Original Research

I was asked to write about original research and if I have ever done original research before. When I was in high school we were supposed to do a research about something that we would like to add, take away or change about our school. My group and I came up with a survey to ask students and faculty about cell phones in our school. My group wanted to pass a "bill" to allow us to use cell phones during lunch and passing time. Our survey conducted of questions such as how often do you use your phone, what do you use it for, why should we have cell phones in school, why shouldn't we have cell phones in school, etc. The faculty thought that we shouldn't have cell phones because it was going to distract students from learning. The students obviously thought that we should. We weren't able to get it passed my senior year but 2 years later it was. Original research is different because it isn't someone else's work or thoughts. It is your own thoughts and ideas. I think that library research guides you to original research because you can get some ideas of what to do from library research but make it your own. A pro for library research is that it is factual and you can trust it. A con for library research is that you have to trust that it is factual because it wasn't your work. A critical thinking skill that involves both types of research is evaluation. The most important critical thinking skill in my opinion for library research is interpretation. You have to interpret the information that is given to you. I think that evaluation is the most important for original research because you have to evaluate what you came up with and trust that it can be believed.

Statistical Information

In the government document that I found it did indicate how the data was collected. They did a survey that the NIDA funded. They surveyed adolescents in middle and high schools across the United States. In the scholarly journal that I found it didnt indicate how the data was collected or analyzed. I think this is because a government document is more important than a scholarly journal and maybe a government document is required to let these things be known.

Government document: Volkow , N. (2006). National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Scholarly journal: Steroids, Tommy John, and Cataracts. (2011). Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, 19(2), 141-143.

Intellectual Property

I was asked to give my own definition of intellectual property but I am not sure what this even means. If I had to take a guess on what intellectual property was I would say that it has to do with someones personal thoughts or creative words. According to dictionary.com intellectual property means, property that results from original creative thought, as patents, copyright material, and trademarks. Some examples of intellectual property from academic or everyday life are an authors novel, possibly a professors lecture because it is their own thoughts and it cant be copied, also a music artist lyrics or songs. I was asked to answer the question on how does the concept of intellectual property change when it can be manipulated and shared and I think that it can never be manipulated because it would be plagiarism. You cant take someones own thoughts and change them into your own. You can although take what they are talking about and make your own intellectual property from that.

Checking In

I was successful in finding a mainstream article. It was very easy to find one that was related to my topic. The one thing that is challenging is finding an international and an alternative press article. The two websites that I went to I couldnt find anything. I am still trying to figure out how to use the Lexis and ProQuest websites. Other than that my research is going good and I am continuing writing my paper. I am also doing very well with my semester research project. Everything that we have learned in class has helped me with my research for my project. I wouldnt know how to research somethings if I didnt have this class because it has taught me how to.

Urvashi Vaid Presentation

Prior to this event I didnt really know what to expect. One thing that I did expect was for her to talk about same sex marriage and the struggles that they face. Somethings that I know about this topic is that only 6 states in the U.S allow same sex marriage. Another thing that I knew about this topic is that it is hard to get the bill passed in the states that dont have it because many people oppose it. She presented the information in many different ways. She referred to things from books that she has wrote, told personal stories, past experiences, examples, facts, and jokes. I learned a lot of things from this presentation that I didnt know before. I learned that some parents in CA voted against marriage equality because they thought that it would affect their children's view/values. Also once fighters in the state win marriage equality they kind of give up on things because they got what they wanted so they dont know where to go from there. I do believe that the speaker is an authority on the topic because she is a lesbian trying to get marriage equality. She is also a lawyer and a director of an LGBT group. She has worked with the LGBT community for 30 years. She has also written 3 books about LGBT people and is currently working on her 4th. Urvashi has also won many awards for the work that she has done. Somethings that I can take from this presentation to help with my alternative viewpoints paper are LGBT viewpoints vary from generation to generation. They also want all equal human rights not just marriage rights. Equality is the first step and it shouldnt be the last. LGBT couples are poorer than heterosexual couple.    

Google 101

During the Google 101 lesson I learned a few things. One thing that I learned is that you can use Google to search for information like you would use on Academic Search Premier. I didn't know that you could use search strings in Google. I also learned that if you do use a search string that instead of using the word "and" you would use a "+". I also learned that you can use other symbols like * and ~. Another thing that I learned from Google 101 is that Google can give you a LOT of results but not all of them are going to be relevant to your topic they might just have one or two words from your search string in the information. I also learned that you can narrow your results by adding words like history, United States, etc. One thing that I thought was really cool that I didn't know before is that you can upload a photo that you are unfamiliar with or want more information about and Google will tell you what it is or information on the picture. I thought that you just put in words into the search box and you get an answer,  but now I know exactly what words and how to put them in the search box to find exactly what I am looking for.

Popular Magazine vs. Scholarly Journal

In the popular magazine that I found it talked about Alex Rodriguez and his usage of anabolic steroids while he was playing baseball. In the scholarly journal that I found it was about steroid use in athletes. It didnt talk about a certain person who used steroids. It talked about who might use steroids, statistics of who used them, effects of usage of steroids, complications that steroids can cause, etc. The main difference between the two is the way that the were writen. The magazine was mainly like an interview saying what one person said and then what the other person said. The scholarly journal was like a book. It had different subheadings for different things about the main topic.

Magazine: Roberts, S., & Epstein, D. (2009). Confronting A-Rod. (Cover story). Sports Illustrated, 110(6), 28-31.

Scholarly Journal:

Walker, J., & Adams, B. (2009). Cutaneous manifestations of anabolic–androgenic steroid use in athletes. International Journal Of Dermatology, 48(10), 1044-1048. doi:10.1111/j.1365-4632.2009.04139.x

Semester Research Project

Based on the research that I have done so far, I believe that I can answer about 5 of the questions. Some places taht I need help on is coming up with a question that I will be able to research on. My population is substance abusers and I have narrowed it down to athletes and steroid abuse. Most of my information just talks about these two but doesn't really answer a certain question. I also need help on finding some of the resources that we need to have in our annotated bibliography. Other than that I believe that I have been doing my best in finding what I have so far.

Are Blogs a Legitimate form of News?

Based on my experience with blogs my opinion is that some blogs are a legitimate form of news and others aren't. For me I believe that it depends who is writing the blog and what type of information that is in the blog. I think blogs that have statistics and quotes from credible sources are very legitimate forms of news. I found a blog for my research project that I believe is a legitimate form of news. I found my blog from http://professionalsteroidabuse.blogspot.com/. This person interviewed the head trainer of a professional baseball team. He gave the trainers background so it was credible information.

C Strombom. (2010, May 20). Interview with Dave Groeschner. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://professionalsteroidabuse.blogspot.com/

Thoughts and Prayers

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the 4 young girls that passed away in a car accident last week. It is a tragedy that their lives were taken away at such a young age. When I was in my car accident last winter I thought that I was going to possibly die. My car flipped upside down when I was going to exit the freeway. I was so scared it all happened so fast. I am very thankful that my life wasnt taken away and that I am still living. I also want to give prayers to the family that lost a son in the Ohio high school shooting this week. And also to those who were injured. I couldnt image going through something like this. It is sad that being bullied can lead someone to want to kill those who bullied them or anyone in there way. They said that the shooter had posted on twitter that he was going to bring a gun to school the next day but no one thought he was serious. When someone says something like this even if they say it jokingly it should be taken serious to prevent things like this from happening. I hope that you girls R.I.P and know that you will be dearly missed.

Research Reflection

I think that I should learn more about the Gay population over the course of this semester. Some things that I assume to be true about gay people is that they are super fashionable. They are also very feminine. Once they are out of the closet they are very open about being gay. They walk kind of girlish. They like to wear tight clothes. I have learned some of these things from television shows, and I also have a couple of friends who are gay. I dont think that I will have a difficult challenge while I do research on the population because I don't have a problem with the LGBT population. Some things that I would like to learn about them is how difficult it is to get married in a state that hasn't legalized gay marriage. I also want to know what kinds of problems they deal with such as jobs, school, etc.

Search String for Research Project

The subject specific database that I chose was ERIC(Education) one. Academic Search Premier provided more relevant results for my topic. I was able to narrow down results in Academic Search Premier by changing some keywords and putting them in different orders. I didn't really narrow down my results from the subject specific database because I only had one result. Synonyms that I used for cause where motivate, draw, account, and aim. Synonyms for people where humans, humanity, body, population. For the word abuse I used misuse, mishandle, misconduct. I was able to find 3 relevant articles from academic search premier and I only found one from the subject specific database cite. From the 3 that I found from academic search premier 2 of them were available in full text but the other was not. From the 1 article that I found on the subject specific database it was not available in full text. The ones that were available in full text were available via FindIt. Since working with databases my research question has changed because I am not sure if I want to do this population anymore. There isnt much information about it. The biggest challenge in composing my research question is that I am not sure if I want to do this population. And also its hard to choose whether to do teens because they dont really abuse steroids. I think that I will be able to overcome these challenges after talking to the Prof. and seeing what she has to say about it.

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

Based on my review of the Academic Search Premier features, my impressions of this database are pretty good. It wasn't an overwhelming site where I didn't know how to use it. Everything was very clear, neat, and easy to use. I have used Academic Search Premier before. When I had a research project for another class I used this site. It was very helpful in finding scholarly articles that were needed for my research project. I used it the same way that I did for this class. I typed in my keywords in the boxes and I usually use all three because I found in using just one you get a lot of results that just have the keyword you put into the search box. I also used the scholarly journal button to make sure that those were the only articles that I received. I've used the library books to do research for another class. I've never used another database besides this one to do research for another class. Some fears that I have about using this database is that not all of the articles are in pdf for so you aren't able to view them. Some of the articles that I wanted to use for my other classes weren't available so I had to search other keywords. I also fear that I won't get results or that the results I do get won't help me in what I am looking for. Overall I think that this is a really great database to use because I get results almost every time and it is very easy to use.

Substance Abusers (Steroids)

Since reading a bit more about my population my assumptions have changed a bit. I thought that people only use steroids to get a bigger muscular body but it turns out that steroids can also be prescribed to men whose bodies are unable to produce normal levels of their own testosterone. They can also be used to treat a rare skin condition. (Brower) Some of my assumptions haven't changed though. Steroids can be very addictive and they can also be life threatening. Many athletes who have used steroids have died from them. There are also athletes in high school who have used steroids. They are mainly used to enhance sport activity and performance. It was interesting to read that steroids were also used during the Olympics but went undetected for a couple of years because they didn't have the technology to drug test athletes back then. Some questions that I have about my population is where do they get the steroids from?, how much do they cost?, what makes them want to take steroids?, how long does it take for a person's body to get addicted to them?, and how long does it take for a person's body to start showing the effects of steroids?

Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia

Since we didn't have class on this I will just go off of what I personally know about both of these sources. Some pros about encyclopedias are that they are a reliable source. They also have been around for a long time and you can find a lot of information inside of them. A con about encyclopedias is that you aren't able to check them out so you can only use them when you are in the library. Some pros about wikipedia are that you don't have to go to the library to look at a book you can just go online and everything is there for you. It is very convenient. Some cons about wikipedia are that it isn't such a reliable source as the encyclopedia. Anyone can write something in the internet and you cant always believe what is on it. Wikipedia is a website that anyone can make changes to if they don't feel like the information on it is correct or credible. I didn't look for print or E-encyclopedias because I wasn't really sure how to. I am anxious to learn how to find them because I want to learn more things about my population. 

OPAC Search Experience

The topic that I have chosen to do the research semester project on is substance abusers. More specifically I have chosen to do it on those who abuse steroids. I am looking for both general and specific information on my topic. I know what steroids do but I want to learn more about the drug, why people use it, how the drug makes a body look bigger and more muscular, and other things too. The thing that I used to look for my books was the SCSU library. I used the online library books and video advanced search. In the keywords I typed in Substance abusers and steroids. I was very successful in finding a lot of different books for my topic on my first try. I was able to find an EBook. I dont really like EBooks because they make me kind of dizzy and I'm not able to flip through pages as easily as a regular book. I don't have a mobile device that allows me to read an EBook. The first time I searched a book on the Great River Regional Library System I didn't get any results for the keywords that I had used. I tried it again on the Great River Regional Library System website and I typed in the same keywords as I did with the SCSU library and I did get results this time but I wasn't as successful. On the GRRL I only received one book result versus like fifteen on the SCSU library. The only difference that I had with the two searches is that I had a lot more results for one of them.

What Do You Assume to Be True About... Substance Abusers?

The "vulnerable population" that I think I should learn more about over the course of the semester is substance abusers. I think that I should learn more about this population because I am a college student and it is assumed that a lot of college students are substance abusers. One thing that I assume to be true about this population is that they are usually of a minority group. They range of all ages. Some start at a young age and some still use at a old age. I also assume that a lot of substance abusers sell their body or have sex to get their drugs. They are also addicted and don't have much money because they are always spending it on drugs or alcohol. I learned these things from people at school, my family, and the media. The most difficult thing that I think I will have in doing research on the population that I have selected is that there will be a lot of information on it that it might be too much information for me to handle.

What is Critical Thinking?

My definition of critical thinking is analyzing or evaluating information to come to a conclusion to the question. Thinking critically takes a lot of thought and you have to think deeply about the information. I have heard this term before. I have heard it in some of my high school english classes when my teachers asked us to think about the question critically. Another place where I've heard about it is in my Philosophy class that I am taking this semester. An "expert's" definition of critical thinking is, "the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion. (Dictionary.com/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+thinking) The expert does identify a particular process that one must engage in to think critically and that is a mental process.I think that the connection between critical thinking and IM 204 Research Strategies is that with these blogs we are going to have to think critically about them. Also with the Semester Research Project I believe that we are going to have to really think critically about the whole thing.