Paula Shin

IR-2/11 AP
9/12/17
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will locate more information regarding my area of focus and narrow the information down to

catch key points in order to make my topic/research more concise.

I will read many chapters in a personal book I am reading for fun, and finish it by next week.

I will set target dates for completion of smaller steps leading to my final goal of only 1 or 2 B’s

this marking period in all of my classes.

Journal/Reflection:

So far, in the Independent Research course of 2017-2018, I have accomplished the list of

5 initial questions and 1 annotation and 2 critical readings(including the one done last week). I

had not written down when the initial questions were due, so I had to write them within a time

crunch, which I regret doing. From now on, I will write the due dates for each assignment in my

agenda book, along with the days I should do them on. This is why the IR Calendar that Anna

Selbrede passed out to us in class today is a blessing! In addition, I had initially misunderstood

the annotations aspect of the readings we have to do every week, so I had not prepared myself

well enough to accomplish that assignment. But, now that I have learned exactly what

assignments to accomplish and how they should be done, I do not foresee any issues that I will

face in the future with the annotations. I am still feeling a bit “iffy” about my topic because I

have been wanting to research in this area, but I am also curious about other fields of interest so I

am feeling conflicted between whether I should one topic or the other.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
9/27/17
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will narrow down my area of study to one topic, with which I can create a defined question.

I will locate more potential advisors to help me in my research once I narrow down my topic.

I will sign up to do a teacher conference sometime within this week or the next week.

I will write letters to potential advisors after getting several editors to view it, ensuring that I can

get a positive response.

Journal:

During the long weekend, I attended my first site visit to the UMBC library. I had

initially gone in with little to no preparation, as I had no clue where to look for resources.

However, the UMBC library’s website provided overviews for certain books, which I used to

make my initial selection of books. When I went to the book sections filled with books regarding

my area of study, I often found myself distracted by the amount of books and felt overwhelmed

about the vastness of my topic, because I had not decided on a specific topic in the area of

dreams. So far, my research plan has just been to look for resources related to ‘dreaming’, but I

need to pick a certain aspect of it. I picked out several books that were interesting to me and

related to my area of study and checked them out. The books I picked out are overly redundant,

but when looking in the table of contents, I was able to find subjects that interested me and

determined that they would be useful to narrowing down my topic. I am also hoping to schedule

a conference with you sometime soon, as I am having trouble understanding how to address this

dilemma.
 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
10/11/17
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will find new sources related to my topic in time for the compiled annotated source list due on

October 24th.

I will compose several business letters and emails, and send them to potential associations.

I will create a longer list of associations with people to send letters to.

I will begin to look for potential advisors.

Journal:

My confidence in my topic has changed drastically since 2 weeks ago. During our

conference, I was inspired by your suggestions of topics to research, and decided to begin my

research with the impacts of insomnia on personality traits. For my annotations this week, I

found an article that was centrally focused on my topic. I discovered a myriad of information

correlating with personality traits and insomnia. However, a lot of the information in the article

confused me, because I had trouble connecting some of the topics together and figuring out what

some of the words meant. Therefore, I hope to attain a connection from an association letter I

will send, and obtain professionals’ help. In addition to the article that was central to my topic, I

also annotated another article that was related to a topic that you suggested: the impacts of

technology on sleep. I have found a useful source on that topic, and am unsure whether I will

pursue it. It seems extremely interesting to me, so perhaps, once I finalize research for the

impacts of insomnia on personality, I could incorporate the impacts of technology on sleep as

well. But, I still have a long way to go, and will take more time in researching only these topics.
 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
10/25/17
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will gather more information about my topic by reading more articles.

I will make my topic less vague and narrow it down to a specific problem.

I will obtain an advisor to help me with my research.

Journal:

After having that conference and discovering a new aspect that I could research, I was

researching the impact of insomnia on personality traits. However, my topic was still too vague

and covers too large of a subject area and after meeting with you, I determined that I should

delve even further into my topic and decided to connect it with my initial topic, dreams and how

they are impacted with insomnia. In my mind, I have a bunch of ideas that are related to my area

of interest, and I am hoping to connect them all together and create a research topic where I can

apply all sorts of information into my topic. My ideas are the physiology of sleep, responses in

the brain, different kinds of dreams that are prominent, and the impact of the lack of sleep with

sleep disorders, focusing on insomnia. I have found information that connects some of these

subjects together, and will research more articles that hopefully connect all of these aspects

together. Two weeks ago, I emailed my first associations, and I got a response back from one of

them, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. I was extremely surprised to get this response

because of how vague and uninformed my letter was. But, I was extremely grateful for this

because I was given links to articles that aided my research, and allowed me to learn more

information about the impacts of insomnia on personality traits.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
11/8/17
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:
I will practice my speech several more times to really grasp all of the key points and ensure a
smooth and cohesive presentation.
I will contact teachers to set up my presentation dates.
I will continue to contact many more advisors.
I will start to think of a central question to bring my research to a specific focus.

Journal:
My first marketing speech in the small groups did not go well, to say the least. I was very
unprepared, with how I was going to present, and the information I was going to talk about. I had
only researched bits and pieces of information generally related to my area of interest and
unfortunately did not find an efficient way to connect all of the information together to tell my
audience the purpose for my research. However, after that experience, I used the lessons I
learned of the what can happen if there is a lack of preparation, and I researched more
information that can connect the information together and gives the audience a clearer sense of
my purpose. Even though I am still feeling shaky and very unconfident about my topic, I believe
that I will be able to sort it out with more research, maybe one or two more conferences and
potential advisors. I admit that I have been procrastinating on sending out my letters, but my lack
of confidence in my research has led me to get my act together and focus on getting these letters
sent out. I think that I will be able to connect all of my research together by stating the harmful
impacts of sleep deprivation, ultimately creating a public health campaign. I genuinely like this
idea, as it incorporates several of my interests with my current research and using aspects of
marketing, which I explored in a student-run company last year. I think I will have trouble
initially beginning this campaign, but with more research on public health campaigns and
hopefully the guidance of a mentor, I could potentially create an effective campaign.
 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
11/29/17
Biweekly Journal
Objectives:
I will communicate with my potential advisor to alert her of the advisor duties.
I will contact more potential advisors to ensure that I have the best guidance in my research.
I will revise my research proposal to have a concrete final project.
I will finish my classroom presentations and write reflections on them.
Journal:

The weeks between my last biweekly journal have been very eventful! I had an interview,

I finalized how I will be approaching my research, I contacted several professionals, and I had a

few classroom presentations. After our conference, I fixed my advisor letter to make it ask for

interviews, completing my interview assignment. My interview was with a student at the Sleep

and Circadian Neuroscience Center in Oxford, which is 5 hours ahead of us. Therefore, I

suggested different times that would be sufficient for both of us, early in the morning. On the day

of the interview, I woke up earlier than normal, and conducted the interview with my list of

questions I had composed before. Our conference also clarified how I will be approaching my

research, and I have decided to go in the approach of the impacts of technology use on sleep

deprivation, and how it can impact cognitive abilities. I also contacted several professionals

asking for interviews, but for two professionals, I asked for guidance in my research as an

advisor, and I got one yes! She emailed me asking what time works to call and go over my

research, and I emailed her back telling her the times that I am available, but she has not

responded back yet, which is puzzling me. I will be emailing out more advisor letters sometime

this week, in hopes of asking as many professionals as I can for guidance in my research.
 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
12/13/17
Biweekly Journal
Objectives:
I will finish my chart outline.
I will fix any holes I encounter with the information in my chart outline.
I will revise my research proposal to have a concrete final project.
I will finish a book I have been meaning to finish for months now.
I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full night’s of sleep.
Journal:
Between the weeks of my last biweekly journal, I am grateful that we have been getting
work days most of the days, as my teachers have been piling on work in other classes. I finished
my classroom presentations and I wrote reflections on all of them. I saw my reflections and was
disappointed by the comments I got on my first one, but then turned my feelings around and
decided to take the comments and improve from them. This helped me improve for my other
presentations. In addition, I had my second interview, where I emailed Dr. Helene Emsellem. I
was emailing several people, asking for interviews, and for her, I could not find an email address.
Therefore, on a website, I sent an email through a google form. I was not expecting any
responses, because I am always wary of people actually looking at the responses on there, but a
day later, she responded back to me and we scheduled an interview that day! I called her during
the time period she said “might” work, but she asked me to call her back later during the
weekend. I called her the next day in the afternoon, and we had a 15-minute interview. I ran into
trouble with recording the interview, because my recording system refused to work. But after a
few minutes of fumbling, I was able to set it up. Our interview went well, I feel like we discussed
everything that I had wanted to. She wrote a book several years ago, and she even offered to send
me a copy of it, so I will be expecting it in the mail any day now. In addition, I decided to ask her
to be my advisor, instead of sending a follow-up email. This resulted in success, because she
agreed to be my advisor!! She started saying “But…” after, and I feared that she was going to
change her mind, but she was just saying that if I send her emails to look over my work, I should
not procrastinate on sending them to her, and that I should cc another email when emailing her,
as she is very busy and gets 150 emails per day.
 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
1/3/17
Biweekly Journal
Objectives:
I will finish my sentence outline.
I will gather new sources and add them to my annotated bibliography.
I will revise my research proposal to have a concrete final project.
I will finish a book I have been meaning to finish for months now.
I will not procrastinate on my applications for a few summer programs I am applying to.
Journal:
I feel like during the time between my last biweekly journal and this one have been very
productive, as we have been solely focusing on our research paper and toning up our research by
creating a chart outline, general phrase outline, and now, a full sentence outline. Jumping back
straight into work right after a week of rest and relaxation has been a bit difficult, but I believe in
myself that I can accomplish my work on time and not procrastinate. However, I believe that I
will have to push back when I turn in my full sentence outline to Monday, instead of this Friday,
mainly because I need more time to compile my in-text citations and to gather my advisor’s
approval on my outline. One thing I am worrying about, is my advisor’s time commitment and
ability to review my assignments in time. I sent her my outline right before winter break began,
about 2 weeks ago, but I have not heard back from her ever since. My plan is to wait a few more
days, and then re-send her another email, and in addition, I am currently in the process of
researching for more professionals to be my advisors. I did not begin this earlier, as I thought my
current advisor would be able to review my assignments, but I do not want to bother her too
much if she does not have the time. When I sent out emails asking for interviews, I got a
response from Angela D’Rozario, saying that she is available for an interview, and I responded,
but this was a few days before Christmas, so I am waiting on her as well. Adding on to what you
said in class today, about planning a fun day outside of school, I am planning on doing fun
activities with my friends this weekend for my birthday celebration!
 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
1/17/17
Biweekly Journal
Objectives:
I will revise my sentence outline by taking my advisor’s comments into consideration
I will finish my compiled annotations.
I will begin thinking of ideas for my data collection.
I will continue updating my website.
I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full night’s of sleep.
I will effectively study for midterms by gathering all of my materials and seeing what topics I do
not understand.
Journal:

After an agonizing 3 weeks of waiting for my advisor’s response, I decided to re-send her

an email, and within a day, got a response back! I emailed her to see how she was doing, and to

see whether she received my outline. She responded that she never got a chance to see my

outline and told me to send it again, which I did, and she will send it back to me sometime this

week. In addition, I sent Dr. D’Rozario, the other prospective interviewee another email, and got

a response back. I sent her a few questions that she said she would be willing to answer by email

and offered to send me some scientific papers for more information. I have been working on my

sentence outline ever since winter break, and have been updating my compiled annotations list

ever since. My sources that I have been using are completely different than the sources on my

compiled annotations that I turned in last November, so I have been spending time on reading the

articles thoroughly, and writing annotations about them. Because I have more experience with

reading articles, and critiquing them, the process has definitely gotten easier, and I know how to

write them more eloquently now.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
2/7/17
Biweekly Journal
Objectives:
I will finish my rough draft and have someone edit it for content and sentence fluency.
I will begin thinking of ideas for my data collection.
I will continue updating my website.
I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full night’s of sleep.
Journal:

Within the last 2 weeks, there have been a lot of events occurring both within school and

myself. I completed my midterms, and was very unsatisfied with how I approached them, but I

created a plan to improve in my classes and work harder for the second semester. I emailed my

outline to my advisor and got a very lengthy response back, summarizing what she thought of it

and recommendations on how to fix them. This discouraged me, but we immediately scheduled a

phone call that allowed me to realize my mistakes and how to fix them. My advisor told me to

rewrite half of my first control, as she told me that she has not heard of any literature based on

my subcontrol. Therefore, I changed it to an idea that she recommended. She also had the same

concern for my 3rd control, and recommended that it should be incorporated as a separate small

paragraph towards the end of my research paper, instead of dedicating a third of my paper to that

idea. I am currently in the process of revising those aspects of my outline, and incorporating

those revisions into my rough draft.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
2/21/18
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will revise my rough draft by fixing my sentence fluency and adding power to my language.

I will make a clear schedule that sets definite due dates for revising my rough draft.

I will continue thinking of ideas for my data collection.

I will continue to contact my advisor.

I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.

Journal:

Back in December, when I was emailing out a bunch of interview letters, I emailed a

researcher in hopes of asking her for an interview and seeing if she could become a potential

advisor. She stated that she was busy and was unable to schedule a phone call with me, so she

asked me to send her my list of questions that I would ask her, and she would write responses to

them. I got a reply about a month later, this past week. She was very helpful, and sent me a lot of

resources that would help answer my questions. I have thanked her and I am hoping to send her a

follow up email that asks whether she would be willing to take a look at my research. Also, I

recently turned in the rough draft of my research paper. The main issue with it was that it lacked

power, and a direction that my content was going in. I felt the same way as I was writing it, but I

was not sure how I would fix it. Now that I have received it and saw the comments on the paper,

I know how to fix it. I will work on improving the connection of my research to my thesis, and

will make my paper seem less of an information dump, but rather, as a claim with supporting

details.
 Paula Shin

IR-2/11 AP

3/7/18

Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will revise my rough draft by fixing my sentence fluency and adding power to my language.

I will make a clear schedule that sets definite due dates for revising my rough draft.

I will continue thinking of ideas for my data collection.

I will re-contact my advisor.

I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.

Journal:

I completed my research paper, and I was able to get a few people to look over it. I sent it

to my advisor, as well as submitting to an online resource that proofreads essays for people. I

received helpful feedback from the online resource, and used that to fix certain parts of my

paper. During class, I continued to work on fixing my research paper, and I believe that our

conference genuinely helped me fix some of my errors. I also updated my research proposal in

preparation for our conference, and I changed the part about my research, which had changed

since the last time I submitted my research proposal.

 Paula Shin

IR-2/11 AP

3/21/18

Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will revise a few paragraphs of my research paper by fixing my sentence fluency and adding

power to my language.

I will finish my questions for my survey.

I will continue to contact my advisor.

I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.

Journal:

I recently began to plan for my visual display board. I was a bit worried about the content

that I could put on my board, but the email you sent out with the document ‘how to create a

visual display board’ helped me immensely. I researched more ideas for visual display boards,

and then typed up a list of components that sample display boards had. Thanks to Zoe, I was able

to come up with the title of “Let’s Sleep on Technology”, which was a wonderful addition to my

research. emailed my advisor after a month and a half of no contact. I greeted her, asking if she

had a great past couple of weeks, and I reminded her that I had sent her my revised outline after

our conference and I asked if she would be willing to read my research paper. I hope to get a

response from her soon, as I followed her advice, and any feedback is very helpful.
 Paula Shin

IR-2/11 AP

4/11/18

Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will revise my rough draft by fixing my sentence fluency and adding power to my language.

I will make a clear schedule that sets definite due dates for revising my rough draft.

I will continue gathering data for my survey and think of new ways to gather more data.

I will continue to update my advisor.

I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.

Journal:

Last week was the visual display board fair, and I was able to layout all of my research

and show it to an audience. I had a bulk of the work to do on my board during spring break, and I

was able to manage my time evenly during the first few days. However, it wasn’t until the last

day of spring break that I realized I did not divide my work evenly for each day, so I found

myself completing a lot of the work the day before it was due. What took up a big part of my

time was the formatting, ensuring that the board looked pleasing, and that everything fit. I used a

paper cutter at home, but I feel like I misaligned a tiny part, which made the sides of my sheets

uneven, creating a messy board. Certain parts of my board were well-spaced and looked

pleasing, but I crammed a lot of the parts together to not show the bland background as much,

that I overcrowded my board. Many of the reviews I got stated that the neatness of my board

could have been better.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
4/25/18
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:
I will revise my rough draft by applying the edits made by Ms. Almond.
I will make a clear schedule that sets definite due dates for my data collection
I will continue gathering data for my survey and think of new ways to gather more data.
I will continue to update my advisor.
I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.
Journal:

Within the past two weeks, I’ve been working on my data collection, and editing my

research paper. I met with Ms. Almond, and she gave me very helpful feedback about how to fix

my paper. I’ve been working on editing my research paper, which is a slow process because of

my data collection process and busy schedule. I also think I should use different data collection

methods, such as posting my survey on other sites that make it simple for other people to take it.

Yesterday in class, we split up into different groups based off of our data collection methods, and

I presented my topic, my method of collecting data, and my findings. I mentioned that I was

initially considering a public health campaign but didn’t know how to accomplish it, but my

group mates gave me helpful feedback about it, and even gave poster slogan ideas. I found the

group session to be very helpful. In addition, this past weekend, I visited Boston for my orchestra

field trip. I had never been to Boston before, and I did not really expect to like it that much, but I

ended up really liking the city, although it was freezing. I really enjoy traveling and I would not

mind attending a school in that area. I am also looking forward to prom, which is this weekend,

and I will continue to gather more data for my data collection.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
5/9/18
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:
I will revise my rough draft by applying the edits made by Ms. Almond.
I will continue gathering data for my survey and think of new ways to gather more data.
I will think of ways to get my message across for my public health campaign.
I will study for my AP exams.
I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.
Journal:

Within the past two weeks, I have begun to think of ways to achieve my public health

campaign and continued my data collection. I regret not getting anything done about my lack of

responses, which was due to the fact that I was unaware that sending out emails to teachers was

effective and I was not really focused on completing my data collection. However, just last week,

one of my teachers sent out a survey that someone in third period created, and other students

seemed to immediately take the survey, so I will use that as my example for asking teachers to

send out my survey to their students. I have finished creating my email asking teachers to send

out my survey to their students, and got it proofread by a few other students, so I will be sending

that out this afternoon. For my public health campaign, I will be creating posters, tv slide

announcements, and infographics to send to the morning announcements and maybe to other

schools. I hope this will be effective, but I doubt that many other students will keep the sleeping

habit tips in mind. I am also searching for other platforms to share my campaign with, in order to

create a bigger impact.

 Paula Shin
IR-2/11 AP
5/9/18
Biweekly Journal

Objectives:

I will continue editing my research paper and prepare to publish it.

I will continue analyzing my data and add it to my research paper

I will execute my public health campaign.

I will not procrastinate on my schoolwork to ensure a full nights of sleep.

Journal:

A few weeks ago, I sent out my survey to teachers, requesting if they could send it out to

their students. Most of the teachers who received my survey sent it out to their students and I got

about 80 responses. I visited a few of the teachers in person, such as Ms. Manuel and she sent out

the survey because I reminded her about it, so following up with teachers was a good idea.

However, when I talked to Ms. Kump about sending out the survey, she said that she was

bombarded with a huge amount of work and I did ask her around the time that the NHS hours

were due, so I understand that she was not able to send it out to her students. I have been

researching for tips for students to follow with using electronics before bedtime and I actually

found so many resources and tips! I used a bunch of them, especially tips for students who use

electronic devices before bedtime, and created a few materials for my public health campaign,

such as a poster, and an infographic. I finished analyzing my data and I will be incorporating it

into my research paper, which I hope to publish in one of the publications that you sent to us.