Questions of Curiosity: Community College Students' Non-Classroom Research Ideas

All Research Questions from the Activity

Some notes included after each question, including if it was a librarian written question, any clarification on the topic or population cards used, if it was their own question not developed using the cards, and if there were any "votes" (called "stars" here).

1. Do teens get higher grades if they’re on a Keto diet versus other diets? (Librarian Question)
2. Are parents slytherin’s or ravenclaw? (2 stars) (Harry Potter second card)
3. Do parents truly like Keto diet or are they just lying to us? (6 stars)
4. Do zombie doctors consider non-zombie people to be ill? (9 stars)
5. How did librarians keep track of casualties in the Civil War? (1 star)
6. How much data (GB, TB, Mb) does a human brain contain? (1 star) (OWN QUESTION)
7. Do librarians eat while reading? (Population card only used)
8. Are we between the 3^rd and fourth dimension? (OWN QUESTION)
9. Is there a corrilation[sic] between cell phone addiction in teenagers and loving to fly?
10. Do students learn better when their professors are on a keto diet?
11. What is the best method for senior citizens to survive the zombie apocalypse? (Librarian sample question) (12 stars)
12. Does getting to know your local librarian impact whether you enter the juvenile justice system or not?
13. What is the average salinity or a teenager’s saliva, and will it be high enough to preserve food? (3 stars)
14. Does reading Harry Potter everyday keep the doctor away?
15. Does quilting give college athletes more dexterity?
16. Did man really land on the moon (1 star) (OWN QUESTION)
17. Do doctors use magic wands? (Harry Potter 2^nd card)
18. Do teenagers really like their cellphones or are they just anti-social? (3 stars) (Cellphone addiction)

The 5 most "popular" questions determined by sticker "votes" during the event:

• What is the best method for senior citizens to survive the zombie apocalypse? (12 stars) (Librarian sample question)
• Do zombie doctors consider non-zombie people to be ill? (9 stars)
• Do parents truly like Keto diet or are they just lying to us? (6 stars)
• What is the average salinity or a teenager’s saliva, and will it be high enough to preserve food? (3 stars)
• Do teenagers really like their cellphones or are they just anti-social? (3 stars)

There are many free online gaming options (slot machines, airport lounge, name wheels, etc.) that could work for an activity like this. Jamie has used a random name wheel successfully. After creating two wheels, students spin each one for randomly assigned subjects and populations to create research questions with. You can take it a step further and have them add their questions to a shared online white board or bulletin board. The psychology example linked below shows this adaptation.

Sample "Spin the Wheel" Activity variation below (embedded wheel spinning with topic options).

1. SLCC Fact Book 2021-22. https://i.slcc.edu/performance/Factbook/2021-22/index.html
2. SLCC General Eductaion Learning Outcomes. http://www.slcc.edu/gened/learning-outcomes.aspx
3. Kelley, K., & Weller, L. "Gamification and the One-Shot: Pick-a-Project." http://www.unm.edu/~lweller1/gamification/
4. ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Additional Reading:

Head, A.J., & Eisenberg, M.B. (2010). Assigning inquiry: How handouts for research assignments guide today’s college students. Project Information Literacy Progress Report.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2021). 12-Month enrollment component 2019-20 provisional data. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Zheng, A., & Byrd, V. (2020). Students’ perception of a method for identifying topics for research questions. 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274027

The physical posters were printed on fabric using Spoonflower. Links to the vendor and information about creating the posters are below.