Submitted by pallison on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 8:07am.

Here's a way for you to begin a research project with another student:

1. Write (Google Doc) 10 questions you have relating to the world and 10 relating to yourself.

2. Pretend you could drop your least favorite class and do an independent study on one of your questions/topics.

  • Edit and revise your 10 self/10 world list to include any new questions.
  • If you are already involved in any Youth Voices Inquiry groups, include questions related to those groups.

3. On a notecard, write your 3-4 favorite questions/topics and your name. Get up and walk around the room to find someone with a shared interest. Form teams of two people to explore and research the topic.

4. One partner creates a new Google Doc and pastes in the Think it Through, Interview questions. Make the other partner a collaborator in the Doc and title it with the inquiry/question. Make your teacher/class a collaborator too. Both partners answer the interview questions in the Google Doc.

5. Both partners should read through the completed interview and agree on 5-10 keywords that describe the question/topic to be researched and explored. Write those keywords at the top of the document.

6. Find an image related to your inquiry.

  • Go to http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons and use the keywords to find a few images that relate to the topic, then agree on one. (Be sure that you have found a Creative Commons image.)
  • Click on the "All sizes" icon in the top-left of the image, and choose the Medium size (no more than 500 px wide.)
  • Right-click/Control-click on that image and Copy the Image Location.
  • Don't close your Flickr source page yet. You'll need to copy information for your image citation first.

7. Each partner should now go the home page of Youth Voices and look for Add to my Blog -> Discussion.

  • Insert an image into the post, using the Image Location that you copied in #6.
  • Then write about that image. Describe why that image relates to the question/topic. Copy and revise sentences and paragraphs from your "Think it Through, Interview" Google Document. Check out an example of what this revision can look like.
  • MAkE SURE to cite the source of the image (url, name of image, user who created the image).
  • One of the easiest ways to do this is to copy the two lines in the upper-right corner of a flickr image that say: Uploaded on DATE by FLICKR USERNAME. Paste these at the bottom of your post, and add the title of the image in front of the word Uploaded.
  • MAKE SURE the post has at least 5 keywords that would help someone else interested in the same topic find this post.
  • MAKE SURE to look under Groups to Choose your Audience. Always click next to your school group, then choose any other group for that topic. And remember to make the post Public so it can be seen on the Site Blog by people not in your groups.

NEXT: The next step will be to find interesting information that relates to your question/topic.