Childhood Obesity in Mexico: Causes, Effects, and Solutions
I took Spanish 202 to further my language competency. However, I also contracted the class for Honors, which meant that I developed both my global citizenship and research competencies. To satisfy my Honors contract, I had to develop my own research project and present my findings to the class. I chose the topic of childhood obesity in Mexico. For my final project, I wrote a research paper in English and created a PowerPoint presentation in Spanish. This allowed me to further develop the skills of information literacy, information synthesis, and dissemination of results.
Information literacy is the skill to acquire, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically. One requirement for my class was that all my sources had to be in Spanish, and it was my duty to translate the information to use for my paper. Not only did I have to find all my sources in Spanish, but I had to translate them before I could even decide if they were relevant to my topic. Once I found the sources I needed, I used the skills I learned in my Introduction to Honors class to evaluate the information and ethically incorporate it into my paper. My ability to do this to accomplish a research goal allowed me to prove to myself that I had mastered the information literacy skill.
The second skill I developed with this research project was information synthesis. Information synthesis is the ability to take many different sources and integrate them into your project. After I had found all the sources I was going to use, I had to organize them into different main points of the paper. I had to evaluate each one and decide which part of the paper they belonged to. When I had multiple sources for each topic, I then synthesized them into one coherent argument. Reflecting on this, I realized that this project gave me more insight into how the research process works. Being able to find multiple sources and coherently combine them into one main argument demonstrated that I had mastered the information synthesis skill.
The last skill that I developed from this project was dissemination of results. For this project, that just meant I had to present my research to my class. This was my first opportunity in college to present research that I had done. I didn’t have to formally find a venue or submit an abstract for this project, because my professor decided the venue for me and had been watching over my project throughout the semester. In the end, I didn’t present my actual paper, instead I created a PowerPoint presentation for the class in Spanish and presented it in Spanish. This experience was perfect for introducing me to an informal way of disseminating the results of a research project.
My Spanish 202 class was an amazing opportunity to develop both my global citizenship and research competencies. Never have I done a research project where I had to find sources in Spanish, translate them to English, compose a coherent paper on my findings in English, and then create a presentation in Spanish. It was a challenging task, but in the end I refined my information literacy, information synthesis, and dissemination of results skills of the research competency.
Paper:
Childhood Obesity in Mexico: Causes, Effects, and Solutions
Presentation:
La obesidad infantil en México
Information literacy is the skill to acquire, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically. One requirement for my class was that all my sources had to be in Spanish, and it was my duty to translate the information to use for my paper. Not only did I have to find all my sources in Spanish, but I had to translate them before I could even decide if they were relevant to my topic. Once I found the sources I needed, I used the skills I learned in my Introduction to Honors class to evaluate the information and ethically incorporate it into my paper. My ability to do this to accomplish a research goal allowed me to prove to myself that I had mastered the information literacy skill.
The second skill I developed with this research project was information synthesis. Information synthesis is the ability to take many different sources and integrate them into your project. After I had found all the sources I was going to use, I had to organize them into different main points of the paper. I had to evaluate each one and decide which part of the paper they belonged to. When I had multiple sources for each topic, I then synthesized them into one coherent argument. Reflecting on this, I realized that this project gave me more insight into how the research process works. Being able to find multiple sources and coherently combine them into one main argument demonstrated that I had mastered the information synthesis skill.
The last skill that I developed from this project was dissemination of results. For this project, that just meant I had to present my research to my class. This was my first opportunity in college to present research that I had done. I didn’t have to formally find a venue or submit an abstract for this project, because my professor decided the venue for me and had been watching over my project throughout the semester. In the end, I didn’t present my actual paper, instead I created a PowerPoint presentation for the class in Spanish and presented it in Spanish. This experience was perfect for introducing me to an informal way of disseminating the results of a research project.
My Spanish 202 class was an amazing opportunity to develop both my global citizenship and research competencies. Never have I done a research project where I had to find sources in Spanish, translate them to English, compose a coherent paper on my findings in English, and then create a presentation in Spanish. It was a challenging task, but in the end I refined my information literacy, information synthesis, and dissemination of results skills of the research competency.
Paper:
Childhood Obesity in Mexico: Causes, Effects, and Solutions
Presentation:
La obesidad infantil en México