Possible research topics

Ideas for research topics…

The first topic that comes to mind is the Iran Contra Affair.  This is the subject on which I wrote my term paper my junior year of high school.  (That was almost 12 years ago and no- I don’t have any of the research or even the original paper)  I am thinking about researching this topic because, although I got a ‘B’ on my paper in high school, I couldn’t really tell you what the whole thing was about.  Something about arms-for-hostages I think.  I have always been interested in recent American history and it would be nice to get a ‘do-over’ so that maybe I will fully grasp what the big deal was about this time.

The next option would be to research public employee unions.  With all of the media coverage concerning senate bill 5 there should be plenty of information out there.  I would like to research this topic because although I know how I feel about the subject at this time, I try to abstain from throwing my personal opinion out there unless I feel pretty comfortable that I have examined both sides and looked at an issue objectively. 

The next topic that interests me is creationism v. evolution.  I am a Biology major.  I’m pretty squarely in the evolution camp and am a huge fan of Darwin.  I have heard though, that creationists use “scientific” evidence (yeah I’m pretty skeptical) to debunk evolution and prove their theory.  I really want to know how they do that.

After 3 pretty good ideas I was getting stuck, so I googled “research topic ideas” and clicked on the first link that seemed like a credible, non-biased source.  http://www.cerritos.edu/library/guides/research/topics_list.html  After scrolling through it a few times I saw farm subsidies and googled that to see what it was all about.  I think it’s an interesting program/problem depending on the way you look at it.  Does it encourage small family farms to stay in business or favor the larger, corporate farms?  I think it would be interesting to look into all sides of the argument but difficult to argue definitively for one side or another.

Another topic on the above list is prison reform.  I looked into it and never realized that there are so many theories on how to reform, rehabilitate, and punish criminals.  I suppose it does make sense that providing prisoners with things like TV and visiting privileges would decrease violence among inmates and riots by making happier prisoners, but then I remember an article I read about a 70 year old woman who is finally being charged with murder after 3 of her children died 45 years ago.  Her living children recount that she was very abusive, covering her mentally challenged daughters head with a bag as she crushed each of her toes one by one with a hammer.  The “eye-for-an-eye” philosophy is sounding better and better.  I think it would be very hard to examine theories and lump the prison population together to find one suitable answer because prison is a mix of people who made dumb mistakes when they were young and people like that old woman who are truly just evil and unfeeling.