For this research project, the first thing that you will do is read through the research project topic areas listed below, and decide which are interesting to you. There is a discussion forum topic set up where you can ask questions and make comments about the topic areas. You can also solicit for someone else who is interested in a topic area.
By the date specified in the course schedule, you should complete the Clipboard Research Project Individual Preferences survey. I will use the information you provide in that survey to make the final team assignments. The survey asks you to specify your top two topic areas and give a short description of what interests you about your choices. Some topics may have more than one team assigned to work in the area. You can also specify a partner to work with if you have identified someone. The following constraints on selecting partners will apply:
These research projects are very open-ended with, at best, vague outcomes stated. One of the first tasks for each team is to define what the team would like to accomplish with their project keeping in mind the rough goals I had for each topic area. For some of the topic areas, I am not sure what is possible to do in a four-week time period. Because of this, I have said that I will not be looking for fixed outcomes from each project. I will look instead for each team member to work with a diligent effort on the project. As some evidence of that diligence, each team member will record time worked on the project. This report should list the days and hours worked, and what activities were undertaken for each block of time worked on the project. You will present these time reports as one of the details discussed with me at a weekly status meeting. To maximize the team's productivity and provide accountability for each team member, I will look for division of work tasks so that each team member will be able to make independent progress on the project. As a rough guide, I expect that each team member will devote at least 8 to 10 hours per week outside of class time on this project. If more time than that is needed to achieve your goals, you should discuss that with me.
The topic areas are described at the following links. Each research project determines what the project deliverables will be. Within most topic areas, the team will have some flexibility to tailor the project after consultation with the instructor. You can also suggest a project area subject to approval by the instructor.