Friday, February 13, 2009

Day 2 of Research and Source Finding


Alright so I've found a decent amount of information on my topic. Most articles I have found are in favor for a later start for students or agree that on average students need more sleep. I have found maybe one or two counter articles so far that blame the sleep-ridden teens for being on computers, cell phones, TV, etc. for too long, causing them to become restless. They claim that late night AIM conversations, long hours on facebook, weekly sitcoms, and gossip filled text messages simulate teens to the point where they cannot fall asleep. I plan on looking into this further, maybe even perhaps changing my topic to "does technology spark sleep problems amongst teens?" Even if I keep the same topic, this information is still something I can use to prove my point.
The only headway I've made on my project so far is bookmarking certain sources... I think there is a good chance I'm going to have to cut back on my sources because I already have 8, none of which are books and only 2 that are printed articles. The problem is that most of my sources only have small polls or results from a survey, rather than definite facts. If I said that I would be spending my vacation finding a bunch of sources and beginning an outline, I'd be lying. Maybe on the last day I'll try and find a book or two but that will probably be it. Also random little fact, I like adding pictures to my blogs because I think it looks better and just makes the blog look less boring, so expect to see at least one picture for almost every one of my blogs.

Monday, February 9, 2009

My Topic and Websites


So I've decided my topic... I'm going to argue that high schools should have a later start time to allow students to get more sleep. Most people in high school don't go to bed till 11:00 pm or later. With a later start, students will not only be more awake, but will also perform better. Godmintz said that if I write a good paper, he'll show it to the School Committee. Hopefully I'll put enough effort into this paper to write something at least half decent to show them. Here are some of the websites that I have begun looking at for research.