KIS MYP Humanities Research Journal
Based on the Middle School Research Planner by Andrew McCarthy, Digital Literacy Coach, UWCSEA
Dover http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg See UWCSEA Research Skills for more tips on Researching an essay.
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Step 1: Formulating a clear and focused research question
With the help of your teacher, clarify which concepts you will be inquiring into.
Unit focus (topic)
Water: Rivers of Life
Concept focus
System, Orientation in space and time, Culture, and Processes
My Research Question
(should be an engaging, relevant, open-ended and concept-based question)
How does the process and system of each river impact the economy and culture of different
city inside the drainage basin.
Justification of Relevance
(explain why your research question is important to study)
The reason that I choose to use this research question is because it include every concept in
our concept focus which is system, culture, and processes. This Question will be important to
research because we need to know how can the river impact our life both in good and bad way.
And we can solve some problem that is cause by a river and get benefits from the river.
Step 2: Planning your investigation
Keywords are the key to unlocking information on the Internet. Instead of searching for long phrases,
try using commonly used words. Once you have found a good source, use the Find Tool (Command
+ F) to find words within the page.
Keywords
River
Rio Grande
Culture
Processes
System
Economy
History
Drainage Basin
Generate narrower and more focused guiding questions that will help you answer your larger
questions. Guiding questions may be open or closed questions, and a variety of both would be
useful. Generate as many questions as you can to support your plan.
Guiding Questions (indicate which concepts the questions connect to)
Physical
Geography
(answer all)
How many countries are in the drainage basin? Name them.
Where is the source? (Landform and country)
Where is the mouth? (Body of water and country)
What landforms are near the river?
What tributaries flow into the river?
Where is the floodplain of the river?
What kind of animals or natural resources are within the river's watershed?
Human
Geography
(answer all)
What major cities are beside the river?
What is the total population of people living in the drainage basin?
How has the river affected the people living beside it? Explain.
How is the river being used by individual humans? Explain at least 3 uses in detail. Consider cultural
uses as well.
How is the river being used by large companies or the government? Explain at least 3 uses in detail.
Environmental Geography
(answer both)
Are parts of the river polluted? Which parts are the most polluted? Why?
How else have the people living beside the river affected it? Explain.
Knowledge and Thinking
(answer all)
Discuss the processes that make up the river system. Describe how your river changes both
naturally and artificially. This will demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the unit
concepts.
Many people believe rivers play important roles in the history and culture of the region. Provide an
analysis of this belief.
Choose one of the uses of river. Identify the perspectives of two different people of that use. For
example, a farmer’s and a business owner’s perspective of building a tourist attraction. Discuss the
implications of each perspective.
The next important step is making an action plan for the days that you will be investigating. List the
day, the description of your action, and then check off when you have it completed. Add rows if
needed for extra days.
Planned date to
complete
Description of what you will work on
Check when
completed
Monday April 18
Choose your river
Check
Tuesday April 19
Start gathering information and doing research about
your river and finish step 1 and work on keyword of the
step 2 of the research journal
Check
Thursday April 21
Research about the drainage basin, Start the drainage
basin map and finish step 2 of the research journal which
is keyword, guiding question, and action plan
Check
April 22-24
Start doing research about physical geography of the
river and answer the guiding question which is the
physical geography and human geography and record
your answer on the step 3 and give the link of the
sources that you use under the answer
Monday April 25
Finish doing research about the three question and
record your answer on the guiding environmental
geography and work on the knowledge and thinking
Wednesday April
27
Research journal due, turn the research journal in, and
update your map
Tuesday May 3
Start your report, the outline is due, turn it in
May 4 - 9
Work on your report, prepare your presentation
May 10
Finish the report, the final draft due, turn it in, rehearse
the presentation
May 11 - 12
Present my report and watch my classmate’s report
Check
Step 3: Recording your information
The following research grid is a recommended format for compiling the information you gather
throughout your investigation. It is always a good idea to cross-check your information (in other
words, see if the same information can be verified in another source).
You need to consider a range of sources: Academic Articles, Websites, Surveys, Interviews,
Statistical Databases, Books, Magazines, Encyclopedias. Whatever source you choose, ensure that
you analyse the source for reliability. See the Source Analysis checklist below.
Put the name of the source (title of book, magazine or article; or URL) in the columns below.
Physical
Geography
(answer all)
How many countries are in the drainage basin? Name them.
There are two countries that in the drainage basin which is America and Mexico.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155748/
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
Where is the source? (Landform and country) San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado, America. The water usually melts from the snow from
the top of those mountains.
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
http://www.britannica.com/place/Rio-Grande-river-United-States-Mexico
Where is the mouth? (Body of water and country)
Gulf of Mexico in Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville in Texas, America.
http://www.britannica.com/place/Rio-Grande-river-United-States-Mexico
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
What landforms are near the river?
Canyons, hot springs, lakes, deserts, mountains, and volcanics rocks.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155748/
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
What tributaries flow into the river?
Tributary
Average discharge
cu ft/s m3/s
Devils River
Pecos River
Rio Conchos
362
265
848
10.3
7.50
24.0
http://www.ose.state.nm.us/Basins/RioGrande/
http://www.britannica.com/place/Rio-Grande-river-United-States-Mexico
Where is the floodplain of the river?
There is approximately 1,300 acres of floodplain which is located near the river inside the forest.
http://ericaceaesd.blogspot.com/2007/07/bbnp-photo-report-rio-grande-floodplain.html
h t t p : / / w w w. f w s . g o v / r e f u g e / L o w e r _ R i o _ G r a n d e _ Va l l e y / r e s o u r c e _ m a n a g e m e n t /
wetlands_management.html
What kind of animals or natural resources are within the river's watershed?
Mountainous region - bald and golden eagles, black bears.
Southern Mexico and Texas - coyotes, wild cats, mule deer, peregrine, falcons roadrunners ,
rattlesnake, lizard, tarantula spiders.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155748/
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
Human
Geography
(answer all)
What major cities are beside the river?
Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Socorro, Truth or Consequences, Mesilla, and Las Cruces in New Mexico;
and El Paso, Presidio, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, Rio Grande City, McAllen, and Brownsville in
Texas.
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155748/
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
What is the total population of people living in the drainage basin?
According to the WWF panda, there’s approximately 10 millions people living inside the Rio
Grande’s drainage basin which includes Albuquerque, Sante Fe, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Los
Lunas and Belen, New Mexico, El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico.
https://sites.google.com/site/waterwatchalliance/riograndebasinandsanluisvalleyaquifer
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/freshwater_problems/river_decline/
10_rivers_risk/rio_grande_bravo/
How has the river affected the people living beside it? Explain.
There are three main things that the river affected people’s life by living beside it which are a high
chance of flooding, if the water in the river is polluted the river can smell bad and river moths in
summer time.
http://www.geographylwc.org.uk/GCSE/igcse/rivergcase/whylivenearriverr.html
http://www.husd.org/cms/lib08/AZ01001450/Centricity/Domain/2452/Reading%20Mon%208.17.pdf
How is the river being used by individual humans? Explain at least 3 uses in detail. Consider
cultural uses as well.
1. Food and drinking supplies - fresh fishing and water
2. Transportation - by using boat to transport foods and trading
3. Agriculture - good place to grow crops
http://www.geographylwc.org.uk/GCSE/igcse/rivergcase/whylivenearriverr.html
http://www.husd.org/cms/lib08/AZ01001450/Centricity/Domain/2452/Reading%20Mon%208.17.pdf
How is the river being used by large companies or the government? Explain at least 3 uses in
detail.
1. change water’s power to be the electricity to power the factories
2. transporting products both import and export products
3. floodplain - easy to build the factory
http://www.husd.org/cms/lib08/AZ01001450/Centricity/Domain/2452/Reading%20Mon%208.17.pdf
http://www.geographylwc.org.uk/GCSE/igcse/rivergcase/whylivenearriverr.html
Environmental Geography
(answer both)
Are parts of the river polluted? Which parts are the most polluted? Why?
Laredo is a city in Texas that the water is very polluted with chemical and raw sewage. The water in
the Rio Grande really is filled with dead fishes which died because of the chemicals in the river. This
happens because of the warehouse in Northwest of Laredo dump a toxic chemical which just
continue flowing down to Mexico.
http://www.txpeer.org/toxictour/laredo.html
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155748/
How else have the people living beside the river affected it? Explain.
The people that live near the river can affect the river both way good and bad. Some just throw some
of their trash which causes pollution. And the other affect that human made is exotic species, flow
modification, and harvesting.
The Rio Grande (Rivers of North America)
http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Toku-Awa-Koiora/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/Human-impacton-rivers
Bibliography
Brand, Donald Dilworth. "Rio Grande River, United States-Mexico." Encyclopaedia Britannica.
N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.britannica.com/place/Rio-Grande-river-UnitedStates-Mexico>.
"Dumping on the Rio Grande." Toxic Texas. TX Peer, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://
www.txpeer.org/toxictour/laredo.html>.
Fahey, Kathleen. The Rio Grande. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2004. Print.
"Human Impact on Rivers." Science Learning. N.p., 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://
sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Toku-Awa-Koiora/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/Humanimpact-on-rivers>.
McGinley, Mark. "Rio Grande River." The Encyclopedia of Earth. 2009, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/155748/>.
"Rio Grande - Rio Bravo." WFF Panda. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://wwf.panda.org/
about_our_earth/about_freshwater/freshwater_problems/river_decline/10_rivers_risk/
rio_grande_bravo/>.
"Rio Grande Basin and San Luis Valley Aquifer." Water Watch Alliance. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr.
2016. <https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fwaterwatchalliance
%2Friograndebasinandsanluisvalleyaquifer>.
"Rio Grande Basin." New Mexico Office of the State Engineer / Interstate Stream Commission.
N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.ose.state.nm.us/Basins/RioGrande/>.
"Rio Grande No. 7 on List of Endangered Rivers" Laredo Morning Times, April 12, 2000, by
Laura Ridder-Flynn
"Why Do People Live near Rivers?" Geographylwc. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://
www.geographylwc.org.uk/GCSE/igcse/rivergcase/whylivenearriverr.html>.
"Why Do People Live near Rivers/." N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.geographylwc.org.uk/GCSE/
igcse/rivergcase/whylivenearriverr.html>.
"Why Live near the Rivers?" (n.d.): 36-37. HUSD. Evan Moor Corp. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://
www.husd.org/cms/lib08/AZ01001450/Centricity/Domain/2452/Reading%20Mon
%208.17.pdf>.
Knowledge and Thinking
(answer all)
Discuss the processes that make up the river system. Describe how your river changes both
naturally and artificially. This will demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the unit
concepts.
Many people believe rivers play important roles in the history and culture of the region.
Provide an analysis of this belief.
History Rio Grande was found in 1519 by the European explorer that was sent out to survey
the Gulf of Mexico. And later named “Rio Bravo” by a royal Spanish Cartographer in 1536. Álvar
Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s shipwreck near the middle of Rio Grande which caused them to crossed
the river during 1535 - 1536. And while the Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado is in
search of the rich cities in 1540, he found an indian community in the middle part of Rio Grande or
the Pecos area. And after that, many explorers and people started to explore the river and does
some mining and agricultural settlement. Around 1850s to 1874, a great hurricane pass and swept
most of the manmade structure away. Then the United State and Mexico spend a lot of money to
create boundary between the two country. But then in 1967, the USA returned El Chamizal area
back to Axico.
Culture - In 1940, Juan Bautista Rael created a Hispano Folk music along the northern part of Rio
Grande, which is the northern Mexico and Southern Colorado.
http://www.britannica.com/place/Rio-Grande-river-United-States-Mexico
https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/index.htm
https://www.loc.gov/collections/hispano-music-and-culture-from-the-northern-rio-grande/about-thiscollection/
Choose one of the uses of river. Identify the perspectives of two different people of that use.
For example, a farmer’s and a business owner’s perspective of building a tourist attraction.
Discuss the implications of each perspective.
Step 4: Evaluating your investigation
At the end of the investigation process, it is important to self-evaluate your work. Consider the
following questions:
Process
●
Were you able to find the information you were looking for?
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Did your guiding questions change as the investigation progressed?
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Did you make connections between sources of information?
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Could you verify your information among different sources?
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Was your investigation clearly focused on the concepts?
Results
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What was surprising or interesting about what you discovered?
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Was it easy to interpret the results of your investigation? Why (not)?
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Are you satisfied with your product? What was done well? What could have been done
better?
Approaches to Learning: Information Literacy
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Did you use a variety of source types? Did you use non-Internet sources?
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Did you use both primary and secondary sources?
●
Could you easily analyze the reliability of your sources?
Self-evaluation of investigation process and results
Step 5a: Citing your sources
As a writer it is your ethical responsibility to give proper credit to sources. It is also very important
that you give credit in accordance with a style of citations. You must use MLA style formatting, and
should use EasyBib.com for help in the process. If you fail to give proper credit to a source you have
committed plagiarism.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Works Cited page should always be the last page of your essay, report or presentation.
Sources should be organized alphabetically by the first word or name in the entry. This
first word or name is what you use in the paper when making a direct citation or quote from
the author.
You should include every source that is in your research above.
Use Easybib.com to create your Works Cited page.
Remember there’s a difference between a Works Cited page and a full Bibliography. Please check
with your teacher which one is required for this assignment.
Bibliography = An alphabetical list of every source used in your investigation, whether or not
information from that source ended up in your final product.
Works Cited = An alphabetical list of all the sources that you specifically used in your product by
including an in-text citation.
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In-text citations = An indication of where information has been obtained and has a full citation in the
works cited list. Normally the citation includes just the author’s last name and the page number. For
instance (Anderson 58). For on-line sources, see the examples below:
Step 5b: Source Analysis
For some assignments you will complete a detailed source analysis. Consider the following
questions from the CRAPPY source analysis template.
Currency:
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How recent is the information? Is it current enough for your investigation? This will depend on
the nature of your topic.
Reliability:
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Is the information primarily fact-based or opinion? Has the author listed their sources? Can
you verify the information somewhere else? Is this from a well-known organization?
Authority:
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Who is the author? What are their qualifications? Do they include their contact information? If
there’s no author, does it come from a reputable news source or organization?
Purpose:
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What is the intention of the source? To inform, persuade, or sell you something? Is the
information organized clearly?
Perspective:
●
What is the particular point-of-view of this source? Consider the purpose of the source. Could
there be any bias? Is the source balanced and give both points of view or just one?
Your research:
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How is this source useful for your research? Does the information in this source support and
extend what you already know about the topic? Or does it challenge your research?
Source
(Proper MLA citation)
Analysis
(Approximately 5-8 sentences)
Rubrics for Evaluating Research and Source Analysis
(Grade 7 - 8)
Criterion B: Investigating
1 2
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3 4
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56
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78
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identifies a research question that is clear, focused and relevant
formulates a limited action plan or does not follow a plan
collects and records limited or sometimes irrelevant information with guidance,
reflects on the research process and results in a limited way
Formulates/chooses a research question that is clear and focused and describes its
relevance
formulates and occasionally follows a partial action plan to investigate a research
question
uses a method(s) to collect and record some relevant information
with guidance, reflects on the research process and results
Formulates/chooses a clear and focused research question and describes its
relevance in detail
formulates and mostly follows a sufficiently developed action plan to investigate a
research question
uses methods to collect and record appropriate relevant information
with guidance, evaluates on the research process and results
Formulates/chooses a clear and focused research question and explains its
relevance
formulates and effectively follows a consistent action plan to investigate a research
question
uses methods to collect and record appropriate and varied relevant information
with guidance, provides a detailed evaluation of the research process and results
Criterion D.iii - Thinking Critically (Source Analysis)
recognizes the origin and purpose of few sources/data as well as few values and
1 - limitations of sources/data
2
34
analyzes sources/data in terms of origin and purpose, recognizing
limitations
some values and
analyzes sources/data in terms of origin and purpose, usually recognizing values and
5 - limitations
6
effectively analyzes a range sources/data in terms of origin and purpose, consistently
7 - recognizing values and limitations
8