Standard Agenda Discussion -

    Standard Agenda Discussion - Individual Research Summary (instructions may also be access by clicking here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) Background If necessary, conduct additional research into areas where there were gaps in understanding causes, effects, feedback loops, or related problems, as displayed on your problem map. (There may not be much, but it’s a chance to not start off the next conversation behind.)   Then, conduct research into proposed solutions, arguments in favor and against them, what’s been effective elsewhere, what hasn’t worked effectively, etc. Be sure to especially explore expert testimony about the likely effectiveness of these proposals, but you also can consult lay testimony or popular sources.   Ideally, group members will research different aspects of the topic, thus bringing a wide array of information and perspectives to the actual conversation. As such, you’ll need to go beyond simply reading through the top Google hits for the topic. That said, you certainly don’t need to coordinate who researches what; so long as people are thorough in their exploration, you should have a variety of content to draw upon.   Research should be conducted both from targeted, in-depth research, as well as more general internet research. The targeted research could be gathered either by directly searching the most relevant civic and cultural commentary sources on this list (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or by using the library’s resources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or both. Failure to conduct more targeted, in-depth research will result in a deduction from the preparation portion of your score.   The Research Summary Format As in preparation for the last discussion, each person will construct an annotated works cited list, where you list a condensed bibliographic entry for the source (Source name, article name (if any) and URL) and then summarize in a few sentences the relevant information or perspective you gleaned from that source.   Number of Sources Because this is a larger project (and a longer conversation), you should conduct a fair amount of research into your topic--more than for your last discussion. I’m not going to give you a required number of sources, so use good judgment to make sure you’re fully prepared to discuss both the complexity of the problem and the relative merits of potential solutions. Those groups who had difficulty sustaining lengthy conversations in the first discussion might want to especially focus on finding better/more research to provide support for the conversation. (If you’re really stuck, perhaps shoot for something in the range of about eight in-depth sources, or about twelve less involved sources. But use good judgment.)   Submission Submit the document on Canvas by the date listed on the course schedule. Even after submitting your research summary, it’s perfectly fine to continue to read up on the topic, so long as your research summary demonstrates sufficient preparation.