Anthony Arnette
9-4-09
Pd: 2
Hours Worked: 6
Total Hours: 6
Week 1 Journal
From the first day of school, I have been introduced to the Independent Research program and its veteran students. Mr. Ashcraft talks about the classes’ guidelines and how every thing works. He introduced the website: www.glenelggt.com, where I can look at past students’ projects, research, and topics. To me this class seems hard for the first week, but I have seen how other students interact in the class and I believe I can get through it. Next week I am told that a veteran student of the name Maria Smith is presenting her last year project about cheetahs.
Anthony Arnette
9-11-09
Pd: 2
Hours Worked: 6
Total Hours: 12
Week 2 Journal
I am now getting homework in the class. I have to write down projects that I have done in the past and pick one of them to do scholarly research on. I have to answer ten questions on this project. So, I picked my science fair project that I currently did in ninth grade. My project was about the evaporation rates of water on different surfaces. After answering the questions, such as: What was the purpose of your project?, What questions did your research answer?, I have concluded that my science fair project had no meaning or purpose to me or to pretty much any audience.
I have told Mr. Ashcraft my actual topic for the year. I discussed with him that I am going to take my sophomore year and research Criminal Justice Law (Defense Law).
I have finally seen a final project. Maria Smith presented in front of the whole class her project last year. It looks like she took a lot of time because there was a lot of information presented. Overall, it was a pretty good job she has done on her topic of Cheetahs. She told the class how she got her advisors, how she constructed her research, and what her research meant.
Anthony Arnette
9-18-09
Pd: 2
Hours Worked: 7
Total Hours: 19
Week 3 Journal
I started constructing my research background information. I visited a few cites and tried to get some data, but I am starting out pretty slow.
I sat down 1 on 1 with Mr. Ashcraft and discussed my schedule and my procedures for this upcoming year. Our homework earlier this week was to construct a weekly schedule of your daily routine. The point was to find open holes where you can do some research at home about your topic and if you needed to meet with your advisor after school. The discussion went well, and now I am ready for my project.
Another classmate of mine and a veteran in the class presented his project from last year. His name is Nick Hoyt, and he was presenting about demolition. Just like Maria, his project was also fascinating to me. I wasn’t interested in any of those projects, but I was paying attention to every word said between them both.
Mr. Ashcraft has given us an assignment to research for practice. He gave two topics: Human Genomes or Space Advancement/ NASA. I took the human genomes because it would give me a little knowledge of my field. The genomes are related to such forensic lab testing in cases involving murder or rape or just as simple as assault.
A classmate of mine has helped me with finding an advisor. His father is a judge in Prince George’s County. His father and I have emailed each other twice so far. He has agreed to assist me in my project and my findings. So, I have to thank Philip and his father Philip Nichols.