Step+1+Initiation

media type="custom" key="7659383" align="left"Step 1- Initiation/Task Definition

Welcome to the first step of your research process! During this step of your research you are going to do two things: define the information problem that you have and identify the information that you are going to need to solve your problem. Watch the video below to help better get a sense of what you are going to be doing during this step of your research.

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The questions that you are going to want to ask yourself during this step are: What needs to be done? Who is my audience going to be? And what do I need to do to solve the problem?

Define the information problem or what needs to be done? There are tools that you can use to help you define the information process at hand and to organize your ideas once have identified your problem to make it easier for you to decide what information you are going to need to solve your problem. One tool you can use is a graphic organizer. You can use graphic organizers while you are brainstorming. Once you have defined your information problem, you can also use a graphic organizer to organize the problem at hand and information about the problem. The following are links to different brainstorming tools and graphic organizers that you can use:

@http://infoweb5.newsbank.com/big6rc/chooser.htm This website will be helpful for you to use choose a topic that you are going to research.

http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/questbrain.html A brainstorming tool that you can use to get ideas about what type of information problem you are going to research.

@http://www1.kent.k12.wa.us/ksd/it/inst_tech/StudentParentResources/Big6Files/narrowtopictriangle.pdf This website will help you narrow down your information problem.

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tprobsol.htm This graphic organizer will help you define your information problem and to organize the information you need to take to solve the information problem.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/Sequencing.pdf This graphic organizer will be helpful if your information problem contains a sequence of events.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/concepts/PS_TRL_Study_Tools_4.pdf This graphic organizer is called a concept map and you can use it to build on your main ideas. You can use it to organize the information that you already know about your problem or information that you need to know about information problem.

What information is needed to solve the information problem?

Another tool that you can use to organize the information problem that you have so that you can identify the information that you need to solve your information problem is a KWHL chart. This chart explores what you already KNOW, WHAT you want to know, HOW you will find the information, and what you LEARNED. This chart is very helpful for you to decide what more you need to find out about your information problem. Use this link: @http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/KWL.chart.html This is a KWHL chart that will help you to organize your information.

You have done a great job defining the task that you need to do and identifying the information that you need to solve your problem. You are now ready to move on to step 2 of the research process!