Digging for Gold: Find a Research Topic You Care About!

As you receive email responses from China, and you begin panning for ideas and sources of support, you may find yet a new direction of interest.  No problem:  Tuesday's research blog post is a simple "snapshot" of a point of interest from China and due before class.

 If you are still looking for a response from a Qingdao student, here are their class email addresses: 

• class 1:   kingclass2@sina.com 
• class 2:    qduclass1@163.com
• class 3:    englishclass03@163.com

The autobiography you received should have the class number in the heading, or you can check with me.  It would be good to stay in the same class as the person whose autobiography you got.  This will keep requests evenly distributed between classes.  If you send a class email, you should send your autobiography as an attachment because many of these students will not have seen it.


 We'll be reading your posts in class on Monday and searching for a common thread or an emerging picture of who those students are, what their lives are like, what their hopes and dreams are, and any other part of the Chinese culture that makes them unique and yet not so very different.

The purpose of the assignment is twofold:  learn about China and learn how to find and use primary and secondary sources.  This assignment was intended to lead us into another research project.  Since Thursday is a senior Shadow Day, you may choose to research your career of interest or a cause or activity you feel passionate about.  Your primary sources may be the person you shadow or other employees you meet.

However, in looking at some of the email responses coming in from China, I am learning that continued research on your China related topic may be the direction you may wish to go.  You have access to primary sources, students who are enthralled with this exchange and anxious to help you.  I now have a class email address for our Chinese correspondence, so if you send your questions to the class address, you will surely get a number of responses to your questions.

This means that you have choices to explore.  The trick is, though, that you will need to commit to a research topic by the end of class on Wednesday next week!  The MSU librarians are standing by to help you, and we will need to give them some of your topics.

Where is the additional research going?  It's going into a presentation you will share with the rest of the class.  You may want to continue exploring what you can find on Chinese medicine, or Chinese traditions, superstitions, festivities, and so on.  You may read through the blog and find a new idea you would like to research.  Your call.  Project instructions and rubric will be handed out Wednesday.

Here are some examples of research posts.  Keep in mind that the rubrics were a bit different last year.