Getting+Started+on+Your+Independent+Study

Independent Study Process  Step 1: Decide on a Topic   You've got passions, right? What are they? Is there something you've always wanted to learn about, but you're just too busy doing school work to devote the time? Well, now's your chance! Egyptian mummies, right on! Paranormal activity, awesome! The periodic table, yes! Maybe real-world problems are more your speed. How about finding a solution to to help kids living in poverty in your community? What about conducting a survey to find out what subject students at OHDELA struggle with most and developing a product or service to help them? How do you feel about bullying? Think you could develop a product or service that will help students to become more aware of this problem and how to help? Yes, you can! If you are interested in exploring a real-world problem and developing a solution for it visit [] for help getting started.

 [|Step 2 - Looking for and Forming a Focus] Once you have decided what you are interested in be sure to choose a topic/problem that is focused and narrow. For example, ancient Egypt is a very broad topic; mummification is more narrow yet has the potential to be in-depth.

Step 3: Research  Once you have decided on your topic/problem, begin your research.

 Use a variety of sources: websites, books, magazines/newspapers, applications, videos, documentaries  Record your research  Choose a format to compile your research and document your progress  ** Be sure to record your sources as you research so you don’t have to go back and do this later. It takes just a few minutes and will make your life much easier! You will need all the sources you used when creating your bibliography. **

Decide what your main topics or questions are so that you can organize your notes. For example, if the topic is mummification the main ideas or questions that you will be researching might be:

What were mummies?

Who were the mummies (what people were mummified)?

When and where did mummification take place?

Why did Egyptians mummify their dead?

How did the Egyptians beliefs about death and the afterlife relate to the practice of mummification?

How were mummies made? What tools and materials were used in mummification?

Who was the god of mummification and how was he important to the process?



Step 4: Bibliography

Create a bibliography page where you keep track of all the sources you use as you are working on your independent study. You will want to make sure that you have a variety of sources (websites, books, magazines/newspapers, applications, videos, documentaries). Include the information about the source using the following site:

[] You are going to love this resource! It gives you the information you need to put in for a particular source like a website or a book and it creates the bibliography entry for you and inserts it right at the top of the page. Just input the information and click generate and it will create each source for you. Once you click generate and it is inserted at the top you need to copy and then paste into your Bibliography word document. Each time you put in information for a new source the old one that you did will be replaced at the top with the new one which is why you need to copy and paste each time into your word document. The only trouble I had was when I was putting in the information for an internet source I could not find the author. I put in everything else and just left the author blank. I wish I this tool was available when I was in high school and college!