Effective research begins with transforming a broad topic into focused, answerable questions that guide your entire research process. This course examines the plant physiological function in the biotic and abiotic world around us and incorporates the effects of disruptive human activities. Topics such as plant growth, photosynthesis, nutrient dynamics, and tree water physiology are explored.
Familiarize yourself with the topic, completing general topic searches in resources such as,
(This step may be iterative as you do initial searching to answer the question, you may need to revisit the question to align with the information you are discovering.)
What effect does pollution have on plants?
[too broad - requires more focus - move on to next step.]
You want your question to be focused enough to be interesting, yet answerable in the context in which you are performing the research. Refer back to your background search that identified and listed specific types of pollution and plants.
Asking yourself the following questions about your topic is a helpful way of focusing on a question.
Continuing with the example topic:
Who? - agricultural plant production and humans
What? - microplastics in the air and soil
When? - last 5 years (useful when limiting search results)
Where? - Not applicable for this example but can be considered when focusing a question.
MORE FOCUSED RESEARCH QUESTION:
How can microplastics in the air and soil affect the growth of agricultural plants, and how is that affecting human and/or livestock health?