Original Research

I took a psychology class in high school were we conducted original research. We researched how car dealerships treat men and women differently. We did this by having a girl and guy from our group go to 3 different dealerships and ask them a series of questions about the same vehicle. We also did a group project where we researched what seniors and juniors future plans were. We did this by conducting a survey. With original research a person can creates questions, finds answers, and analyzes the data themselves. With library research you do create questions and find answers but you cannot go out and find them. You just have to rely on others research to answer the questions for you. Library research can guide original research because it can give background information and raise further questions while also helping answer these questions. Some pros of original research are that you can learn and experience for yourself. Some cons can be that it is difficult to get exact answers and it is less structured. Some pros of library research are that it can be done at any time and the information is easily accessed. Some cons of it are that sometimes research has not been done on the specific question you are researching. The critical thinking skills I think are involved are relevance, breadth, logic, and significance. I think breadth is the most important because it can extend a person's research by raising further questions which can also result in better analysis and results.

Statistical Information

The first source I found was from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. The source I found was titled, The Anual Homeless Assesment Report to Congress. It is is the form of a book but it goes over topics of how many people are homeless and the use of homeless shelters and thier capacity. It also gives numerous statistics on these topics. It does give information on how the data was obtained.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, & Office of Community Planning and Development. (2007). The Anual Homeless Assesment Report to Congress.

The second source I found was from the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. The source was titled, Homeless Service Use in Minnesota. It gives statistics on how many people in Minnesota are homeless and how people are using Minnesota homeless shelters. The report states all the different sources it recieved its information throughout it.

Hansen, M., & Warren, E. (2007). Homeless service us in Minnesota: Emergency shelter, transitional  housing, and permanent supportive housing, federal fiscal year 2010. St. Paul, MN: Wilder Research.

Checking In

I think the biggest challenge of the semester research project is organizing the information. We have been spending all semester researching our population, and that results in a lot of information. So my biggest challenge is organizing my thoughts. I have a lot of information and I am just struggling to put it in a logical order so my presentation will flow very nicely. In everday research I just find it difficult to find the exact information I want. When I come up with an idea I have a specific thing in mind that I want so I struggle with finding that. After I search for awhile though I end up not being so specific and find something that works just as well.

Urvashi Vaid

Before attending this event I really didn't have any expectations. I didn't look into it much or know what was going to be talked about. I just figured she may talk about an LGBT issue. I thought the presenter did a wonderful job of giving information. She incorporated personal stories along with facts to get her point across. I also felt this helped the audience understand and kept them very engaged. One thing I didn't like was how when she talked about people's opposition to gay marriage I felt she used extreme examples. Even though people use that i feel like the majority are more rational. Obviously, she was biased on the topic so it is understandable why she used this technique. I thought the point she made about because the movement has won same sex marriage doesn't mean it is over. Just because the LGBT community has received this right does not mean society views them equally. Even now the African- American population still struggles with this. I felt that Urvashi Vaid had authority on this topic for multiple reasons. She has written three books on LGBT topics, she is a lawyer, and has been apart of the LGBT movement for many many years. I don't know if I can specifically use this presentation in my alternative viewpoints paper but I did learn a lot of things and it did help me understand the topic a lot better.

Intellectual Property

My definition of intellectual property is the ownership of a person's own ideas. After searching the term on Google I came across a good expert definition on The United States Patent and Trademark Office's website. They defined intellectual property as imagination made real. It is ownership of dream, idea, an improvement, an emotion that we can touch, see, hear, or feel. It is an asset just like your home, your car, or your bank account. There are multiple examples of this in academic and everyday life. In everyday life a person may come up with a funny joke then a few days later their friend uses the same joke. A person may find themselves claiming the joke is theirs after their friend uses it. In academic life a person may create a hypothesis about something, they then can create an experiment to test it. This whole process is their academic property because they came up with the idea and tested it. When intellectual property is shared or manipulated I think that it becomes less personal. The person who originally came up with the idea can feel less ownership of it, especially when they are not given credit.

Google 101

I learned a lot of new things during Google 101. I will list all of the things I learned during the demonstration.
1. ~
2. related:
3. + or -
4. Using ends of websites like .gov or edu
5. The Google Art Project
6. Searching by a picture instead of words
7. Google translator

Learning all this changed my opinion because before I thought there wasn't a lot of ways to refine a search on Google. Now I know there are multiple ways to do this. It will help a lot when I using it for other projects because I do have some trouble with narrowing down results or finding what I want. I think I will use these tools for school work more than everyday life. In everyday life I usually just use Google to look up a quick stat, fact, or picture. When I am doing school work I can use the - or ~ to narrow results or expand them. I also can use .gov or .edu to help find specific things. Overall, I think Google 101 helped a lot and I look forward to using the new tricks.

Semester Research Assignment Questions

After reviewing the semester research assignment questions I found that I can answer most of the questions. Question 4, which asks, what are some of the challenges this group faces in mainstream society? I think I have bits of information here and there for this question but I could look more into it so I can learn some specific challenges. I also think I could work on question 6 a little bit. The question is, Whare are the challenges that people have in doing library research and original research on this human population? I don't think this question has to much research that needs to be done to answer it. I just need to take some time and evaluate it. Overall, for most of the questions I just need to sit down and organized my information and see where I am missing things.