Guided
Research
What do want to learn
What we already know
What we're going to do
Share our data
See others' data
Picturing the data
What does data mean?
More questions
What do we do now?
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Problem: The KanCRN Director has accidentally spilled mustard and
grape Kool-aid on the shirt his wife gave him for their first wedding
anniversary. Knowing how much the shirt means to her, the director
is desperate to find someone who will help him get the stain out as
much as possible. Are you up to the challenge? Can you save the
KanCRN Director from getting in trouble with his wife?
Many times we are presented with problems for which we have to find
answers. In this case, we have to find the best way to remove the
stains from the director's shirt without losing the color. To find
the best answer for problems like this one, we use a process called
Research. Research is the investigation you perform to find an
answer.
The Research Question
Before professionals conduct an investigation, they formulate a
question. This question guides the research. Without a question,
a person doing research may collect a large amount of information,
but not have anything that will solve the problem.
The question we have developed for the KanCRN director's problem is:
Which combination of solvent and method will work best for removing
mustard and Kool-Aid from a shirt without losing the color of the material?
A solvent is a substance that is used to dissolve a stain. A method is a
way of trying to remove the stain.
This question may be scary because it is so long. We can make it less scary by breaking it down into smaller parts:
- Which solvent and method is the best for removing a mustard stain?
- Which solvent and method is the best for removing a grape Kool-Aid stain?
- Which solvent and method is the best for not losing the shirt color?
By looking at each of these questions individually, our research
will be easier to do.
We now have to design an investigation, which will answer our
questions. Before we design the investigation, we need to have an
understanding of how soap removes dirt from clothes and why some
solvents remove stains while others do not. We can find this
information in the section called "What do we already know?"
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