Conference Notes!

For the first 5 pages of my research project, I focused a lot on discussing about how dangerous cigarette butts are to our environment and how they are polluting the earth. I went on a bit of a tangent and instead of focusing on the controversy of the issue, I just discussed its problems and effects on the government. From talking with Dr. Archibald I was able to see how I didn't fully do the assignment how I should have. Dr. Archibald gave me some ideas on how to make my topic more broad to just pollution, instead of so focused in on the cigarette butt aspect of the pollution. He gave me some suggestions that I should talk about maybe plastic bags in relation to pollution, along with the cigarette butts so that it wasn't narrowed onto one thing. then he told me maybe I could talk about how to make cigarette's healthier for the environment by making them recyclable or biodegradable. It was a lot to think about, but I think I may go the way of talking about how to make cigarettes biodegradable and the controversy of people who say not to because they taste different to smokers.

Finding Resources

after reading the course blog this week and watching the video on how to use the advanced search tools on Google to find quality sources for my research paper, I first thought of the direction I needed to go for my paper. I wanted to talk about the fact that people need to be educated in order for things to change for the better in the environment, and the opposing side would be someone against the funding of that education because of their feelings that it has a lack of importance. I took the route of searching about littering and came up with a very interesting article on cigarette butts and how flicking them on the ground after smoking is very dangerous and harmful. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to go about writing my paper, but I found it so interesting that I wanted to further research it and incorporate it into what I wanted my paper to be about. The sources I found seemed to change my direction a little bit, but I found some really helpful ones to use for the new direction my paper is taking!

Conference Notes

In my conference with Dr. Archibald I discussed my ideas for my research paper. My main idea was to talk about how once people are more informed on the issues of ecology dealing with environmental concerns, they will be more likely to make a difference. I wasn't exactly sure how to go about this idea, but my conference really helped me narrow in my thinking. Dr. Archibald said it sounded as if I wanted to do something like a case study to really see if once people are educated on the problems with our environment if they go out and try to make a difference. He enlightened me on the fact that to do this, I need to find a case where there is a clear argument on both sides. For my paper I'm going to be finding a case to study where there is a need to inform the people about environmental issues, but there is an opposing force who doesn't think informing people on these issues is important. From talking to Dr. Archibald, we decided maybe to find a case where a big business or a group of people in the community think that spending money on funding the education of people on ecology is not as important as using that money to fund something different. I plan to start really looking for a specific case in which to study to begin writing my paper about. Hopefully my paper will discuss what happened in the situation, with the outcome being that the education was applied and that it actually helped people become interested in helping the environment in which they live. The overall theme of the paper with be that education on these ecological issues will lead to progress within the environment be a safe and clean place to live for everyone.