4c Checking Search Strings

I commented on Paul's blog:
http://paulcroft.blogspot.com/2009/02/3a-generating-key-words.html#comments

It says by jaada but that is me, amelia arrieta

4b Finding Books

I used the library catalog at Front Range Community College in Westminster to find the following books on 2/19/09, Keyword search was “childhood obesity”, I received 7 results and I rate the relevance of my results a 4
Title: Generation Extra Large: Rescuing Our Children from the Epidemic of Obesity
Authors: Tartamella, Herscher, and woolston
Publisher: Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
Copyright: 2004

Title: The Family Guide to Fighting Fat: A Parent’s Guide to Handling Obesity and Eating Issues
Authors: The Texas Children’s Hospital
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright: 2007

Title: A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Obesity: A Road Map to Health
Authors: Sandra G. Hassink, MD, FAAP, American Academy of Pediatrics
Publisher: American Academy of Pediatric
Copyright: 2006, published in the United States

I also found three more books using the prospector and filled out interlibrary loan forms for each, the library will call me when the books come in.

4a Finding Reference Articles

The first reference site I found was http://www.encyclopedia.com/. There were articles related to my topic but I was not able to access them without signing up for a free trial of HighBeam Research. I did not want to sign up with the fear I would be getting a paid subscription after the trial. It offered “A Dictionary of Food Nutrition” but I could not find how to access it. No hits, I may need to retry this one.
http://www.encarta.msn.com/ was easy to navigate with tabs at the top for dictionary and encyclopedia, I found many good definition articles in the website on childhood obesity that I might be able to use for my research paper. I received about 5 hits and I rate them as 5 (best) in relevance.
http://www.refdesk.com/. This site offered multiple search websites on its page to choose from. After trying a couple of these, the one that gave the best result was the Google search box. It led me to articles at reputable sites such as Mayoclinic.com. Cdc.gov. and surgeongeneral.gov. This site had an abundance of articles on my subject that will be very useful in my research. For this site I received about 15 hits and I rate them as 5 for best in relevance.
Here are three articles I found:
Retrieved 2/22/09
Reference site: www.encarta.msn.com
Keywords: childhood obesity
Title: Obesity
Gary D. Foster, B.A., M.S., PhD
Website: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=childhood+obesity
Contributed by: Gary D. Foster, B.A., M.S., PhD.Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Retrieved 2/22/09
Reference website: www.refdesk.com
Keywords: childhood obesity
The Future of Children
Princeton – Brookings
Volume 16, Number 1 Spring 2006
Title: Fighting Obesity in the Public Schools
Ron Haskins, Christina Paxson, and Elisabeth Donahue
Website: http://www.futureofchildren.org/pubs-info2825/pubs-info_show.htm?doc_id=349724

Retrieved: 2/22/09
Reference website www.refdesk.com
Keywords: childhood obesity
Title: Overweight and Obesity
No author, article on webpage of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Website: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/state_programs/about_us.htm

3c Brainstorming Field Research Options

List of potential people or places to find people to interview:

My Community Nutrition Professor - I may use e-mail interview or in person
A person at the local social services office - I may use telephone interview or in person
The dietitian at the Wildwood Child and Adult Food Program - I may use telephone interview or in person
My doctor - I may use telephone interview
A person at the local WIC program - I may use telephone interview or in person

3b Writing Search Strings

Math search:
+childhood +obesity +causes + reduce + prevalence

+“Childhood obesity” + causes + prevalence + diet + nutrients + “public Policy” + solutions + US + reduce

Boolean search:
"childhood" and "obesity"
"childhood obesity" and "United States" and causes
"childhood obesity" or "obesity in children" not "young adults"

3a Generating Keywords

Research question - Although it is clear that the diet of each child in the U.S. cannot be controlled by public policy, what can be done to help reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity either publicly or privately?

Keywords generated from my research question:

diet, control, prevalence, child, obesity, reduce, and prevent

clustering synonyms:
diet - food intake, food, food habits, nutrients, junk food
control - manage, restrict, direct, administer, supervise, deal with, and organize
prevalence - occurrence, incidence, frequency, pervasiveness, predominance, rate, high proportion
child -adolescent, kid, teenager, youngster, youth, juvenile
obesity - overweight, obese, fat, heavy
reduce -decrease, lessen, diminish, cut, minimize, lower
prevent - avoid, circumvent, and stay away from
solution - answer, key, way out, resolution

ladder of generalization:
obesity, childhood obesity, avoiding childhood obesity

Eng 1020 2c Developing My Research Question

No matter what my research question will be, I think my subject of obesity in children will lead me to take on the role in my paper as the reporter. I will be presenting the readers with information about my topic.
Some research questions I have come up with are:
What is the cause of the rise in childhood obesity?
What does obesity in children do to their long term health status?
Should the government make laws to reverse the trend of eliminating recess in many schools?
Where can the government step in to ban junk food near schools?
Should the government ban junk food in vending machines in schools?

Eng 1020 2b Narrowing My Topic

As my research into my broad topic continues I will listen for common themes and also find out what the latest news and scientific developments are. This will help me find an issue to choose to focus on and create a research question.

Eng 1020 2a Exploring My Topic

I have made a list people who I want to talk to about the subject of obesity in children. I still haven't narrowed it down to a good research question yet. I hope to get ideas talking to these people and also continue to read articles and books on the subject to help me here what the conversations are about it.
The people I hope to speak to are:
My Comm. Nutr. Prof.
My sister
Someone at the Health and Human Services Dept. in Broomfield
The dietitian I volunteered with at Avista Hospital and
My doctor
The websites I have searched so far are www.eatright.org and http://www.cdc.gov/ , databases at Library such as Lexisnexis, Medline Plus, and HealthierUS.gov