Race+to+Nowhere

toc Last year, SAS teachers started discussing homework and stress. We watched a video called “Race to Nowhere” which focused on how many students in America feel overworked, overscheduled and burnt out (even in middle school). We asked whether our students felt the same way and, if so, what we could do about it. The discussion continues, but I thought it would be interesting to gather some information. Watch the trailer [|here].
 * //Investigation: stress, homework, technology and school//**

I’d like our class to consider some of these questions and try to investigate the situation at SAS.

= **Background reflection** = // Think about and write about __any three__ of these questions. //
 * Do you feel stressed or burnt out at school?
 * How do you think homework helps you?
 * Do you ever feel like you have too much homework?
 * What is the average amount of time you spend on homework each night?
 * What is the average number of hours of sleep you get each night? Do you think this is enough?
 * How many hours a day do you spend on a screen (phone, computer, tv)?
 * Do you think there is a value in “downtime” or free time?
 * Do you think students should have homework on weekends? Vacations?
 * Do you think playing violent video games makes you more violent?

=Build your understanding= //Read __any two__ of these sources and be ready to share.//
 * Here are two news programs about kids and technology: [|Kids online] [|Digital nation]
 * What do you think about this talk about the [|dangers of the networked brain.]???
 * Here is an [|article] that might surprise you about people who work at Google.
 * [|This article]discusses the effect of violent video games on the brain.
 * Another [|article] that claims that gamers' brains are different from non-gamers.
 * On the other hand, this [|article] explains that video games can help kids.
 * Do YOU get enough sleep? Check it out [|here] and [|here].
 * Look at [|this website] to get some information about the kind of statistics that would be useful.
 * Also, [|here] is the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), the orignal study which is mentioned in the above report. It is in America and has some limitations, but includes some interesting charts which will give you helpful ideas on how to display your data.

=Question skills= Complete the question exercises provided by Mr. Nordmeyer. Choose questions carefully for your survey and interview in order to get the best information from students and teachers.

=Research Terminology= Jenna Yun's amazing summary of research terms and tools

=Research questions= //We will list these at the very bottom:// What do you want to learn more about? What assumptions do you want to challenge? What do you think high school students and teachers need to understand about our school? //>> You will choose which of these questions is most interesting to you and then design your project.//

= **Research methods** = You need to include __each__ of these in your project: o survey (at least 5 people in English and at least 5 people in another language) o interviews (one person in English and one person in another language) o reading o observations = **Survey tools** = Here is[| a survey] a that I would like you to take (I really want your feedback!) You can use [|Jot Notes], [|SurveyMonkey] or "forms" on Google docs. = **Reporting options** = o graph/chart with explanation o video (observations, interviews) o presentation (iMovie, keynote) = = = **Skills** = You will practice and develop your skills in collecting, organizing and presenting information o critical reading, skimming, scanning o evaluating information o presenting surveys and giving interviews
 * You MUST write a brief (1-2 page) summary report.
 * This CAN include:
 * You will save your report on your wiki page. You should embed any multimedia files.

=Investigation planning worksheet=

=**Our research questions**=

//We think it would be really interesting to find out…//