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Topic to Research Project:
Tools for turning your vague Research Project idea into a project
Use the following tools to begin investigating and developing your research project into
something that might be researched. These are only tools, and everyone might not
easily be applied. It is important to spend some time on this stage of the research
process and can be transferred to your Proposal and Folio.
Thinkers Keys:
The Reverse – take a topic or subject area and reverse your thinking on this topic (Eg.
Cooking – the reverse of this is not cooking, and therefore a Research Project might
involve investigating the reasons why some people don’t cook and encouraging them to
cook).
The What if? – turn your topic into a ‘what if’ question (Eg. Obesity – what if there was
a tax on junk food? Would people like this? Would they still eat junk food? Would
McDonald’s go out of business?) You topic might involve into a practical project – what
if we painted different colours in the school for classes? Would this make students
calmer?
The Disadvantages – what are the disadvantages to your topic? What are the
disadvantages to using technology?
The Combination – combine to parts of your topic to create an improvement (Eg, Diet
– add one piece of fruit each day to measure the health of primary school students).
The Forced Relationship –similar to the Combination but take two different topics or
products and investigate what happens when you combine them together (Eg. a pair of
scissors and a telephone for example, would this be useful?)
The Alphabet – write a list of A to Z of your topic, use a dictionary if this helps, start
with A, B, C and so on (Eg. A is for audience, amplification, B is for beats etc etc, try
combining different words to make a research project topic). Use a dictionary if it helps.
The B.A.R. (Bigger, Add and / or Remove) – take a product or topic and investigate
different ways to make bigger, add and /or remove something to see what happens (Eg.
Take the flag of a country, remove a key feature, survey people to find out how this
changes their opinion of the flag).
The Variations - consider all the variations on your topic (Eg. Swimming – in pools, at
the beach, in the Olympics etc – expand upon these one or more of these ideas in detail
for your Research Project).
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More Thinker’s Keys:
The Picture – take a picture from a magazine, the internet, or photograph – investigate
the background of the picture, where is it from, what does the symbolism mean etc.
(examples of this on 10 to 13 of the My Research text).
The Prediction – from your topic predict what will happen if you make a change or do
something different, then research what will happen (this should not be obvious!) (Eg.
Predict what painting your bedroom red does for your sleeping pattern?).
The Different Uses – brainstorm the different uses of a topic of product, then research
new uses that you may have not thought about (Eg. Cars – research the different uses
of cars for different age groups).
The Ridiculous – create a scenario from your topic that seems completely ridiculous
and investigate the possibility of it actually happening (Eg. Obesity – banning 10 to 15
year olds from travelling by car to school).
The Question – brainstorm questions that all have the same answer, investigate other
questions that might have this answer as well (Eg. Topic / Answer is: Bicycles,
Questions: What has two wells and is propelled by human power? Which form of
vehicle do we see least of on our roads?) These questions might be expanded through
further research.
The Inventions – brainstorm the different inventions related to your topic – expand on
this, and invent a new product for you self through investigation (Eg. Music – record
player, CD player, MP3 etc).
The Interpretations – consider all the different interpretations that might occur of the
same piece of information in your topic, investigate why these might be different for
different people in different contexts (Eg. Weather – hot, dry, humid etc, how does this
effect lifestyles? Etc)
The Brickwall – consider a problem that seems to have no solution related to your
topic, brainstorm and investigate solutions or partial solutions.
The Construction – construct an object or product that would help improve an aspect
of your topic (Eg. Making sure people from different backgrounds get along, consider
construction common sharing cards etc).
The Alternative – Consider the alternatives to what current occurs in your topic, what
else different could you do? (Eg. Alternatives to playing sport and staying healthy).
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Other tools:
Pros, Cons Questions – what are the positives (Pros), Negatives (Cons) and
Questions that you might have on the topic? Investigate your questions or explore
different pros and cons.
M.A.S (Modify, Add, Size) – similar to the B.A.R – see above.
Y-chart and Split Y-chart – write a large letter Y and divide each section to “Looks
like…”, “Feels like…” and “Sounds like…”, split these into positive and negative.
Choose part or all of this to further investigate in your Research Project.
De Bono’s Thinker’s Hats – Use the hats to generate different ways of looking at
same topic, this might leave to investigating through research.
White Hat – What are the facts related to your topic?
Red Hat – What the emotions related to your topic? Why do some people feel this
way?
Black Hat - What is bad or negative about your topic? Why doesn’t or won’t it
work?
Yellow Hat – What is optimistic or positive about your topic? Why might it work or
why does it work really well?
Green Hat – What ideas might you create in your topic?
Blue Hat – How might you plan your time and organize your research? Which one
of the ideas and information of the other hats (above) could you use for further
research?
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Eg. Easily manageable, many available
resources.
Weaknesses
Eg. Could potentially offend some people.
Opportunities
Threats
Eg. Might need more time to collect
enoughinformation.
Eg. Research could be expanded to focus
on a specific area.
Icon Prompt
 Who stands to gain?
Eg. I will learn a lot about this topic (new
skills, knowledge etc)
Who stands to lose?
Eg. It could bother Tech Studies if I’m
using their resources all the time.
$ What are the financial issues?
? What are the unanswered questions?
Eg. How do will I manage my time to get
this done? At school, home??
Eg. Can I afford the material? Could this
be done more cheaply?
Mindmap On paper or using a digital mind-mapping tool such as Inspiration or bubbl.us to create a mind
map on your topic. Consider all factors areas that you might potentially research. A good
starting point is to ask: Who? What? Why? When? Where? and How? on your topic..