From what we had brainstormed in class it left me thinking of all the possible topics that I could cover in my documentary. I looked at the ideas we thought of in class and picked out the ones that most caught my interest.
Unenforced Laws Dolphin slaughter was banned in 1996 but the law is never enforced. Dolphins are still being slaughtered and used as shark bait. | Tourism Has a large impact on Peru's economy. It brings a lot of money into the country. | Poverty Minimum wage is $1.6 an hour, which would mean $10 a week. 16% of Lima's population is poor, meanwhile 67% of the population in the Andes are poor. |
Looking over these different topics I thought the topic on poverty was most interesting considering the subjects within poverty I could focus on. That is when I came up with trial questions just to get ideas of where I would want to guide myself.
☞ Why do taxes vary so much depending where in lima you live (San Isidro, Miraflores, La Molina etc.)?
☞ Why have stores invested in Peru, and why are they making a move now, what effect does this having to Peru's economy?
☞ Are snack shacks ran differently depending on their location (the community the shacks are set up in)?
☞ Why is the government only investing their money into the improvement of lima, when the rest of Peru is in much more need of governmental help?
While looking at the sheet of paper where I had written notes on, I couldn't seem to narrow my mind down onto one question. But talking to Mr. Topf helped me bring the list down to two questions, which we further broke down to see which one of the two would be my documentary topic and what I would potentially be focusing on while researching.
What's wrong with GDP growth in Peru? -not sustainable -is this leading to long term growth? -look at what Peru's government has done for the country this year and last year -learn about GDP -talk about Peru's GDP -why is GDP rising, but so much of Peru's population is poor? | How does education effect the economy? -lack of high skilled working engineers -government investments on each student -private vs. public schooling -compare two different countries -how does education affect how the government works? -look at the process schools go through in different countries, comparing literacy rates -connect education to Peru's government |
Both of these questions caught my eye, but I thought that the topic on Peru's education had more meaning to me personally, so I have chosen to go with the topic on education.
I came up with my question for my documentary.
In class we wrote our question on the wall then we went around in group's of two evaluating each question on the following:
focus, originality, feasibility, value, relevance and the connection to government and economics
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My partner was Pedro, we evaluated each question on it's focus. We thought about whether or not it was a focused question; specific and informative yet not too narrowed down. We evaluated all the questions around the room, including our own.
Looking at all the topics and questions on the boards around the room opened my eyes to see how many topics are interesting enough for students to tackle; the questions are based on topics that matter to us, topics that are relevant.
As a class we talked about my question and said it was too b r o a d of a question; we brainstormed many ideas on topics about education in Peru and changed the question. Now my final question based on the differences in education between public and private schools in Lima, and how education now is affecting the future of Peru's government and economy, a topic that I am very
c u r i o u s about and that I c a r e about.