Samaras Ideas

I really liked your topics for the I-Search.  Most of them seamed really good and interesting, but not really the type that would be featured in the newspapers.  Out of all of them, though, I think that adoption is the best.  

response to Samara's isearch ideas

So I really like the idea of seeing how music effects one's mood, but I could see how finding information on this topic would be difficult. It seems as though you're more or less set on the idea of adoption. I think this would be a really cool idea to research because there are so many different things to learn. There's probably a lot of information out there, and you could also link this topic to how the different parties or candidates view the topic. This could also lead you to gay rights if that's something you might be interested in. Some ideas to consider : What are the pros and cons of adopting? What would cause someone to adopt a child? Where can you adopt from? Celebrities who have adopted children, and the adoption process. I hope these idea's help!

Cole's Response

I think that adoption as your I-Search topic is a very good idea. There is a lot of information on adoption on the internet and a few good books. My topic for last years i-search was adoption and there are plenty of resources to get information from. In my opinion it was also very helpful to be able to talk to someone who had actually gone through the adoption process. There is a close friend of my family who recently adopted a baby girl from Kazakhstan, it turns out that it is actually a very difficult process. They flew halfway around the world twice before they could actually adopt a child. You should try to find someone who you can talk to who has an adopted child.

Group Recommendations

Hi Samara,
I think you made a really good choice for your I-Search. Adoption is a big topic, I'm sure, but I don't know a lot about it. I can imagine it can be very current. One suggestion for you is to find a couple who is adopting and talk to them about the process they have to grow through. I think that would give you a great insight in to the adoption process. It may be hard to find a couple who wants to talk to you about though, but I have no idea because I have no experience in the area.
A perspective of adoption you may want to explore is the religion side of it.
Another thing to think about would be the cost of adoption, if there is any?
One last thing, I think that you should check out Opposing Viewpoints, they will have some good information. Good Luck

Samara Ethier
I Search
Period C

Before starting the process of the I Search, I had to choose three possible topics that I might like to research. Then, I had to research each of these topics and then decide on one. The topics I choose are the following: to see how movies portray mental health clinics and to see if they're portrayed close to the real mental health clinics, to see how the music people listen to can affect their mood, and finally, how TV advertising affects teen behavior.
I first started off looking at sites such as The World and I, and the Student Resource center. Then, I looked at the Marvel database. With all of my searches on these sites, all the information I got wasn’t really focused towards my topic(s). Some of the information was interesting; it just wasn’t what I was looking for.
As my search continued, I couldn’t really find much of anything that related to my whole topic. For instance, when I was looking for information showing how movies portray mental health clinics and if these portrayals are close to real mental health clinics, I could find plenty on movies and on mental health clinics but never the two together. Most of the information wasn’t really relevant either. The only thing I got about music and how it affects people’s moods was this quiz telling you to listen to certain types of music and then record how your mood changed. There wasn’t any current information that had already been collected that I could use. I hardly found anything on TV advertising and how it affects teen behavior. Most of the information was focused on children or it was just on advertising and nothing about behaviors that could result.
As my search continued with a last attempt at trying to find anything on my three topics, I did come across other topics that were of interest to me. Such as sexuality, animal rights, animal testing, women's rights, feminists, censorship, same sex marriage, and adoption. The topic that was of most interest and that I found a lot of information for was adoption. Some of the articles that I found were based on why adoption was good, why it was bad, same sex couple adoption, single parent adoption, how children shouldn't be bought and sold like dogs, etc. All of the information was current and also very interesting. So, I do believe at that point that I had made my decision on my I Search topic: adoption.