AP Research

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AP Research Summer Work 2021

Assignment 1: Interest Inventory

The goal of this assignment is to brainstorm ideas for your AP Research project. Because you will spend two trimesters working on it, it should be about a topic that you are interested in. Complete the interest inventory before continuing with the next assignments.

Part I: For this section, do a little research on NPR, JStor Daily, Inspire, another reliable database, or consider topics you learned about in your other classes. Your answers can be bullet-pointed phrases.

Question	Answer
Look up topics related to art or culture (music, literature, film, theater, etc.). What interests you?
Look up topics related to the economy – U.S. or another country. What interests you?
Look up topics related to the business world. What interests you?
What are some current political issues in the U.S.?
What are some current political issues globally?
What are some historical topics that interest you?
What historical topics relate to a current issue today?
What are some health/medical related topics that interest you?
Which kind of science most interests you? What are some topics in that field?
What are some current ideas/issues happening in the world of technology?
What place interests you?
What is your favorite book? Movie? Why?
What career are you considering pursuing?
In what ways do people surprise you?
What are some current issues in education?
Spend one day observing as you go about your day (brush your teeth, drive around, walk, shop, interact, travel, etc.) What are some interesting things you notice? What do you wonder? What surprises you?

 

Part II: For this section, just answer the question. These can come from you or from your topic exploration in Part I, but they don’t have to. 

Question	Answer
What fascinates you?
What is something you are curious about?
What is a problem you would like to see solved?
What is a topic you are passionate about?
What prediction can you make about the future?
What is something you would like to create?
What is something you don’t understand but would you like explained?

Assignment 2: Annotated bibliographies

Use the interest inventory to brainstorm 2 possible topics to investigate for your research project.

Topic 1: _________________________________________________________________

Topic 2: _________________________________________________________________

Do three annotated bibliographies in APA format over each of the two research topics. (Attached)

Assignment 3: Research questions

Use the interest inventory and the annotated bibliographies to write 3 research questions for each topic. Use the research question workshop sheet and the lenses as a guide. (Attached)

Topic 1: ____________________________________________

Question 1
Question 2
Question 3

 

Topic 2: ____________________________________________

Question 1
Question 2
Question 3

Assignment 4: Research methods brainstorm

For each research question, write what you would need to know to answer the question and whether that involves quantitative or qualitative data or both.

Topic 1: __________________________

What You Need to Know	Quantitative/Qualitative/Both
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3

Topic 2: __________________________

What You Need to Know	Quantitative/Qualitative/Both
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3

Research Question Workshop

Section A: Write a research question in 1. Evaluate and revise using questions 2-4.

Is this something you are interested in?
Context? Is it a real-world issue/problem? What is it?
What type of information is needed to address the question? Is it researchable?
Is it too broad or too narrow?

 

1. Write your research question:
2. Go through the following criteria of an effective research question. Take notes over each.
3. Revise your question based on your above notes:
4. Go through the criteria of an effective research question again. Revise again as necessary or try a new topic/question.