The article I found is titled The Environmental and Economic Impacts of Ocean Acidification,  written by the U.S. Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard. Ocean acidification is currently one of the greatest threats facing our oceans today. Ocean acidification is caused by the mixing of seawater and carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid, thereby increasing the acidity of the ocean. According to the article, in the past 250 years, atmospheric and oceanic carbon contractions have increased by 40 percent, while the pH of our oceans has decreased  by roughly 30 percent, which is a rate of change that has not been seen in over 800,000 years. Only until recently did scientists find out what this entails for marine life in the ocean. Coral reefs are rapidly depleting, hard shelled organisms are unable to form shells, and other marine life is migrating to other areas of the ocean. This document attempted to analyze and provide solutions that combat ocean acidification. The researchers involved in this study needed expert knowledge, reports of events, as well as economic data which may have required several of the following: public and private records, in-depth interviews, surveys, as well as field research. I believe this piece was well done and provided accurate and informational information.

U.S. Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard (22 April 2010). The Environmental and Economic Impacts of Ocean Acidification. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for the United States Senate. pp. 1-21.

The article I came across in the library was from the Journal of Religion and was titled “On Giving Religious Intolerance Its Due: Prospects for Transforming Conflict in a Post-Secular Society”. The author, Jason A. Springs, through this essay tries to find if intolerance and conflict, coming from moral and religious identities and commitments, can be rearranged and used as resources of constructive social and political purposes. In today’s day in age when our society is becoming more and more secular, it is interesting to look at articles such as this one to find out the current significance of religion within society. Especially when it comes to politics, and political speech, are such discussions important. Throughout this piece, the author takes three different steps to investigate his topic. First, he explores the social limits to which religion is accommodated for within public and political life. He then goes on to explore the attempt of Charles Taylor to improve the discussed accommodation through mutual understandings of identity-based opponents. The third section looks at how religiously affiliated conflict and intolerance can be reframed. Within this, he proposed that perhaps the most good comes from intentional conflict, arguing that intolerance is not good, but it can somehow lead towards progress. In all of this research, the fact that America has become so incredibly diverse comes about, as can be seen through an increasing number of secular communities contrasted against a variety of religious fundamentalist groups. Within such a society, there is bound to be the fusion and creation of new horizons. In this piece, the author seems to look at the surface level information addressing the topic of his research. Through looking at reports of acts and events, he rounds his argument through the eyes and work of other researchers. I think an argument could also be made for his use of detached observation and grounded theory of hidden social patterns as they relate to society’s view of religion today.

Although this particular article was somewhat hard to understand, given the particularity of the subject matter, I thought it was really interesting. Although I have thought a lot about the decline of religion in the United States, I had never thought to look into how social and political narratives affect religious intolerance and conflict. I think, if anything, this article does a sufficient job of beginning to address such issues. However, I do think it could have gone farther in depth, looking past the literature on the topic and into more real life scenarios. This is definitely an article I can circle back to as a resource, and one whose references would be useful as well.

Springs, J. A. (2012). On Giving Religious Intolerance Its Due: Prospects for Transforming Conflict in a Post-secular Society. The Journal of Religion,92(1), 1-30. doi:10.1086/662203

Today, in the United States, juvenile delinquency is a rising problem, especially among those with disabilities. The rate of recidivism among these youth is becoming a large problem as well, and those with disabilities are exceptionally vulnerable. This study looks into the different patterns of recidivism among disabled, incarcerated youth and different components associated with it. This particular study dealt with 5,435 juveniles with disabilities. They collected their data from the records of the family court intake, in South Carolina department of juvenile justice. They split up the subjects into 3 different subgroups using the latent class analysis model. Each group had different combination or organizational data such as gender, ethnicity (either Caucasian or African American) family income, age at first referral (into the juvenile justice system) first referral offense severity, family delinquency and drug use. The three separate sub groups could be summarized as follows: subgroup 1 were the economically disadvantaged but with fewer problems in family delinquency and drug use, subgroup 2 were the economically better off group with relatively equal racial distributions and subgroup 3 were the African American males who have more families with delinquency history. After the collection, and analysis of their data, researchers concluded that sub group 3 had the highest percentage of juveniles returning to the juvenile justice system. One of their pattern discoveries associated with this find was that group belonging predicted the likelihood of recidivism.

This research was very well preformed. The researchers included many separate factors that have been known to cause recidivism and used prior knowledge and research surrounding this topic to help create a solid project. The most interesting statistic that I learned while reading this study was that while only 8.2% of students in schools have disabilities, disabled students make up 47.7% of the juveniles justice system. That is a horrifying number and tells us that something needs to change in the handling of juvenile delinquency, especially surrounding disabled youth.

Zhang, D., Hsu, H., Katsiyannis, A., Barrett, D. E., & Ju, S. (2011). Adolescents with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System: Patterns of Recidivism. Exceptional Children, 77(3), 283-298. doi:10.1177/001440291107700302

The article I found in the library is titled “Plant Community Recovery following Restoration in Temporally Variable Riparian Wetlands,” done by Meyer, Whiles and Baer and published in Restoration Ecology in 2010. The research topic was the effectiveness of river/wetland restoration projects done on the Platte river, which is located within the Great Plains, with the study area in southern Nebraska. Over three years they monitored several sites that had been restored at various times, including three natural sites that had never been disturbed for comparison. Their research question was “[Do] measures of community structure (richness, diversity) …increase with time since restoration [of wetlands]?” They found that over time the restored wetlands indeed had more plants, but that undisturbed wetlands and older restored wetlands actually had less richness and diversity than newly restored wetlands. I would put their data into the category of events/acts, as they were measuring mainly plant growth and water levels, which are things that happen. They gathered this data through observation of the sites, visiting them at certain intervals to count numbers and species of plants at each site. They used various forms of statistical analysis to compare the plant communities of the sites with each other and over time. Another significant finding from this research was that there were many challenges in getting a comparison of the wetlands based only on time since restoration, because there were many other variables in this natural experiment, such as soil composition, precipitation differences and management. Even though this study faced a lot of challenges, the resulting findings that diversity actually did not increase over time seems valid and interesting to me, and I think it could potentially be a part of a broader study of how to go about restoring and managing wetlands in this particular area, answering a “how to” research question.

Reference:

Meyer, C.K., Whiles, M.R., Baer S.G. (2008). Plant community recovery following restoration    in temporally variable riparian wetlands. Restoration Ecology. 18(1), 52-64. doi:10.1111/j.1526-100x.2008.00451.x

The research topic of the article I chose, Test-Enhanced Learning in a Middle School Science Classroom: The Effects of Quiz Frequency and Placement, tests how effective quizzes are in learning, specifically with middle school students in a science class.
The article relayed the information gathered from an experimental study, which examined whether quizzing students fosters learning of course content. The researchers used 139 8th grade science students to conduct their experiment. In experiment one, the researchers used three quizzes on the courses content spread throughout the unit prior to the unit’s examination, this experiment resulted in the students receiving a 13%-25% gain in their examination performance. In experiment two, the researchers manipulated the placement of the quizzes. In this experiment the students were quizzed on content prior to the lecture and then again immediately after the lecture. It was found that experiment two resulted in the highest unit examination scores, the benefits of quizzing often continued throughout the students entire course.
The type of data needed for the researchers to properly answer their research question is acts, behavior, or events due to the fact that it is a first-order phenomena and the researchers are conducting the research themselves and observing it in person. The data-gathering method would then be ethnography due to the fact the researchers were in contact with the research subjects. The method of data analysis would fall under the category of quantitative data due to the fact that it is regarding numerical grades and scores in connection with the number of quizzes.
I found this type of research to be very interesting and helpful. The way the researchers conducted their research accompanied by the different methods they used to test how the quiz taking was affecting the examination results was flawless and led to great results, it was a successful experiment.

Agarwal, Pooja K., Huelser, Barbie J., McDaniel, Mark A., McDermott, Kathleen B. Roediger, Henry L. (2011, February). Test-Enhanced Learning in a Middle School Science Classroom: The Effects of Quiz Frequency and Placement. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 103. No. 2, pp. 257-508.

The way humans behave is quite peculiar sometimes you end up working your dream job you’ve always wanted but on the other hand you might have another job that somehow managed to interest you far beyond your dream job. This is only possible because of the concept organizational attraction which is a tactic used by employers and organization to generate interest when it comes to finding new employees to hire. In the article Narrow personality traits and organizational attraction: Evidence for the complementary hypothesis written by Kausel, Edgar E. and Slaughter, Jerel E. the authors try and answer what kind of complementary and supplementary recruiting strategies attracting an employers most preferred candidate. The Kausel and Slaughter went about this was by asking 220 participants to join in their research study, the participants were all job seekers and all they had to do was report on how interested or interesting a group of job advertisements were to them sent via email. The process in which Kausel and Slaughter acquired the shallow opinions of the participants was through repeated uses of questionnaires. I believe the way Kausel and Slaughter analysed their findings was through researcher-centered analysis because they are looking for patterns such as what traits attract more suitable job candidates or what strategies are most effective at making an organization more attractive. Overall I found this to be a well done research study the researchers even started with a set of possible categories the participants could fall into but had room for changes if necessary. They data collection method was not just used on time each participant answered up to 3 questionnaires giving a broader sense of what the participants feel about the job advertisements. For my fellow classmates I think the focus on certain traits like trust, assertiveness, and so on are very interesting.

Link to article, http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/docview/755396882/6C8EB073521844EDPQ/1?accountid=14729

The research topic of the article I chose examined effectiveness of onsite sewage treatment systems. The question focused on what is the percentage of four types of onsite treatment systems (aerobic and septic systems both with and without filters) that allow effluent to surface rather than be treated. The study was done under the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency in 2009. A single certified soil scientist was used to ensure consistency and to verify results. The outcome was a 12.7 to 19.7 percent failure rate among the categories of systems, or about 1 in 8 systems failing overall; no significant distinction between types of systems and failure rates was seen. I suppose expert knowledge could be a data type, because they needed a specific expert in soil sciences to conduct the investigation. However, I am choosing public and private records because the scientist was reporting on the failure of the treatment systems. I believe public and private records was collection method because as the scientist collected data, a record was created. The results were listed as “yes and no” answers to whether the effluent surfaced or not, therefore it is non-numerical data. I am lead to believe it is researcher-centered analysis because the researcher compared whether or not which systems failed and if any failed more than the others. The research was effective in terms of the question, though with the few number of investigations of filtered systems and the small area surveyed I’m not sure we come to a general conclusion as to whether onsite systems are failing to this degree everywhere as opposed to only in Ohio. It was interesting to note that 75% of all onsite treatment systems installed were filter-less anaerobic systems, which also accounted for the highest percentage of failure among each type of system.

Tumeo, M. A., Newland, J. (2009, September). Survey of Home Sewage Disposal Systems in Northeast Ohio. Journal of Environmental Health, 72(2), 17-22.

The research proposal i found online was one on childhood obesity that an undergraduate student did from Cal Poly. She was proposing that she wanted to do a pilot project that involved children in a kindergarten class wanted to teach them about eating healthy and growing healthy foods. Her project was called kindergrow which was a project were she would have a garden of healthy foods and she was going to work with a kindergarten class by teaching them and helping them learn how to grow and make better choices in the foods that they were eating. there was not an actual timeline that she gave but her funding she got was 40$ which would help her start the garden in which is a primary key in her project. When she is going over her project she brings in the numbers of obese children in California and looks and the foods they are consuming and this is her main reason why she is doing this project is to promote and instill a better diet and eating habits in the children’s lives at a early age rather than later.

The research proposal,“The causes of drug addiction among street children in Dhaka city,” was prepared by Sazzad Karim, of the University of Dhaka. This is a rather short proposal of six pages, including the cover page, content page, and bibliography. The content page lists elven sections: Abstract, Introduction, Aims & Objectives, Literature review, Methodology, Analysis of data, Ethical consideration, Time frame, Limitations, Anticipated result, and Reference. However, each section is limited and brief in the information provided.

The purpose of this study, according to the proposal, is to “help us to know the present scenario of drug addiction among street children in Dhaka city and suggest the way to eliminate this dangerous situation.” The study intends to gather data from three randomly selected spots that have a “high concentration of street children” in Bangladesh. The proposal lists areas that are to be randomly selected and researched by three teams of five members each to interview samples of individuals.

For the proposal, one-hundred street children from each of the three spots selected is said to be ideal. This means that total sample for the study would be three-hundred, total. The research relies on a survey and respondent method from street children, using a snowball technique. A snowball technique would require referrals from individuals being survey, to find other street children that could be potential samples. As discussed in class, this type of method could be problematic. It is difficult to survey individuals with issues involving substance abuse because they can be unreliable.

Ultimately, this proposal could use some fine tuning to be more clear to the person reviewing. Because this proposal is intended to be read by an associate professor of the University of Dhaka, it could explain the flaws, as there is a conflict of interest.

REFERENCE:

Karim, Sazzad. “A Research Proposal on “The Causes of Drug Addiction among Street Children in Dhaka City” Submitted to Prepared by.” A Research Proposal on “The Causes of Drug Addiction among Street Children in Dhaka City” Submitted to Prepared by. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

A Research Proposal: The Effects of Restaurant Environment on Consumer Behavior, is an example of a research proposal that I choose to study and critique. I choose this one specifically because it related a lot to the project proposal that I have created. Both have to do with restaurants, and have subjects that aren’t often discussed in the work place.

This article wanted to find out whether the environment of a restaurant, including paint, decor, and seating, had any effect on the consumers and their likability of the restaurants. They planned to help future managers and owners, by learning what is best for a restaurant and what will bring more people back. This proposal included: an abstract, statement of the problem, background, data types, methods of data collection, and some form of analysis. This proposal seemed to have all of the six steps needed in creating a research project, and could possibly go somewhere with their research and finding answers.

I really liked reading this article, because it gave me ideas on how I should make my own research proposal much better. I will definitely use these ideas on my own revision. Providing a statement of the problem and a background is something I thought I could really use in my own project. They stated why we should even ask their question and why it can be important. With providing the background we could see what they already knew about the topic, and what has been already researched.

Something that I would suggest in changing with this proposal is their questionnaire and location. The questionnaire provided a lot about the restaurants environment and the customers likability to come back, but I felt that they should have asked what the customers would have liked to see in the restaurant environment or what they would like to change about the environment. I also felt as though they could have had more of a control over the restaurants that they tested, while they tested a variety of restaurants, I thought that maybe they should have tested one specific type of restaurant such as a diner, and tested other diners with different environments.

Overall, this proposal gave me more ideas on how to improve mine, as well as being able to see what a real proposal looks like.