1. Identifying Your Topic Please click on the audio symbol.

2. The 3 whats…. What is interesting to you? What would be useful for your classroom practice? What can you find research about?

3. Example 1 I teach middle school. I want to study geography and history connections. The purpose of this research is to gain more information on how to develop curriculum for the integration of history and geography in the middle school.

4. Example 2 I teach high school geography. I am also a breast cancer survivor. I want to explore the geographic connections between breast cancer and geography. When something as serious as cancer can be explored by geography it makes geography become important.

5. Example 3 I teach middle-school social studies. I teach through creating links between history, geography and literature. Yellow fever became one of my links. Through my literature review I will show how intricately geography and history are intertwined.

6. Answer the following questions What do you teach? What very specifically do you want to study? What will this help you to accomplish? Email the paragraph to me. After I OK it, post it on the Blackboard Discussion Board and everyone can comment on it.

7. Next steps Once I have approved your topic immediately begin your literature review. What studies have been done on this topic? Consider publication date, relevance, and credibility of the source. You should find the articles, and ◦ READ them. ◦ If it is easier for you to read hard copies, than print them and save in a binder. If you are fine reading electronic versions, than do so and save them in a folder. ◦ At least 5 articles a week for the next 4 weeks.