When you are curious about something and want to know more about it, you can use the way of asking questions. Asking questions is the first step to make discoveries and find interesting answers. The following steps can guide you during the research.
Step 1 On a note card or a piece of paper, write down the subject that you are interested in. Just get the main idea down. For example, you might write: Discover more about dinosaurs.
Step 2 Next, stop and think for a moment about what you have already known about your subject. List what you have already known like the sentences below:
Dinosaurs lived long before human beings appeared.
Dinosaurs lived on the earth for more than 150 million years.
Some dinosaurs ate plants; some lived on meat.
Step 3 What can you do with what you want to learn? Ask questions, on your paper, start writing down questions about the dinosaurs as you think of them:
What's the best weather for dinosaurs to live in?
How many kinds of dinosaurs were there?
Have dinosaurs really disappeared?
Step 4 Armed with your list of questions, you can now go to the nearest library or computer to begin your research. As you learn more about your subject, you'll probably discover some new questions. For example, you might discover that dinosaurs disappeared about 65 million years ago. Why? What happened? Asking new questions can help you research your subject more widely.
The next time you find something interesting to research, take time to organize your thinking by asking good questions. And remember that learning more always brings more questions.
① List what you want to know. ② Choose a research subject.
③ List what you've already known. ④ Discover new problems.
