or changing patterns over time. Ask for feedback from your teacher about your questions. Your teacher may guide you to rewording some of your questions and/or adding some additional questions.

In the “How do I find out” column, you can ask questions about how to find out more information to help you answer your questions in the 2nd column.
KWHLAQ Chart

Press the Activity button to access the KWHLAQ Chart.

Activity (Open PDF in a new tab)

Develop an inquiry question

Now it is time to develop your inquiry question. You will also be guided by research questions that are formed at the beginning of your process. As you search and discover more about your topic, you will need to revise your research questions.

Developing your inquiry question is just the beginning of the research process.

Your KWHLAQ chart may have questions relating to the 5Ws and 1H: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Use the following short two-question checklist to evaluate each of your questions in the What I want to know column of your KWHLAQ chart.

KWHLAQ Chart - 21st Century Style K - What do I know? W - What do I want to know? H - How do I find out? L - What have I learned? A - What action will I take? Q - What new question do I have?

Research questions checklist

  1. My research question is open-ended (allows for different answers).
  2. My research question requires me to compare, analyze, and/or draw conclusions using information or facts.

You may wish to complete the Research Questions Template in your notebook or use the following fillable and printable document to help you transfer your research questions from your KWHLAQ Chart to a table.

Research Questions Template
Question Open-Ended (allows for different answers) Y/N Requires me to compare, analyze, and/or draw conclusions (using information, facts) Y/N
Research Questions Template

Press the Activity button to access the Research Questions Template.

Activity (Open PDF in a new tab)

If you are not sure if your questions are open-ended, if possible ask your teacher for help and guidance.

Make sure you have at least one research question. Try formulating 1-3 research questions.

If not, reframe or reword 1-3 of your KWHLAQ questions so that you have at least one research question.

You may wish for you to leave this step and circle back to it after you’ve completed the Keyword and Search sections of this learning activity.

You may use the following table or any other format to reframe your questions in your notebook.

KWHLAQ Question

Reframing to a Research Question

(open-ended & requires me to compare, analyze, and draw conclusions using research information I gathered to answer)
1 (Blank)

Add your research question(s) to your (electronic or paper) KWHLAQ chart.

Come up with a single overall research question, called an inquiry question. Your other questions will fall under this single research question.

Inquiry question:

(Blank)(Blank)(Blank)(Blank)(Blank)

(write other sub-research questions below)

As you continue through this learning activity, you may need to come back to this part to change, clarify, modify, or narrow your inquiry question, as well as edit (add to or remove some of) your research questions that fall under your inquiry question.

If possible, your teacher will approve your inquiry question and check the related sub-research questions.

Create a timeline

Create a timeline now that you have a clear inquiry question. Planning your time will help you stay on track and meet important deadlines.

It is important to use a calendar to map out how much time you plan to spend on each research step.

What timeframe do you have to complete this task? Perhaps it is two weeks or perhaps one month. Regardless of the timeline, working backwards from the final due date will help you to meet your deadlines. Make sure to include all the research steps in your timeline.

There are many tools available to help you plan your time. You may choose to use a digital calendar, like the one on your computer or phone, or a traditional calendar, like the one in your agenda.

Step 2: Research

Use keywords and phrases for your searches

Part of research is to search for information to help answer your inquiry question. Searching for information is done using keywords.

You are going to practice using the word "health" as a keyword before generating your own keywords, and adjusting and readjusting your searches using synonyms or altering your search phrases, whether you use online and/or print resources.

Use the word “health” as a keyword to explore its definition. Use a thesaurus to find some synonyms. Use a Frayer Model graphic organizer for word origin/root words/definition in one quadrant, synonyms in another, antonyms in another, and examples of how the word is used in a sentence.

Jot Notes Template

Press the Activity button to access the Frayer Model Organizer.

Activity (Open PDF in a new tab)

You likely have come across many more ways to categorize topics and issues related to this one single keyword “health.”

In order to find the relevant information, sometimes we must adjust, change, and/or use more specific keywords, synonyms, or use multiple words or phrases.

If your inquiry question is “What influences our personal eating behaviours and how can we ensure they are and continue to remain healthy?” We need to change the key search word “teen health” to keywords like:

  • teen eating habits
  • factors affecting teen eating habits

To get more relevant results, maybe we add the word “Canada” or “Ontario” to get more specific information for you and your age group.

  • teen eating habits in Canada
  • factors affecting teen eating habits in Ontario

Using an electronic table like the following, in the first column, generate a list of keywords and alternative keywords (synonyms) and/or phrases to use in your searches (leave the other two columns for now).

You can complete the Jot Notes Template in your notebook or use the following fillable and printable document to help you get started.

Jot Notes Template
Clustered by keywords (synonyms, phrases)

Subtopic(s)

 Search Results (containing/ relating to keywords/ phrases)

(jot notes - no sentences, use “ ” if quoting the source directly)

 Citing Sources (find more than 1 source)
possible subtopics

1.

2.

3.

 Source Type: website / book / podcast / other

Title:(Blank)

Author/ Producer:(Blank)

Jot Notes Template

Press the Activity button to access the Jot Notes Template.

Activity (Open PDF in a new tab)

Choose reliable sources, search engines, and databases

Add onto the “How will I find out” column of your KWHLAQ chart to generate some keywords and potential topics and online or print or multimedia resources.

  • What search sites will you use?
  • What online search databases are available in your school/school board library?
  • Will you use your public library search engine?
  • Will you interview an expert?
  • Will you consult magazines, news broadcasts, or podcasts?

Check the reliability of your source

Examine the source.

If it’s a website, open the site in a new tab so you can return to your search results.

If it’s a longer video (10 minutes or more), search to find if there is a transcript link and open to scan through or conduct a “FIND” search using a keyword.

Scan or skim the text to find if you can read and understand parts of the text. Scanning or skimming means reading quickly through the first, middle and end sentences in a 1-2 paragraphs, or jumping from word to word or phrase to phrase to find if you can read the words and phrases. If you’re not able to read or understand, slow down and try again. If you’re still not able to read or understand, then leave this source. Go to another source in your search results and scan/skim the text. If you are able to read the text, ask if this text answers or relates to your inquiry question and/or sub questions.

If you think it does relate to your inquiry question, ask if this is a credible author or site. Is the site published by an established news reporter or organization? What appears to be the purpose of the site? Is it to inform, persuade or sell a product or idea? Is the information current enough?

Search and record using jot notes

Conduct some searches, adding to your electronic table with your keywords and alternatives.

Record using jot notes.

Press the ‘Rules for Jot Notes’ button to re-examine your jot notes.

  • no sentences
  • cover the source text and take the key ideas and write the jot note in your own words without using sentences
  • try not to examine the source text while you’re writing the jot notes
  • check your jot notes to the source text after

If you are quoting the source directly (i.e. copying the text) you must use quotation marks to start and end where you are quoting (" ").

You must also cite the source that you are quoting in the last column of the table.

Adjust and readjust!

As you record, your research information you may develop clearer research questions and more questions to guide you to narrow your topic. Record these refined research questions.

During this research part, you may also find you need to adjust your plan and timeline.

If possible, consult with your teacher, as you may be checking in throughout this research learning activity. If you choose to interview an expert, develop a plan to request an interview, formulate interview questions, and how you will record the interview (ask for permission to audio or video record the interview).

Step 3: Post-Research

Organize and refine your ideas

Now that you have recorded jot notes to help answer your inquiry question, it’s time to explore the relationships in the ideas and information you’ve found, and organize them to show the most important ideas and/or information related through cause and effect.

You may need to go back and conduct more searches to refine, clarify and find new or more supporting details (several examples, several facts from variety of sources, or confirm a fact from more than one source.)

Is your research information sufficiently supported by enough examples and/or facts from more than one source?

Prioritize the most important ideas and bullet the supporting details, facts, or examples below each important idea. You may copy and paste the jot notes recorded in your electronic tables from your searches into a new table to show either cause and effect or order the ideas of importance. Examine the following example tables.

Example 1

Ordering ideas with supporting details table

Important idea 1
  • supporting detail
  • example 1
  • example 2
  • fact(s)
  • include sources

Example 2

Cause and effect table

Cause Effect

 

 

Consolidation

Putting all together

Review your research notes and tables (cause/effect, ideas/supporting details) to find if the details you have gathered are relevant, appropriate and sufficiently specific to your inquiry question.

Have you researched enough in-depth?

Are your sources and evidence broad enough?

If possible, conference with your teacher or a partner to decide if more planning is needed and devise a new plan to do more research to build upon what you’ve researched so far.

Reflection

As you read the following descriptions, select the one that best describes your current understanding of the learning in this activity. Press the corresponding button once you have made your choice.

I feel...

Now, expand on your ideas by recording your thoughts using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.

When you review your notes on this learning activity later, reflect on whether you would select a different description based on your further review of the material in this learning activity.

Press ‘Discover More’ to extend your skills.

Follow this research process for research projects/assignments in other subjects such as history or geography. In what other subjects do you think you will follow and use this research process?