Dr. Dana Williams discussed the purpose of the newly designed freshman seminar class. She said it was "designed to encourage students to pursue a lifetime of research through independent discovery." It was also built to instill a sense of commitment to academic excellence in the students. The primary objectives of the seminar were to identify the principle components of research and relate the components to the group project. Related objectives were to show the relation of the previous lectures to the project.
She also discussed how to effectively compose a research project. There are six basic components of research. They are as follows: statement of a problem or challenge, current state of research, methodology, framework, development of thesis, and the conclusion.
I was interested in the second component of research which is the current state of research. From this topic Dr. Williams posed the questions: "What has already been said aobut your subject?" Will your research reveal something new or diifferent?" What information do you have excess to?" Dr. Williams said that research is supposed to provide new information about a subject and present a different persective on the subject. I find it hard to create new insight on a subject when most tiopics have been disected and researched for many years. The fact that I do not have access to groundbreakin information does not help the situation.
Nonetheless, Dr. Williams example of the Freshman Seminar research was very helpful, and it allowed me to see the process needed to complete the group research project.
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