Knowing First-Hand: Primary Research

Introduction

We normally trust books, teachers, and experts to guide us through the basic knowledge of many things. But, how are we sure that they are right? What if different sources say different things? Who is right? Or what about questions that no one has the answer to? In these cases, we need to get our hands dirty and seek out the knowledge for ourselves. This search does not happen in the books and webpages we are used to (or at least not all of it), it happens in the real world, through trial and error, experimentation, and observation: this is primary research. 

Important Note on Unit Mastery: You can tag any science unit or statistics unit. If you already have some mastery of the unit it can help gain higher mastery. If it is a unit you have not gained mastery on, you can tag it but will have to do more initial research to gain mastery. Gaining mastery over the unit is not guaranteed.

Essential Questions

• What is the difference between primary and secondary research? In what way are they related?

• How can the steps of the scientific method be applied to do primary research on any selected topic?

Learning Objectives

• Understand and apply how observation can start secondary or primary research on any topic.

• Explore and design a primary research method

• Apply adequate organization skills to document processes and properly manage sources

• Analyze results and data to reach conclusions and answers to research questions