1. Happiness and Success
Video Link

2. How happy is Merced High?
1. First define happiness – focus on some universal ideas about happiness – especially consider what makes high school aged teenagers happy (although you are welcome to get information from adults on campus as well)
2. Look at your definition of happiness – Create/Find a method/tool for measuring some or all aspects of happiness described in your definition
3. Measure happiness – use your tool to gather data about happiness here at Merced High. The more data you collect the more reliable your data will be – consider experiments, polls, surveys etc.
4. Draw Conclusions – What have you learned about happiness here at Merced High? Use the data you have collected to support your answer. You may also include corollary data you have found – BE SURE TO CITE ANY OUTSIDE INFORMATION
5. Create a plan to increase happiness at Merced High – Stay in the realm of reality – not all students will automatically get an A or have endless summer vacation etc.! Here is one small way to increase happiness

3. Write a Report following the Scientific method – One report for the group
Abstract – Summary of the report – words total Introduction – What was your research question? Why does it matter? Give a little background information as appropriate. Materials and Methods – Describe in detail how you generated/created data – which experiments did you conduct etc. What materials did you use? This should be specific enough that anyone could recreate the work you did. Results – Describe the outcome of your experiment – You may include data on charts, tables, graphs in this section Discussion – Discuss the larger implications of your results – what does your experiment show or demonstrate about Happiness at Merced High? What implications might there be for the bigger world? IF the results were surprising discuss some the possible reasons for that. How might the results of your study be used to influence or understand the actions and thinking of the characters in The Great Gatsby? Next Step – Based on your results and analysis of the data create a plan to increase happiness at Merced High. Your plan must be realistic – everyone will not win a million dollars or get a permanent vacation from school! Be specific! You must follow MLA format to cite any outside research you use in your report.