Health Research Project

Research Paper For Mr. Smith's class on Health related topics

Compiled by Mrs. Gruenthal, Library Media Teacher

You can organize your research using the Big6 Research Strategy:

#1 Define Task

• Choose a topic.
• Make sure you spell the topic correctly use a dictionary if you need help.
• Try to list some key words that you can use during your search.
• Use the "idea clusters" form below to help brainstorm ideas.

Review the assignment your teacher has given and determine what information you will be searching for. Try to list some key words that you can use during your search. Use the "idea clusters" form below to help brainstorm ideas.

#2 Information Seeking Strategies

You will need to look in several sources to find all the information for your report. Resources can be books, magazines, the Internet, people, and organizations. Look in the School Library, and other libraries in the community. Hospitals, doctors, and other Health Organizations may also be good resources for your report.

You are required to have at least 3 sources for this report. The following sources are recommended:

1. One online periodicals source (Ebsco).
2. One source from the World Wide Web (using a search engine).
3. One source from a book (WHS Library Catalog)

#3 Location and Access

A good place to start looking for some basic information about your topic is in an Encyclopedia. The library has several Encyclopedias in the Reference Section that are specifically about health and diseases. Ebsco Student Research Center has high quality, reliable reference articles available online at:

http://search.ebscohost.com/

See your teacher for username and password.

The following websites are good resources for your project:

Family Doctor: http://www.familydoctor.org/

Health Central: http://www.healthcentral.com/library/library.cfm

National Center for Health Statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/default.htm

Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/teen-talk/

TeensHealth: http://kidshealth.org/teen/

Teenwire: http://www.teenwire.com/

Yahoo Health: http://health.yahoo.com/

Web MD: http://www.webmd.com/

Symbaloo List of links for Health History Project.

Once you have a basic idea about where you want to start, you are ready to start searching on your own. If you are not sure what search terms you want to use, try using Ask.com, which tries to match your search to other searches that have been done before (chances are, thousands of other students like you have asked the same questions for research papers).

Ask.com can be reached at: http://www.ask.com/

Search Hints:

• You may also try using different search engines to get different results.
• If your search comes up with thousands of web-sites (called "hits") then you need to narrow your search. You may want to use a directory that searches fewer websites, but of a higher quality, such as Librarian's Internet Index: www.lii.org
• Try using quotation marks around your search so that the search engine makes sure to find the search phrase mentioned together. Example: "Teenage Pregnancy" or "teen pregnancy" If you do not use quotation marks, the search will return all web-pages that use either word(s).
• Try using the word AND to limit your search. Example: "sexually transmitted diseases" and treatment.
• If you are getting very few returns on your search, you need to try a different search strategy.
• Try using a metasearch engine, which searches several search engines at once, such as ixquick (Mrs. G's favorite): http://www.ixquick.com/
• Try using synonyms or a more general term for your topic. For example, CPR may be covered under "first aid."

#4 Use of Information

Read the information from your sources and decide what information is useful for your report. Print out useful information or take notes. You may use the note taking forms below to help you organize your notes. When you review your notes and begin writing your paper, you may determine that more research is needed to fulfill the assignment.

Note Taking Hints:

• Paraphrase Correctly=

1. Read a passage
2. Go paragraph by paragraph to put the main idea of the paragraph into your own words-and your own style.
3. Document the source (where did this information come from?)

#5 Synthesis

Organize the information for your assignment into the AUHSD Research Paper Format. Be sure to include all the components required by your teacher.

• To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

1. another person's idea, opinion, or theory;
2. any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings--any pieces of information--that are not common knowledge;
3. quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words; or
4. paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words.

If you need help with your works cited page, see the handout attached below or try using the wizard at www.citationmachine.net

#6 Evaluation

Use the directions provided by your teacher to make sure you have completed all the parts of the assignment.

Submit your paper to Turnitin.com to ensure that it has not been plagiarized.