Name:

Bill Z.
PROJECT #1
1. Revised essential question for project #1
How can the prestige and ranking of a persons college affect his/her chances of finding
employment?

2. Does your revised essential question for project #1 meet the following criteria?
Yes

No

Your essential question is open-ended; that is, it typically will not have
a single, final, and correct answer.

Yes

No

Your essential question is thought-provoking and intellectually

engaging, often sparking discussion and debate.

Yes

No

Your essential question calls for higher-order thinking, such as

analysis, inference, evaluation, prediction. It cannot be effectively
answered by recall alone.

Yes

No

Your essential question points toward important, transferable ideas

within (and sometimes across) disciplines.

Yes

No

Your essential question raises additional questions and sparks

further inquiry.

Yes

No

Your essential question requires support and justification, not just an

answer.

Yes

No

Your essential question recurs over time; that is, the question can
and should be revisited again and again.

3. Based on the above assessment, do you have any revisions to your question for
project #1? If yes, revise it in the box below. If no, then copy the question you started
with into the box below.
How can the prestige and ranking of a persons college affect his/her chances of finding
employment?
Hi Bill
From reading this, we have to assume that you didnt really address the cautionary notes we
raised in the feedback on this project in the first draft.
The more we read this, we have to wonder: to what degree are you on a quest to address
something that you feel strongly about: that the supposed perceived advantages of one
college rated more highly than another (by whatever organization) are worth going to school x
as opposed to school y (and paying the $$--or take loans-- to do this, if you dont get
significant financial aid).
At the end of the day, thats a subjective question that is extremely hard to measure through
data. Thats in part because the data is secret in most cases and also because the rankings-even if they are a reality--are problematic and often inaccurate to begin with.
So where does this leave this project? We think it would be hard to come up with anything
that would constitute real solid data that would definitively prove a point. This project has
enormous potential to tank during the research phase (December-February) and if it
happens then, you would have real difficulty knowing what to do. We dont want that to
happen so we think this needs a major overhaul and rethink, perhaps as significant a step as
possibly throwing out this project and coming up with another project altogether.
Mr. M and Ms. F

4. Research questions that you would investigate in relation to your revised essential
question for project #1 (please include as many as you think are relevant to your project).

How do employers weigh a potential employees college prestige in importance

compared to his/her work experience and job qualifications? How could you
possibly--and systematically--collect this data?
In the same jobs, how much more money do people who graduate from famous
colleges like the Ivy Leagues make compared to those from other colleges?How
are you going to access this data? Private companies arent likely to share this
private information.
How can the changes in a colleges ranking over time affect the employment
rate of its graduates?
Are colleges tracking this information? Why would they, if you think about it?
Its not to their advantage to share this with anyone if their rankings go down.

Do people who attend graduate school after college have better rates of
employment and better salaries than their counterparts who leave after 4 years?
There are a vast number of variables besides the prestige of a college that factor
into the weight employers give to post-graduate degrees. This varies from field
to field.
(And in some professions, having too many degrees is a detriment
because there are sometimes salary bumps pegged to more education. Therefore, if
you are an employer seeking to save $$, you prefer to hire someone with fewer
degrees.)

5. Give us a brief, one-paragraph description of your proposed project for project #1.
For my first project, I plan to write a report on my topic. I will do research on the statistics
behind employment rates of graduates of various colleges with different degrees of fame. In
addition to analyzing and discussing my data, I will also interview people who have graduated
college both recently and many years ago, on the degree of influence their colleges prestige
has helped them find good paying jobs. I will also try to interview employers on how much
they value where candidates attended college.

PROJECT #2
1. Revised essential question for project #2
How successful has Bostons use of wind power been in conserving energy while benefiting
the economy, and how can the city improve its use of this energy source in the future?

2. Does your revised essential question for project #2 meet the following criteria?
Yes

No

Your essential question is open-ended; that is, it typically will not have
a single, final, and correct answer.

Yes

No

Your essential question is thought-provoking and intellectually

engaging, often sparking discussion and debate.

Yes

No

Your essential question calls for higher-order thinking, such as

analysis, inference, evaluation, prediction. It cannot be effectively
answered by recall alone.

Yes

No

Your essential question points toward important, transferable ideas

within (and sometimes across) disciplines.

Yes

No

Your essential question raises additional questions and sparks

further inquiry.

Yes

No

Your essential question requires support and justification, not just an

answer.

Yes

No

Your essential question recurs over time; that is, the question can
and should be revisited again and again.

3. Based on the above assessment, do you have any revisions to your question for
project #2? If yes, revise it in the box below. If no, then copy the question you started
with into the box below.
Bill-Try this for your essential question: How can cities harness the power of the wind to conserve
energy?
The next question, which was what you inserted originally in this box, is really a first-rate
primary research question:
How successful has Bostons use of wind power been in conserving energy while benefiting
the economy, and how can the city harvest this energy source more in the future?
This is so much better framed than what you did in project #1 above! And its a great revision
of your first draft on this project.

4. Research questions that you would investigate in relation to your revised essential
question for project #2 (please include as many as you think are relevant to your project).
These are all solid secondary research questions, although there are more you are
going to need to ask.
Why is wind power a suitable renewable energy source for Boston?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of wind power compared to other forms of
clean energy?
In which areas of Boston should wind turbines be built?
How much money will the wind turbines cost and how much will they save?
How can the general public be convinced that more wind power is necessary?
How can we gain support from the state and city governments to build more
wind turbines?

5. Give us a brief, one-paragraph description of your proposed project for project #2.

For project #2, I plan to create a documentary that examines Bostons history with
implementing wind power and how successful in terms of energy conserved and money saved
these projects have been. The film will also analyze how Boston can construct more wind
turbines in the future while still generating more income for the economy. I will also examine
the policies that Boston should implement to generate more public interest, political support,
and investment for wind power in the future. The documentary sounds great. Maybe you
could also produce a set of written recommendations for the city government as to how to
make residents of the city more aware of the potential of wind, the enormous benefits of this
source of energy, etc.--it could provide a roadmap for the public relations end of this
endeavor.
This project is in good shape!
Ms. Freeman and Mr. Mikalaitis