Websites for Research

These are a few websites I could use as an internet research base for my project.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/

The Human Development Index looks like it could be a great resource for my project. The 2010 Human Development Report features a 1970-2010 HDI trends analysis, identifying ’ top mover’ countries that have improved most in HDI terms over the past 40 years, using the original HDI indicators for health, education and income. It also enables you to build your own index for the different areas affecting human development such as health, poverty and education.


http://www.gapminder.org/

Gapminder World is an amazing website which provides you with data trends worldwide. Areas that can be studied from the graphs freely available include life expectancy and education. This graph maps the adult literacy rates of people over 15 in every country against the country’s GDP. The population of the country is shown in the size of the circle so this variable can be accounted for. You are also able to see the trend over a number of years. Maybe I could look at changes in literacy rates through history? Or if a specific country, such as China, has changed so much in terms of literacy rates and how this relates to its dramatic increase in GDP?

http://www.sil.org/

SIL International is an organisation that aims to encourage literacy all over the world. It ‘serves language communities worldwide, building their capacity for sustainable language development, by means of research, translation, training and materials development.

            I found that this website gave some good information about literacy’s effect on income. It suggests that income loss due to illiteracy does not just affect the individual but society at large.

‘According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, in the US alone, adult illiteracy carries an estimated price tag of more than $17 billion per year as a result of lost income and tax revenue, welfare, unemployment, crime and incarceration, and training cost for business and industry. This could suggest that the price tag for illiteracy at large is more than the cost of literacy.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education/

To come to conclusions about literacy’s effect on development, I need to look into the areas of education and the economy, in those countries/country I choose to study. I thought the BBC’s website might provide me with articles on education that would enable more depth to my research. However, I think it may be a limited source for research into other countries other than the UK.

http://www.unesco.org.uk/

‘The United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO is the focal point in the UK for UNESCO-related policies and activities.The Commission is an independent civil society organisation which supports UNESCO’s work in the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, and communication.’

UNESCO will hopefully be a good source for information about education around the world.

Possible changes to my project

           After speaking to Mr Reeve about focusing my EPQ title, I have some new ideas of changes I could make to my question. It was suggested that my question ‘how far can illiteracy halt the development of a country?’ is perhaps not something to be debated and that there is an obvious answer to it. I agree with this and do feel I have already come to the conclusion that illiteracy would be a major factor in slowing the development of a country. Therefore, in narrowing my field, I could look into how illiteracy is measured, for example, using The Human Development Index.
            It was also suggested that I should look at a specific country. I think it would be interesting to study a country such as China, which has developed so much in recent years. However, I probably wouldn’t be able to use ethnography as a form of research in this case, whereas having recently been to The Gambia I could use the information and experience I gained from there as a valuable resource. Kenya is another country I would like to look at as from my existing knowledge I know there is quite a large wealth gap as a result of increased tourism at the expense of the population inland. Perhaps I could compare two countries as I think this would be quite informative. Maybe I could look at an Eastern country compared to a Western country? Or a country in the northern hemisphere compared to the southern, as there is an assumed difference in lifestyle between them.
           I would definitely like to research a smaller topic area more thoroughly but I am still having difficulty deciding on how to word my question.

EPQ Presentation Evening Review

Overall, I found the EPQ evening informative and interesting. I attended talks by other students on the spread of blue tongue disease in cattle and sheep, fluoridation of water systems, the feminist movement, malaria cures and how a parent’s affection can affect a child’s brain development.

I found that the talks I went to mainly focused on the topic chosen, rather than talking about the actual process of the EPQ. I learnt a lot about the different subject areas but in terms of how the students went about researching and collating their findings, I don’t think I learnt that much. A few questions from the floor revealed how some of the students had gained information, for example the student who talked about malaria and its cures had completed work experience at the school of tropical medicine.

I was impressed at the way the students spoke and explained their topics to an audience; however a few used technical terminologies which I think some audience members may have struggled with. The structure of the speeches was also good and the points made were ordered and clear. I found the best speeches were the ones in which the students really tried to connect with the audience and make it conversational rather than purely reading off a script. I also think that being able to answer questions on their topics from extensive research was a good skill to have.

Watching the EPQ talks will definitely aid me with my own EPQ. Not only in showing me the sort of topic areas and research other students have carried out but I now have experience of the environment in which you complete your speech and the sort of questions audience members are likely to ask.

In terms of my own EPQ project, watching the EPQ talks has made me realise the importance of focusing my project so I am not trying to cover too wide a topic. However, as we have a fair amount of time to conduct research I think I would like to keep my topic open for a while and then narrow it down when I have researched further. The research around my initial question, 'how far can illiteracy rates halt the development of a country' could perhaps focus on education, an area I am quite interested in. However, I would still like to utilise my skills on the economics side for coming to a conclusion.