Research

Once you have decided on a topic and purpose, you will need to conduct some research. There are two types of research and your project can include either or both.

Primary Research

Primary research involves you collecting data from the world around you. You might use surveys, experiments, or observations. If you use primary research, make sure to describe how your data was collected as part of your presentation.

Examples:

  • In order to determine a typical height range for someone in grade 11, Emma measured the height of each of her classmates.
  • Gamil was interested in where different birds live. He recorded the type and number of all the birds he saw over a set time period at several different locations.
  • Brittney was interested in how much people read for leisure. She had people complete a survey to help answer this question.

Secondary Research

Secondary research means using someone else's data. Secondary sources of information include books, the internet, videos, or newspapers. If you use secondary research, make sure to reference your sources properly. See the references section.

Examples:

  • To determine the best season the Seattle Seahawks ever had, Brennan used statistics he found at www.nfl.com.
  • In order to provide background information for her project, Perle needed to find out how an electric guitar works. From the library, she checked out one book on electric guitar history and another one on building electric guitars.
  • Jacob watched a fascinating documentary on electric cars. He decided to use some of the information from the documentary for his project on comparing the fuel efficiencies of different vehicles.