Welcome to the Modern Studies assignment

Learning Intentions

• You will understand why we are completing the assignment

• You will understand what a hypothesis is

• You will be able to write a hypothesis

What will you be doing in this assignment?

• Researching a topic that interests you from modern studies.

• Collecting some pieces of useful information to help you with your assignment.

• Deciding if these pieces of information are useful to you.

• Choosing how to present your findings and conclusions.

• Making sure you follow advice so that you can pass this assignment.

Researching a topic that interests you from modern studies

You should agree an issue to research with your teacher.

It must be from one or more of the units you studyin modern studies:

Democracy in Scotland and the United KingdomSocial Issues in the United KingdomInternational Issues

You should come up with a hypothesis to test, for example:

The majority of the Scottish people want independence.

The main reason young people get involved in crime is because there are no jobs for them when they leave school.

Collecting some pieces of useful information to help you with your assignment

You need to gather useful knowledge to help you understand what your assignment is about.

You need to keep a note of where you got your information from.

You may have a guest speaker such as an MSP come to visit your class and you can ask them questions to help you with your research.

You will need to find information from at least two different sources, eg the internet, a newspaper, an interview etc.

You need to make your own notes from the information you have collected.

Deciding if these pieces of information are useful to you, ie are they biased?

Are the sources of information going to help you with your research?

You will need to use your modern studies expertise to help you detect exaggeration and bias.

You should make some notes about how useful your sources are.

ChecklistChapter 1(Introduction) •State your hypothesis and what you intend to do.•Outline the research methods you intend to use.

Chapter 2(Primary Research) •Explain and illustrate the findings from this research.•Use the research methods booklet for adv/disadv•Refer back to your hypothesis after each point.

Chapter 3(Secondary Research) Explain and illustrate your findings.•Use the research methods booklet for adv/disadv•Refer back to your hypothesis after each point.

Conclusion •State whether you hypothesis has been proven to be correct or incorrect.•Evaluate the methods used and the findings of your research.

 •Bibliography •Record all of the secondary sources used in your research.•(websites/newspaper articles/magazine articles etc.)•Learning Log •Record of all the work completed for this piece of research•as well as the dates each task was completed.

Check that your AVU presentation contains answers to all of the questions below:

• Think about the following and check that your AVU presentation contains answers to all of the questions below:

• Did you choose the best research method? If so, explain why it was useful.

• If not, what other method would you choose next time and why?• Did you get results that enabled you to draw a conclusion? If you didn’t,• Is there anything you could have done to change this?• Did you find that any of the secondary sources you used were biased?• Did you find any of the information you gathered or used was

exaggerated?• What decisions did you have to make throughout the process?• What conclusions did you draw?