2.1. Researching Problems
Dear learner, in this lesson, you will:
- Think about different problems in the world (or in our community!) that you might want to help fix.
- Find out more information about the problems that seem interesting to you.
- Start thinking about which problem you might choose to work on for your project.
Let’s explore some interesting challenges!
FOCUS ON A PROBLEM
Previously, you explored various problems and organized them based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This grouping may have sparked fresh ideas or revealed connections between the issues you’re thinking about addressing.
Now, your focus will shift to exploring one or two of these problems in more depth to understand their scale—that is, how large or significant the problem is. You’ll evaluate whether the problem is substantial or impactful enough to make a real difference.
CONSIDER IMPACT
Best practices: Many teams have already gained experience with research, so this task should build on skills they’ve used before. Think about a past school project where they had to gather information on a particular topic—that was research! Reflecting on the steps they followed in that situation can help guide the team in creating a solid research plan.
The research plan doesn’t need to be complex, but it should include the following:
Topics to explore – possible problems the team might want to solve
Important questions – especially those related to impact (refer to the “Consider Impact” section of this lesson)
Relevant keywords – terms that will help find useful information
Roles and responsibilities – who is responsible for researching each part
Timeline – when the research should be completed by (the deadline)
Having a research plan will help teams commit to learning more about their problem and building a deeper understanding.
As you develop your research plan, it’s important to come up with the right questions and identify useful keywords to search. Teams should be familiar with selecting effective search terms and understanding how a search engine functions. Google, one of the most commonly used search engines, is highlighted in the video on the left. The video explains how Google works and offers helpful tips for choosing the best keywords and searching efficiently to find accurate information faster.
Guiding Questions for students:
- What steps do you usually follow when looking up information for a project or assignment?
- How do you determine which sources are reliable when collecting information?
- Why is it necessary to deeply understand a problem through research before attempting to solve it?
REVIEW OF KEY TERMS
- Research – gathering information about a subject
- Scale – the size of your problem or solution
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
If you are interested in talking and learning from other young people around the world about problems of interest to you, check out the Ultimate Dialogue Adventure from Generation Global. Click on the link to visit their website.
Hear from other ICT Club teams to see how they came up with a problem to solve!
This video clip(5:30 min) from an alumnae panel on ideation could be helpful.
