Assignment 22

I have never done an original research before.

I think what makes original research different from a library research is that, with a library research; the material is material from another research that was conducted by someone else. While original research would be someone else's original knowledge/material.

The library research guides original research in that it gives the researcher an idea on what to pay attention to or look at.

The pros of library research are that, the information is there for you to use as oppose to going out to look for the information yourself. On the other hand its cons are people and things change all the time. So information is always updated. But the library materials are materials that have already been done and completed. Hence might not be too current.

While with an original research the material is more current. But it could be very expensive too and time consuming.

I think the critical thinking skills involved in both types of research include observation, interpretation, analysis, evaluation, explanation and maybe inference and a little bit of Meta-cognition. 

For me the most important critical thinking skill for library research is analysis. Because one has to be able to analyze the data collected to know what to use.

For an original research, interpretation and conclusion. One should be able to interpret the information gotten and make appropriate conclusions as to what to use.

Assignment 20

The success I am having right now is that, whenever I try to look up something on my research topic, it is not so difficult for me to find it. On other hand, knowing what to use and what to include in the power point or what not to include makes it a little bit difficult. Because I usually get a lot of information.
For my classes and other researches, most of them include a lot of writing papers, and doing some research assigments every week. So trying to put everything together makes it a little bit difficult as I am also working on my research for this class. Sometimes with some of my classes trying to find exactly what you are looking for is really hard as one website tells you something and the other website tells you another. But one has to always make sure s/he has the right information.

Assignment 19

I found some statistical information about my research. And yes each resource indicates how the data was collected and/or analyzed.

I think they did so because they wanted readers too understand the table/chart when they look at it. And also to explain how they arrived at their conclusions.

 

Here Are my resources:

1.  Belville, Russ. April 15, 20009. Who are you? US Government Statistics on Adult Marijuana Users. Cannabis Culture Magazine. www.cannabisculture.com

2. NeuroImage. Vol. 41, Issue 3, pages 1067-1078. Corpus Callosum Damage in Heavy Marijuana use

Urvashi Vaid Presentation

My answers to Questions

1. I know there is a lot of discrimination experienced by the LGBT Population. For example they are not given equal rights to marriages like the Heterosexual/straight population.
2.  The information presented did not really differ in any way from what I had learned or believed in the past. 

Why?

The presenter related what she was talking about to what affects us in our day to day lives.

The presenter included some of her own life experiences.

She emphasized on marriage how it matters a lot emotionally, legally (immigration).

I know it is one aspect that affects the LGBT population a lot. 

3.     Some things I learned- there has been a dramatic tolerance about many adults and their favor for same-sex marriage.

Men earn $1.50 more to every dollar a woman makes.

Gay families are significantly poor than heterosexuals

Lesbian families are poor than heterosexual population and even children raised by the LGBT people are more poorer than children raised by heterosexual parents

In addition to what I learned, Colored people are always left out when people talk about LGBT and the presenter noted that it is due to ignorance that LGBT population is always limited to white people.

4.     Yes. 

She has written some books on LGBT 

She worked for the National Foundation on Gays and Lesbians

She has a degree in Law

She has some much education on the topic she is talking about..

She is a Lesbian activist

Also she worked for 30years in the LGBT movement

5.     What I think will assist me in my alternative view point paper is

A lot of things about same sex marriage I can't even write them all;

But here is one; the straight population worries about how the same sec couple would raise their children.

6.     I did not see anyone ask a question.

Intellectual property to me means being creative.
According to Merriam Webster it is property (as an idea, invention, or process) that derives from the work of the mind or intellect, also : an application, right, or registration relating to this.
For example writing a song.
From academic or everyday life and example is writing a project., creating a PowerPoint.
I think how it changes when it can be manipulated and shared is it gets improved. For me sharing what your already know with someone gives you the opportunity to learn more.
 

Assignment 15 Google 101

Think how the page I am looking for will be thinking. That is one thing I did not know before. It has changed my opinion in that instead of writing a whole paragraph, if I know the definition of the word, I will just go ahead and write it. I will use it when I need more explanation of a word that I have an idea what it is but do not know its definition.

Assignment 13

I think bloggers might not be the best source of news all the time. But it also depends on what one is looking for. For me, I had one great information on my semester research topic from a blog written by a doctor.
In one article and Expert gives advice on successful blogging. He adds  that it is a great way to let other people share their ideas and one can reach out to their fans easily.
http://www.copyblogger.com/blogging-experts/

Citation
Michael Stelzner, Copyblogger, 4 Ways to Grow Your Blog with the Power of Experts. June 2012.

Assignment 12

I read in the New York Times that teenagers start using Marijuana in high school. Also most of them continue to use it in college and in college they are most likely to use it than cocaine or alcohol because of its ease to obtain.  Also that ever since some states made it illegal it became more abused and now they are trying to legalize it and take it out of the black market. In addition to that the article states that medical Marijuana is healthy. In my community I think it is true. I have seen a lot of teenagers/youth/adolescents involved in the use of Marijuana. When I interview them they say it is much more healthy than cigarette and alcohol.
Here is my reference I tried to find the name but could not.
Anonymous, Marijuana and Medical Marijuana. The New York Times, Jan, 26, 2012.

Assignment 10

I am kind of between gay-men and Lesbians. But I will go with gay men :)

My reason being that majority of the gay men I have come in contact with are really nice and polite. Nicer than some of my female friends. So my assumption is gay-men are nice and usually polite!

I have had s couple of friends so that is how I know.

In addition to that when I go to a shop to buy, the gay-men provide good costumer service to me.

My most difficult challenge would be getting good/accurate information from individuals when I try to interview them. Or even getting enough true information online.

Assignment 9

At first I started with Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print. Then I only had 4 results.
My first search string was Marijuana effects and College students. It gave me no results. Then I tried Marijuana and College students then I still had no results. When I tried just Marijuana as my search string that was when I had 4 results of which just one was relevant. 
Then I decided to try MasterFile Premiere. My search string was Marijuana and College students. It gave me 121 results. 21 relevant, 13available in full text and 10 in print.
With the Academic Search Premier I had 3175 results. My search string was Marijuana and College students. I did  modify my search and added some details like date range and journals just things like that. Then I had 2618 results. When I added scholarly journal, I had 1305 results.
The Academic Search Premiere definitely provided me with more results for my topic.  
My search string worked. The first time, it did not work because the database was not the best. 
It is hard to tell how many relevant results I have from the academic search premier because I have thousands of results.
But from the other specific database, I had 21 relevant results. I had 13 relevant articles available in full text and 10 in print.
Nothing really came up asking if I would like an ILL. But the ones that were are available look great and I think I will be fine working with them.
My research questions have change a couple of times. Because I try to find specific questions to fit a specific database. Sometimes I try to minimize or maximize my results hence change my questions based on my needs. One of my biggest challenges with composing my research question is knowing what words to use so I get the most relevant and few results as much as possible. I belief with time I will get use to that. Working with different websites and databases gives me the opportunity to work on that of me and develop it more.  So when I get to some specific database I will know what words to use or not to use. 

Assignment 8

Scholarly Journal
Hammersley, Richard and Leon, Vicki, Addiction Research and Theory; Apr 2006, Vol. 14 Issue 2, p189-205 17p, 3 charts 4 graphs.

Popular Magazine
Rosenber Herold et al, Drug: Education, prevention and policy; Aug 2008, Vol. 15 issue 4, page 365-377 13p, 6charts.
Both of them have some great information.
Both articles are talking more about research and findings. While one has just two authors(journal) the other (magazine) has many authors.
I find the magazine article more detailed.
Both of them use the same method of citing their sources.
The are both very brief.

Assignment 7

I think the Academic Search Premier features are by far one of the simplest I have used. It was easy to understand.
I have never use it before.
I have never used another type of database to do a research for another class.
My only fear is I might get way too many results than what I need and choosing the best information will be a little bit difficult for me. But I think I can handle that.

Assignment 5

My assumption has not changed a lot. But it has changed a little bit. I thought Marijuana had very negative effects on human. I never thought it had some positive effects. I have also read some articles about it and how it helps HIV patients. But I still don't think it has any negative effects on college students as I think it affects their reasoning and hence affects their grades. I think most of the students that use the drug have a great chance of performing poorly in school.

My question about this population is; What population of students use  Marijuana more is it the males or females? And why do they use it?

I have found out that, some of the students who engage in the use of marijuana are not necessarily bad students. They are just influenced by friends and some start off doing it for fun then later get addicted.

Assignment 4

Encyclopedias are reliable as experts write the materials on them.
And their resources are well cited.
They are great sources of  information.
Encyclopedia is more detailed and explicit as compared to wikipedia.
Encyclopedia on the other hand can appear very boring as they are lengthy and also have different volumes.
While Wikipedia thought they are easy to get information from and they have a lot of information, they are difficult to work with. As many different individuals edit them.
Also the sources given in an encyclopedia are clear and follow a particular format, but the sources in a wikipedia do not follow any specific format as anyone adds their own source.
Wikipedia however as compared to encyclopedias have a lot of information too, but not very reliable.
Wikipedia are great in that, in the resource section they have an area for further reading, links or references. This is one great place to look at. For me I usually follow the links and get more idea if I doubt a Wikipedia information.

I could not find any print encyclopedia, I don't know if it is because I did not put in the right words when searching for it. But I plan to go into the library and ask if they have something related to that.

I found some E-encyclopedia with great information online, but not on the Library catalog. Again I don't know if my keywords are put in are not the best. But will be going to the library to ask.

I think an encyclopedia is more appropriate for my project. Because the information is clear and easy to grasp. The sources are reliable too.

Assignment 3

·  I have chosen, "how does Marijuana affect college students?"

·  I am looking for general background on my topic and a little bit of some specifics.

·  I went to the Library, on the library computers, there is a homepage with the Library catalog. I went through the catalog wrote down the books I saw that I think would be helpful with my research, then I took it up to a librarian to help me explain where I could locate the books.  My search string was substance abuse, and marijuana. The only thing I really had problems with was looking up the books only on the library catalog. Reason being that I had too many unnecessary words that I typed into the search box. Then when I deleted the words, I had some good results. What I noticed was if I had very few words in the search box too, I did not quite get good results.

·  I looked for an Ebook on my topic. I did not enjoy reading the Ebook. I will not be interested in reading an Ebook, but if I have to use it I will. It is not my first option, because reading the Ebook feels like so much is being thrown to someone at one time.

·  It gets overwhelming and I became reluctant reading it. It feels like so much to read. My eyes were also tired. 

·  No I do not have a mobile device that allows me to read Ebooks.

·  Here I use two different search strings. Marijuana and Marijuana effects. I went to the website home page and typed in my key words. Then I had a lot of options to choose from. It was a little bit much more easier to get the books I was looking for and I had more results.

Vulnerable population

I will be studying the Liberian immigrants in Minnesota. My reason being that I have a lot of Liberian friends and will like to know more about them.
I assume that there are a lot of them living in Minnesota who think they are the "better" Africans. They think they are the ones that are more closer to the Western culture than any other African immigrant population...
I learned this from talking to other people.
I think my most difficult challenge that I will have in doing this research is because my friends might have a different view towards the research. They might think otherwise. Also it will be hard to get accurate information or someone who will be willing to be open minded when giving me any information. I might not get enough sources or accurate sources.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking to me is thinking clearly, rationally and open minded.  
Yes I have heard of this term before in a couple of my classes, psychosocial, biomedical ethics, sociology, math, English, and intercultural class. Also other courses I took while I was in nursing school.
 According to an article by the creative and critical thinking assessing the foundations of the liberal arts education, Critical thinking has long been a concern of American education.  John Dewey identified learning to think” as a primary purpose of education in 1933. Critical thinking as defined by John Dowey is, “Active, persistent and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends.” http://www3.wooster.edu/teagle/critical.php
I think he does identify a particular process that one must engage in to think critically. By his definition it involves an active persistent and careful consideration of beliefs.
To me the connection between critical thinking and IM 204 Research Strategies is that in IM 204 we will be dealing with different populations. And one has to think carefully before addressing all these populations. One has to be open minded and not biased.

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Yvonne Efon. I am very excited about IM 204 as I plan to use this opportunity in this class to do a lot of research. The only thing that might be interfering with my research experience is that I am taking three other classes along side this course. But all in all I love learning new things and getting new ideas from people. I plan to make it a fun semester.