I chose to research the sustainability of the Nine Elms Development in London for my Extended Essay and found the process of researching and narrowing down my title really helpful in getting to better understand my interests in sustainability. I knew that I wanted to centre my essay around sustainability, as this is a topic area that I find really interesting, and want to continue studying at university. Initially, I had the idea of researching ecotourism however ruled this out as I felt that a local initiative or project would be more meaningful to me and allow for more in depth research. This is how I came to study the Nine Elms development as it is a newly developed area which has stirred up lots of controversy. Scale was a very important factor to take into account when deciding on my title as at first I focused on a singular building in the development but realised that this would be too difficult due to limited online resources.
Since I want to study Geography in the future, this was the obvious subject choice for me but I would definitely choose a topic that really piques your curiosity. If you aren’t sure where to start, I would recommend looking at news articles in subject area interests as this can often be a starting point for further investigation. It can be hard to narrow down to one specific topic but I found that sustainability encompassed a lot of my interests so choosing an interdisciplinary topic can be helpful if you are stuck on what to choose. Ultimately, a good research question needs to be broad enough to expand upon and link to theory but not so narrow that the answer is obvious. I went into my investigation unaware of the answer to my investigation which is completely fine as through research the argument forms itself.
Kate Price (UVI- Class of 2023)
EE title: To what extent can the "Embassy Gardens" development be considered sustainable?