Skip to Main Content

Lesson 3

Explore Potential Central Research Questions

We will discuss our topic exploration with our research teams, determine the viability of and refine our Central Research Questions, and conduct pre-searches using the Potential Sources Tool.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I collaborate with my peers to hone our explorations into possible Central Research Questions?

  • Can I conduct pre-searches to determine potential sources for inquiry?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

In our teams, we will discuss our topic explorations.

Using your completed Potential Areas of Investigation sections on your Exploring a Topic Tools, take turns with your team, sharing what you learned from exploring your topic through Internet searches, visits to the library, and discussions with your learning community. As each team member shares, consider the following questions:

  1. What new information about the topic did you learn?

  2. Which points of connection can you make among your team members’ explorations?

  3. Which ideas do you want to investigate further?

Activity 2: Discuss

In our teams, we will use the Central Research Question Checklist to help choose two to three central research questions to explore as the possible central research question for our research.

Step 1

Locate and review the Central Research Question Checklist. In the next lesson, your teacher will use this checklist to evaluate your team’s question and help you refine it further if necessary. Note that the checklist provides guiding questions around the following criteria:

  • coherence

  • scope

  • relevance

  • interest

Step 2

Choose two to three Central Research Questions to explore as the possible Central Research Question for your research. You might use the Exploring a Topic Tool to guide your questions and Potential Areas of Investigation.

The Central Research Question will be the primary driver of your research. As you decide, consider the following questions:

  1. Can any of the Central Research Questions be combined?

  2. Which areas are of interest to the entire team?

  3. Which areas would be of most interest and importance to your learning community?

Activity 3: Read – Write – Discuss

We will interact with the words we defined to cement our understanding of their meaning.

Work with a partner or group to respond to the vocabulary exercises, as directed by your teacher for the following words:

  • coherence

  • scope

  • relevance

  • viable

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will learn about and craft inquiry questions that will help determine the viability of our central research questions and support our research.

Step 1

The Central Research Question is the main question for your research, but you will need to use several questions to make inquiries about many smaller and specific aspects of your topic. These can be referred to as “inquiry questions.”

To learn more about inquiry questions, locate and read the Posing Inquiry Questions for Research section of the Questioning Reference Guide.

Step 2

Now that your team has chosen two to three possible Central Research Questions, you need to determine if they are viable as the Central Research Question of your research. Merriam-Webster defines viable as "capable of working, functioning, or developing adequately."

In a research context, this means that a viable Central Research Question will potentially lead to enough available information from a variety of sources to develop a researched-based perspective. It also means that the question is interesting and important enough to explore with sustained research and to present to your learning community.

Conducting pre-searches will help you determine a Central Research Question’s viability. Your pre-searches should be based on some basic questions about the area.

Use the following guiding questions to craft several inquiry questions for each of your Central Research Questions to use as the basis of your pre-searches.

  1. How is it defined?

  2. Where did it originate?

  3. What is its history?

  4. What are its major aspects?

  5. What are its causes and implications?

  6. What other things is it connected to or associated with?

  7. What are its important places, things, people, and experts?

Activity 5: Read – Discuss – Write

We will learn how to use the Potential Sources Tool to aid our pre-searches.

Step 1

With the class, review the Potential Sources Tool, which you will eventually use to assess sources on their richness, relevance, accessibility, interest, and credibility. This tool will help you develop a method for assessing how useful sources are for your research purposes.

In groups, discuss the following questions:

  1. How is the Potential Sources Tool organized?

  2. What kind of textual information do the questions elicit?

  3. What did you learn about assessing sources?

  4. What do you need to pay attention to as you assess sources?

As a class, discuss the importance of assessing sources and how to determine whether to use certain sources or not.

Step 2

Now, use Potential Sources Tools to write down the basic information about the texts you may have found for homework. You do not need to make comments to fully assess the sources.

Activity 6: Read – Write – Discuss

We will use our questions and the Potential Sources Tool to conduct pre-searches, determine the viability of each source, and refine our central research questions based on these initial searches.

Step 1

The goal of the pre-searches is to validate the availability of information, make sure everyone in your team is genuinely interested in your potential Central Research Question, and find out whether your team needs to refine your question or problem.

As a team, determine which team members will investigate which potential Central Research Questions.

Step 2

In your library or online, begin searching for sources related to the Central Research Questions’ Potential Areas of Investigation on your Exploring a Topic Tool.

Find between one and three sources relevant to one of your potential Central Research Questions using the Potential Sources Tool. Note that you may have scanned or read more texts—the ones you choose should represent the most relevant and trustworthy.

Step 3

Bring your potential sources back to your team to help determine which potential Central Research Question is the most viable, and refine it based on your team’s recent searches.

Begin planning a brief presentation to your teacher in which you summarize your Potential Area of Investigation, present your proposed Central Research Question, and summarize the potential sources your team has identified so far that led you to choose this Central Research Question.