Research Skills Workshop 5 min Introduce yourself - let people know who you are and what you do, your experience of research in school/college, PhD research Welcome students to this session – explain why research skills are important, why we are running this session

Rank these questions from most to least interesting What forces shape the writing of the author JK Rowling? Is there such a thing as absolute evil? Why is the media an issue in relation to body image? How is a star created? Be prepared to justify your answers! 3 mins Ranking – In pairs, get students to rank these questions from most to least interesting. Feedback – ask students to feedback what order they put these questions in and why. E.g. ‘Why did you find that question the least interesting?’. Try to extend thinking through probing – why is that, explain what you mean by that etc.

Research All of these questions are things that are answered through research. TASK! In pairs, come up with a definition of what you think research is. Write it in your booklets. Now let’s look at the Dictionary definition to see how accurate you were… 3 minutes Explain to students that all of these questions are ‘research’ questions, or examples of things that are found out through conducting research. Can mention that lots of things in life involve research – even booking a holiday or applying for a job Ask students to use their knowledge, in pairs, to come up with a definition what they think research is. Ask them to write it in their booklets. Give them 2-3 minutes to do this.

Now let’s have a go at it! Research is… The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Now let’s have a go at it! 5 mins You will need to explain the definition of research rather than just showing them. The underlined words and phrases are those that should be explained to students to ensure that all understand what research is before moving on – you should check their understanding by picking out a few to explain what they have learnt or doing a thumbs up/down sweep once you have finished your explanation. Systematic investigation – studying, or looking at something, in a way that has a definite order and rules. For example, if you wanted to know how well equipped this class was, you could investigate systematically by tallying how many have pens at the start of the day, every day, for two weeks. Study – reading into something in detail; looking it up; looking for several layers of meaning. Materials and sources – Anything that can be used to help you answer your research question – it could be interview answers, a book, website, survey, magazine article, historical artefact… anything! Students should then write this definition into their work books before you move on.

But before you start researching… Group think: What are the different ways we could research this question to find the answer? But before you start researching… Do aliens exist? 4 mins Pose the question to the students before giving them 1 minute’s thinking time (they should fill the diagram in in their work booklets as they are thinking) then taking feedback. Exemplar answers Prior knowledge Books from the time (try to explain the difference between primary and secondary sources – they may already know this) What historians’ have said about it Art that has been done about it Then, the students should get into groups of four and use the resources (provided by both school and you) to research the answer to the question. Before they do that, though, you need to go through the next slide on planning and note taking with them. NB You can change the question posed according to the research question you are getting them to answer, e.g. you might want to do something that requires them to collect data in some way. The work booklet is therefore not specific to this question, although resources have been provided for this question if you wanted to focus on this one.

Planning and Taking Notes Planning a piece of research needs three things: A clear structure. Relatively brief and clear notes. Your own words! Know what you’re doing? Then Get Researching! 25 mins (dependent on group) – if the students are struggling or not working well in groups, can pull them back together and ask to find specific evidence for a question in the sources etc Explain to students the 3 keys to researching well in order to prepare a report. Clear structure – Within the overall question you will need to have ‘mini questions’ that you will answer, and this will form a structure for your report. E.g. for Aliens students will look at things like: What is the supporting evidence that they exist? What is the supporting evidence that they don’t? What do we need to consider when looking at the evidence? What further research do we need to do? Can you sum it all up? They should fill in their workbook with up to 5 mini questions that they will be researching and taking notes on. 2. Brief and clear notes – explain to students that simply copying down everything you find is not the best way to take notes. Students should instead to two things: Directly quote and facts or statements that you are going to include in your final report. Summarise anything else that is relevant by putting the information into their own words. 3. Explain to students what plagiarism is, and the importance of using their own words unless they are directly quoting a person or a source. Once this is all explained, students should use their workbook and the sources to research the answer to the question you have posed.

Accuracy and Reliability All research needs to be accurate and reliable, and therefore all materials and sources used should strive to be these things. Accurate = There are no mistakes or errors – it is true. Reliable = You can trust it. In your workbooks, rate each resource from 1-10 on a scale of reliability and a scale of accuracy. You may work in pairs to do this. Stop! 5 mins Discuss the notion of accuracy and reliability with the students, looking specifically at the sources they are using. Explain what ‘accurate’ and ‘reliable’ means, and what the differences are between the two. Get them to fill in the accuracy/reliability table in their work books.

Coming to a conclusion Look at all the information you have found out and prepare a 30 second-1 minute conclusion in your groups answering the overall research question. Write it in your booklets. Be prepared to present it to the rest of the class. 6 mins Students should now look at all the information they have found out and try to answer the research question of the session. They should create a short speech/presentation explaining to the rest of their class what their answer to the research question is and how they have reached that conclusion. You should get each group to nominate one person to give their group’s conclusion.

Reflection 5 mins Speak about the research process cycle and ask the students to say which they feel is most important Research is a messy process! – Not a straight line from problem to solution – more of a cycle Likely to go around the cycle several times if going about the project in a thorough and genuinely questioning way. Often your sense of what the problem is will change as you do more research and learn more about it Question that you originally set out may not be the same as the one that you eventually answer – this is a good thing – your question will become more informed as you move through the process Need to be flexible when conducting research - be prepared to change it in the light of things you learn as you progress - this can be hard, but it can also be both fascinating and fun! Which part of the research process do you think is most important? Why?

Reflection Independently, complete the evaluation activity and questions. As usual, be prepared to feedback! 5 mins – in this session they need to complete feedback sheets for us to collect in Activity – students have to look at the process circle of producing a piece of research and asterisk * which part they think is the most important, saying why. Questions Do you feel that today has helped you to develop research skills? Which aspects of the session were the most and least useful? Which aspect, if any, did you find difficult? Would you be interested in going into research full time in the future?

Next steps Use all the skills you have learnt today to answer your very own research question! See our Young Persons’ University website for some examples of research done at university: www.ypu.manchester.ac.uk 2 mins Thank students for their time and hard work and take any questions they may have (if you want…).