Doing your own research

Introduction

Since geographers often conduct their own investigations, it is important for geography students to be able to carry out their own research. This chapter will guide students on how to carry out their own research projects.

Researching a topic

People favour different learning styles (approaches to learning). Not everyone considers reading and remembering information from a book to be the most effective way to learn. There are many people who favour a hands-on approach, since it enables them to retain information through active participation. One of the best ways to be actively involved is to find a topic which can form the basis of a research project.

While students can select any topic to research, it is often best to select a topic of personal interest. Students should base their investigation on a simple question, to help them clarify what they want to find out. It is also important that the topic is not too large. A topic which focuses on large issues may be too time consuming or require too many resources to be able to be complete.

Once students decide on a question which they want to find an answer to, they need to rephrase it in the form of a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement which needs to be tested.

Example

Researching and collecting data

There are a number of ways in which students can find information to prove or disprove their hypothesis. Topic 1, Chapter 2: Gathering information, outlines some of these methods. They include observation and classification, interviews and questionnaires, as well as counting and measuring surveys. Since not all of these methods will be relevant for every project, students will have to select methods according to the information they need to find out.

Here are some general questions that students need to consider when researching and collecting data:

1. Who or what should I observe?
2. How often should I make observations?
3. Who should I interview?
4. What should I ask?
5. Who or what should I be counting/ measuring?
6. How should I record the results?

Example

Jane decided to determine whether the train is a better way of travelling than the bus, by measuring the levels of comfort and the time it takes to travel to school each morning. Every weekday over a period of one week, Jane caught the bus while documenting levels of comfort and trip times. The following week, she repeated the process on the train. She decided that the best way to measure comfort is through observation. She recorded her results using both a qualitative (relating to quality) and quantitative (relating to quantity) technique.

Her findings were as follows:
Table 1: Observations of comfort

Analysing data

Once data has been collected, it needs to be analysed. Students need to consider:

1. What does this data tell me?
2. Do I have enough information?
3. Does it support or oppose my hypothesis?
4. How does it support or oppose my hypothesis?
5. Are these results accurate?
6. How could this project be improved next time?
7. Have I forgotten anything?

For more information on writing a report, refer to Topic 6: Chapter 1: Writing a report.

Example

The information below supports Jane's hypothesis that the train is a better way to travel to school than the bus. The train proved to be slightly more comfortable than the bus, and also took half the time to travel from Chatswood to North Sydney than the bus. After interpreting her findings, Jane considered how this investigation could be improved in the future. She decided that the results could be made more accurate if she measured the temperature on the train and bus using a thermometer. She also decided to conduct a counting survey, to provide an exact number of people on the bus or riding in the train carriage. For even better accuracy, Jane planned to have another person (or people) assist her with her observations. This way, on the days that Jane was making observations on the train, her partner could make observations on the bus.

Reporting findings

Once students have analysed and interpreted their findings, their results need to be reported so that they and others can refer to them. When writing a report, it is important that students consider what message they are trying to convey and who is going to be reading it.

Reports should follow this general structure:

1. introduction: including the topic and the hypothesis
2. method: the research methods used in the investigation (e.g. observation, surveys etc)
3. body: presentation of all data collected (including tables, graphs, photographs etc)
4. conclusion: what was discovered and the implications of these results