The School of the Future: Home

MISO is an acronym for ways you can collect information yourself about a topic. In some research, you must either create or collect a wide array of information to fully understand a topic. MISO helps you think about different ways you can interact with information to create your understanding and the thoughts of others in relation to your work.

Media: includes books, the Internet, radio, film, newspapers, magazines. If a newspaper has a cover story about homelessness three times in a month, that’s an indicator of need.

Interviews: usually with a person who has expertise in the subject matter through experience or study.

Surveys: gathering responses from groups of people who may have varying degrees of knowledge about the subject. Students develop diverse skills by compiling, conducting, and analyzing surveys.

Observations: experience is usually what we bring from our past and observation is our deliberate noticing. This active process draws on many of the multiple intelligences. 

Use the MISO Guide to help you find and organize your thoughts.

Your Assignment: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CikYj1FzKfiy1P5JE4sbZonLTVJH0db9Ak1Z6dDkhtI/edit#

Step 1: Create a Place to Capture YOUR Research: Research eNotes

Step 2: Exploring your Topic:

Ask yourself, 'what do I know about my topic?'.  You should have some idea or context for your research if now you need to begin with a general search to see what is out there on your chosen topic.  This also gets you started on narrowing your big idea or topic to a research topic or question that is manageable.

Exploring your topic by Google Searching with Bell:

Step 3: Identify YOUR question or idea that you will be researching

Using keywords, deeper questions, and what you learned from your Exploring, formulate a question, or direction that will guide your research deeper. This is the time where we want to Narrow Our Topic.  

6 Journalistic Question Words to help you refine by Narrowing:

• Who: Are you interested in a specific group of people? Can your topic be narrowed by gender, sex, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or something else? Are there any key figures related to your topic?
• What: What are the issues surrounding your topic? Are there subtopics? In looking at background information, did you notice any gaps or questions that seemed unanswered?
• Where: Can your topic be narrowed down to a geographic location? Warning: Don't get too narrow here. You might not be able to find enough information on a town or state.
• When: Is your topic current or historical? Is it confined to a specific time period? Was there a causative event that led your topic to become an area of study?
• Why: Why are you interested in this topic? Why should others be interested?
• How: What kinds of information do you need? Primary sources, statistics? What is your methodology?

Step 4: Gather loads of resources (and make sure to capture citations)

Now that we have a direction and we have narrowed our topic we are ready to gather sources. On your Research eNotes, you can now begin collection resources.  Make a slide/card for each piece of evidence or source that you will be using for your final project. Linked on the first page of the doc are links to the Library Website, the Academic Databases that we subscribe to, and other resources.  If you are having trouble finding resources this is a good time to contact Mr. Bell, the Librarian. (christob@isb.ac.th)

Step 5: Create your detailed project based on the assignment instructions

Go back and make sure you answered your question or clearly went the direction (pro/con, persuasive, debate, etc) that you intended when you started your research. If not, try Step 3 again.

Suggested Databases provided by ISB Main Library

	EBSCO    Provider of research of databases, journals, magazine subscriptions, and ebooks.
	EXPLORA   Offers full-text, academic content on a variety of subjects
	JSTOR   Academic journals, and over one million images, letters, and primary sources.

Newsbank   A database that specializes in news resources, including archived and up to date news stories.

Sites for unique research and data

• Brooking Institution Research Topics

  Nonpartisan organization that conducts research on public policy. The site contains analysis of a commentary on many issues.

• ProCon.org

• Religious Tolerance.org "Hot Religious Topics"

• Room for Debate

  From the New York Times

• Vanderbilt University Public Policy Issues and Groups

  Frequently used sites related to the U.S. Government.

• PBS NewsHour Special Reports

  Reports from the Public Broadcasting System. Has national and international coverage.