Student Inquiry and Research Program Details
The Investigation Journal
Documentation of one's work and the journey that was taken to come to a particular conclusion or final product is important in constructing meaning of the work. It assists in providing a basis for replicating, developing, and polishing further work. A journal provides a way to keep a record of specific work accomplished or to record the path of failure; both can be built upon. Additionally, an investigation journal can be used to record reflections and thoughts of possible work and paths that may not immediately be pursued. A good journal may include: notes from discussion with an advisor or other individual who has helped the project; notes and excerpts from the literature that serve to guide the investigation; documenting draft protocols followed and their results; or self-reflection on creative pieces.
Keeping an Investigation Journal
At its best, your journal is a record of the pathway of your learning. You have entered into an investigation of your own choosing and decided to guide your own learning and education. The journal should be used to trace that learning by capturing the experience that you have had. The journal helps you pay attention to your learning. If you give it the time and attention that it deserves, others will as well.
Use the journal to think about your investigation. It should include the raw material of your work, whether that is data from laboratory work, quotes from important sources, or sketches in a portfolio. The journal should include reflective thought about the raw material; this thought defines your own learning. What is it about the material that is meaningful? What meaning do you draw from it that is pertinent to your own particular question?
Your journal is a record of what you have done. In science, it is a legal record of what you have accomplished - observations you have made, solutions you have prepared, experiments you have performed. In the fine arts, it details the growth and polish of your writing or artistic expression. In history it documents the information and thought that builds and supports your thesis.
The journal should also document conversations with your advisor that guide your thinking and progress. Thinking new thoughts and analyzing material for a new fit to your question is not a straightforward path. It requires practice. Feel free to write all your ideas down and reject any you see that require it. But pay attention to your thinking: it is a reflection of your learning. Honor your thinking by visiting your journal often.
As you progress in your investigation the journal entries should become more polished and coherent. New data has helped you differentiate between possible models. More experience in composition has helped to define a method or practice for you. Success is built from earlier shortcomings. Your progress is demonstrated in the journal as the movement toward more sophisticated thinking on the topic.
Journaling Specifics
- Begin your journal entries when you begin to develop the proposal for your investigation.
- Each journal entry must be dated.
- Include documentation about each meeting with your advisor - both when and what. What did you discuss? What did you learn? What questions were raised? How will you proceed?
- Chronicle your thoughts, ideas, questions, conclusions, and both successes and failures. As much is learned by something that didn't work out the way that we expected as by those pathways that were successful.
- Document your work so that you AND others can reproduce it - this means include details. How did you build it? What reagents did you mix together? Where did your inspiration come from?
If you're not sure if something is important, write it down in your journal.
If you KNOW something is not important, still WRITE IT DOWN in your journal!
What seems unimportant today frequently has a way of becoming very important in the future.
Notebooks for journaling are available in the Grainger Center for Imagination and Inquiry (GCII).