Scenario for Research Skills Workshop

Your instructor has asked your class to research a controversial issue that is happening within a general area such as religion, the environment, society, health, education, and so on.

You have ended up in the environmental group. As you try to decide on which environmental issue to concentrate, one member of your group mentions that she has received an interesting email from a cousin who works in the city on environmental issues. Here is a portion of that email:

There is a company that is proposing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Long Beach Harbor called "Sound Energy Solutions" which is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi.  Their website is www.soundenergysolutions.com.  Their site will present only one side of the issue, of course, but the City of Long Beach website should have some information on the environmental impact report and risk assessment study.  (I think the City asked for more information in the analysis, but can't recall the current schedule for project consideration by City Council.)

Your task in this workshop is to brainstorm possible avenues for research about this issue, starting with -- what makes it controversial? Who are the stakeholders? What are the advantages/disadvantages from the points of view of the stakeholders? There are certain "leads" in the email fragment, but is the Long Beach project the only LNG proposal in California that is causing concern? That might also be a direction you choose to investigate.

A worksheet will be provided to you that you can use to brainstorm possible directions to take in researching this issue. If we actually get to researching the issue in the limited time we have, that will be a bonus, but the main emphasis is on asking questions and coming up with a process that you would follow [if this were a real assignment from a real instructor!].

JC last updated 10/12/0606