Questioning and Investigation

If I were living in a community where people began to contract strange illnesses on a normal basis, I would begin to be concerned with several things. Many environmental factors, common practices and procedures that people may have done, and city wide changes may be the cause of all the illnesses.
Environmental Factors:
1. Is the community located near any nuclear power plants?
2. Are there any possible sources of pollution seeping into the air?
3. Has there been any changes in how plants dispose of their waste?
4. Could the wildlife population be affecting the air and water supply?
5. Are there any other possible issues with air and ground water that could have cause a major contamination?
6. Have the power plants, water supply and other environmental utilities been tested?
Common Practices and Procedures:
1. Did the people who got sick frequent the same places?
2. What was the daily routine of each person before they became ill?
3. How did these people commute to get to different places in the community?
City Wide Changes:
1. What type of new policies and ordinance were recently changed by the city?
2. Could these changes have caused the illnesses?
3. How were these changes put into effect?
4. Could the city trace each and every item they have changed to find out if there was a possible violation of safety and health codes?

After gathering all my questions and getting clarity of the issue, I would begin by speaking with someone who has more understanding of the illnesses. This person could be a scientist, doctor, or person who specializes in epidemic and health service issues. This may lead me to go back and revise or even add questions to my list. I would also speak to the Waste Management President. This person would be able to tell me how the city’s water treatment plan is implemented and how the city waste is disposed of. Next, City Manager, often times the city manager is aware of any structural changes that are being made to the city. They are responsible for the safety procedures and all policies to be followed. The department of park and recreation will be able to answer simple questions about which activities had a large turn out and of there were any major differences in how they clean and prepare fields for recreational activities. Finally, the Department of Forestry, this may seem like a strange place to go and ask questions or people to speak to, but they are able to tell you about patterns in nature involving wildlife. New species, any major illnesses in the wildlife community and probably a little bit about flowers and trees in the area.

I would begin my research with, of course, my questions. All good researchers ask questions and follow the scientific method to get information about the project they are working on. I would use primary and secondary sources to find any relevant information from other areas that may be facing the same issue. I would also involve anyone who wishes to help our community get to the bottom of the illnesses. I would use graphs and maps to help pinpoint similarities in each of the cases of strange outbreaks. By gathering numerical data I would be able to find a possible start date and how the illnesses had spread.

To overcome the obstacle of critical thinking I would have to go into this research with an open mind. I could not begin with judgments and assumptions. I would have to actually think everything that people are telling me through to the finish. A major obstacle would be my ego. I would feel as if I knew much of the information about certain places in my community so I may tune out what these experts are saying about different factors. I would also have to really evaluate if the situation was a problem or an issue to ask the right questions. Assumptions that could easily distract me from the goal of this project would be my personal feelings about some of the people who became ill. I may not like some of them and my personal judgments may come to light if I am not careful.

To have the best research and evidence possible I must keep refining and seeking clarity of each new piece of data that I may gather.