Northwestern Middle School Endangered Species

Northwestern Middle School Endangered Species

7th Grade Research Project Packet 2011-2012

Over the next several weeks, you will engage both the research and writing process in an effort to learn more about one of our fellow inhabitants of the Earth and to examine the factors that are contributing to its declining population. You will pursue information from a variety of sources in an effort to not only become an expert on this animal and its habitat, but also to become an ambassador for its survival. This assignment is designed to give you practical, real-world experience in the application of research and writing skills. Many of you who master these skills during this project will likely find them useful throughout the rest of your life.

Your project will persuasively confront the question:

Why is the ______endangered, and what can we do about it?

PLEASE SIGN BELOW:

I am aware that my child is participating in an extensive research project in his/her Language Arts class. This project is due on Friday, March 2. I am aware of the requirements of this project and have reviewed the contents of this packet with my child.

The teacher will provide each student with a green folder to hold all of the necessary research materials, including colored index cards and important instructional handouts.

.

Parent Signature:______Student Signature: ____________

Endangered Species Research Project CALENDAR:

The timeline below will be used as a guide for the completion of this project, and may be subject to change as needed.

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Dec. 19
·  What is Plagiarism and How Do I Avoid It?
·  Students take a pretest on Plagiarism and view a video to clarify / 20
·  Why should we Save Endangered Species?
·  Students view an informative pamphlet on the benefits of saving our planet’s species. / 21
·  What will we learn during the research unit?
·  Students will set-up a manila folder where they will take notes on these concepts over next several weeks. / 22
·  Recognizing the parts of the project and how they are organized / 23
Winter Break
Starts Today!
(Dec. 23- Jan. 4)
Jan. 2
Winter Break / 3
Winter Break / 4
Teacher Work Day / 5 / 6
9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13
16
MLK Holiday
/ 17 / 18 / 19 / 20
23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27
30 / 31 / Feb. 1 / 2 / 3
6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17
20
/ 21 / 22 / 23 / 24

*The next week will be dedicated to polishing the final product: self-evaluation, working with images, creating a cover page, continuing to proofread, and catching up on any unfinished steps of the process.

Requirements

Final product: 3-4 Page Article about your endangered species. The final draft of this product will represent the culminating effort of all your research. Below you will see the items that are necessary to properly complete the essay.
Five sources (minimum), documented on five source cards. Sources should represent a variety of electronically accessed, credible media.
You must have between 15-20 properly formatted note cards (3-4 per source). The note cards must represent a variety of note-taking strategies: paraphrase, quotation, summary, and fact.
At least 6 examples of Parenthetical Documentation. This means that anytime you use paraphrased or quoted material, you must properly use “in text” documentation to credit the source of information.
Works Cited Page– This is a bibliography which lists all the sources used to write your article.
Images – You will be responsible for collecting 5 images which best represent your animal, its habitat, its suffering, and the solution you propose for saving it. (These 5 images will consist of: one for the cover page and one for each section of the article). Sources for images must be properly cited.

Documenting your sources:

Whenever you use someone else’s words or ideas, you need to credit the source. One way to do this is to include the source at the end of the sentence that contains information you found in your research. This is called a Parenthetical Citation. You will also need a Works Cited Page at the end of your article. See page 698 in your literature textbook for specific information on documenting your sources in your bibliography or “Works Cited” section.

An important note about plagiarism:

Presenting someone else’s ideas as your own is known as “plagiarism.” To avoid plagiarism, you must properly give credit to the sources of information you use in your brochure. Remember that the purpose of this project is not to simply reorganize information that you discover relating to your subject, but to draw your own conclusions based on that information. The conclusions you draw from the information and the point you are making with the information will be what makes this project yours. If you have a question about whether you are properly using the information you have found in your research, ask the teacher.

Inadequately or improperly documented sources may result in a failing grade for this assignment.

Please do not let this become an issue.

Progress Checklist
Name:______ / DUE DATE / DONE?
/ Teacher Signature
Step #1 Locate relevant sources and PRINT them (at least 5)
Step #2 Read your sources and Highlight useful information that pertains to specific sections of your paper. You may want to color-code this. Toss out printed sources that do not have useful information or that might contain the exact same information as other sources.
Step #3 Create a Source Card for each source you choose to use in your paper (at least 5).
Step #4 Complete a working Works Cited list of all your sources.
Step #5 Use (15-20) color-coded Note Cards to take notes from your highlighted sources.
Step #6 Complete a rough draft of the Introduction Section.
Step #7 Complete a rough draft of the Habitat Section.
Step #8 Complete a rough draft of the Problem Section.
Step #9 Complete a rough draft of the Solution Section.
Step #10 Participate in Peer Editing
Step #11 Revise, edit, and write your 2nd Draft
Step #12 Create a Title Page for your paper.
Step #13 Find and document relevant Images
Step #14 Revise once more, and submit your Final Draft along with all research materials and related documents.

** Dear Students,

It is your responsibility to make sure that I have initialed the boxes above to ensure that a grade has been recorded for each step. The most important part of this process is completing each step in a timely manner. Failure to do so may have a detrimental effect on your semester grade!

Thanks for all your hard work!

--Mrs. Wilson

Source Cards: an overview…

Source cards are used to document the sources of information you use in your brochure. You will use this information to construct your Bibliography of Works Cited panel. Those sources may consist of:

Ø  Web Sites

Ø  Government Reports or Documents

Ø  Research Reports or Organization Fact Sheets

Ø  Other On-line accessed information sources

Ø  Periodicals/Magazines

Ø  Reference Books

Ø  Encyclopedia

For each source you find, record the bibliographic information on a separate, YELLOW index card. You will need this information to give credit to the sources in your paper. You will use the source number on each card to identify the notes you take during your research.

Note Cards: an overview…

As you read and find material that suits the purpose of your project, record each piece of information on a note card. You will probably use all of the note-taking methods listed below:

Ø  Fact – These can be bullet points, and should just consist of universal knowledge or statistics.

Ø  Paraphrase – Restate in your own words the information you read from a passage.

Ø  Summarize – Rephrase in fewer words, trying to capture just the main ideas.

Ø 
Quote – Copy the original text word-for-word, only if the author’s own unique words more creatively or effectively capture a particular point. Use “quotation marks” to signal a quote. General reference sources without authors should not be quoted- Only people can be quoted.

No matter how good your notes are, they won’t help you if you don’t organize them! Before you take a note, consider which section of your paper the information is for. Choose the color card that matches that section. There are 4 sections of your paper, covering 4 topics, each represented by a different color note card. You are required to use certain color index cards to represent certain sections. This way, you and I both will be able to easily identify which notes go with which section / topic.

(REMEMBER: the YELLOW index cards are your Source Cards).

Suggested Note Card Colors: