Senior project on US politics - handling the research?

[swimmermom3]

Sailor Dude and I are discussing the idea of a senior project that ties together next year's government and politics classes and US History.

 

The proposed topic is arms industry, ties with members of Congress and the influence on policy (very rough). The idea here is to have this be something meaningful that allows him to tie together skills and knowledge acquired across disciplines - a bit like case studies in the MBA programs.

 

Is this a feasible topic to approach? I am not asking for any political commentary, only from a research perspective, is this possible?  Will he be able to locate say, if senators, are supported by companies like Haliburton and then to look at their voting records?

 

I doubt we are being very original, but I think it could be a good research and writing exercise.  Are there things we could do to make this a richer experience?  Again, please avoid political commentary as this is definitely a hot button topic today.

[1Togo]

Hi Lisa,

 

I don't know enough about the topic to give a thumbs up or down, although the topic is timely and interesting.  I do want to mention that Julie Bogart's "Help for High School" essay curriculum includes instructions for an Exploratory Essay.  The process for this essay includes informal writing and exploration of a topic of interest.  If your son did something like this, he would find out if the arms topic can go further, and he could document the process of either scratching the topic or going forward.  It is a blessing to have the time to work through the process.  H4HS also has a "Keen Observation of an Idea" exercise that is useful for determining what the student knows or perceives about a topic before beginning the research process.  Both of these are adaptations of college-level materials.  Btw, Julie also has a packet on "Textual Analysis," which your son can use with articles he finds during the research process.  Oh yes, you might want to take a look at materials on National History Day for presentation ideas.  I do love the idea of combining gov't., politics, and U.S. History into one, meaningful research project.  Arms industry from the past until now; I don't see how there wouldn't be lots to mine.

 

P.S.  We have using the "Textual Analysis" packet recently, and it has taken a specific type of paper dc has to write for an online class from borderline boring to boom.

[swimmermom3]

Hi Lisa,

 

I don't know enough about the topic to give a thumbs up or down, although the topic is timely and interesting.  I do want to mention that Julie Bogart's "Help for High School" essay curriculum includes instructions for an Exploratory Essay.  The process for this essay includes informal writing and exploration of a topic of interest.  If your son did something like this, he would find out if the arms topic can go further, and he could document the process of either scratching the topic or going forward.  It is a blessing to have the time to work through the process.  H4HS also has a "Keen Observation of an Idea" exercise that is useful for determining what the student knows or perceives about a topic before beginning the research process.  Both of these are adaptations of college-level materials.  Btw, Julie also has a packet on "Textual Analysis," which your son can use with articles he finds during the research process.  Oh yes, you might want to take a look at materials on National History Day for presentation ideas.  I do love the idea of combining gov't., politics, and U.S. History into one, meaningful research project.  Arms industry from the past until now; I don't see how there wouldn't be lots to mine.

 

P.S.  We have using the "Textual Analysis" packet recently, and it has taken a specific type of paper dc has to write for an online class from borderline boring to boom.

 

It's always good to talk with you about writing! I really like Julie's "Help for High School," and we used some of it for 9th grade, but I confess to farming Sailor Dude's writing instruction out the last two years for two AP English classes. He did have to do research for his essay for the Peace Institute contest, which was on security sector reform. I'll have to check out the packet on "Textual Analysis," since ds's Advanced Research Writing class through Lukeion won't be under way until January of 2016 and I would like the project to be a year-long one.

 

Perhaps I can just have him keep a journal of pertinent current events and information that come up between now and this fall and then check in with his Government and Politics teacher.

 

As always, thank you for keeping me up to date on great resources. I appreciate the information and ideas.

[JennyD]

 

Yes, I think that he could actually get a fair amount of relevant data on that issue.  A ton of Congressional documents are readily available online now (congress.gov) and opensecrets.org not only has a tremendous collection of info about campaign contributions, but also a very good guide to digging up data yourself.   (If you have access to a university library system, nearly all Congressional documents are now available online, but I doubt he'll need more than he can just access straight-up.) 

 

You're right that that he isn't going to come up with anything original here, and the topic is likely to evolve as he goes along, but it sounds like a pretty good jumping-off point to me.  Just getting into the vast sea of government documents can be such a valuable exercise -- it really helps to 'map' the structure of the whole enterprise, IME.  In fact, I would start off by having him read some basic government documents research guide. There used to be a couple of good ones in print (Robinson, Tapping the Government Grapevine, was very accessible) but I haven't looked at them in a while and they may be hopelessly dated.  University library websites sometimes have very useful research guides available -- might be a place to start.

 

It will be a challenge to keep the project narrow enough to be manageable -- I'd say start with no more than 5 years back and a single company and see where that takes you -- but that is in and of itself a hugely useful experience.  

 

Good luck!  Sounds like a neat project.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[swimmermom3]

 

 

Yes, I think that he could actually get a fair amount of relevant data on that issue.  A ton of Congressional documents are readily available online now (congress.gov) and opensecrets.org not only has a tremendous collection of info about campaign contributions, but also a very good guide to digging up data yourself.   (If you have access to a university library system, nearly all Congressional documents are now available online, but I doubt he'll need more than he can just access straight-up.) 

 

You're right that that he isn't going to come up with anything original here, and the topic is likely to evolve as he goes along, but it sounds like a pretty good jumping-off point to me.  Just getting into the vast sea of government documents can be such a valuable exercise -- it really helps to 'map' the structure of the whole enterprise, IME.  In fact, I would start off by having him read some basic government documents research guide. There used to be a couple of good ones in print (Robinson, Tapping the Government Grapevine, was very accessible) but I haven't looked at them in a while and they may be hopelessly dated.  University library websites sometimes have very useful research guides available -- might be a place to start.

 

It will be a challenge to keep the project narrow enough to be manageable -- I'd say start with no more than 5 years back and a single company and see where that takes you -- but that is in and of itself a hugely useful experience.  

 

Good luck!  Sounds like a neat project.  

 

 

Thanks for the great information!  I think you are right about limiting the scope. He has a company in mind and he will look only at senators, but from there, we'll have to figure out how to tighten down the parameters.

 

He's always loved "following the money" locally and this gives him an opportunity to do so on a greater scale and again, incorporating several disciplines.  He is required to use a university library for his Advanced Research Writing class, so that should tie in nicely.

 

I have never attempted anything on this scale either so I'll be looking at it over the summer. It may be a case of the ignorant leading the blind, but at the very least, we'll learn a lot.