I have been thinking about topics for a personal inquiry.
One activity that I really enjoy is cooking. When I first started thinking about this project, I thought I could explore trends in cooking, different cuisines, or healthy cooking. Last Saturday, though, I hosted our "Gourmet Dinner Club" winter dinner. (I agreed to it before I knew that I was going to be taking classes!) I don't want to explore recipes, chefs, or cuisines anymore! I think I'll give this hobby a rest for a year or two.
We live in a very old home - built in 1865. I would love to know more about the history of it, the architectural style, past owners, original builder, and how it has changed through its years. I'm not even sure if there are records available. Our town's courthouse has had two majors fires. I know that many records here have been lost, so this may not be a feasible search.
I have always been interested in learning styles and similarities and differences among family members. I have a personal AND professional interest in this. I'd like to find more resources and activities that inform students about learning styles - but that part is professional.
The above topics are of interest to me, but I want my inquiry to be successful. In addition to the fact that I am temporarily "burned-out" on my cooking hobby, I don't think I would discover worthwhile questions to keep me interested enough to continue a search. In other words, it seems kind of shallow to me now. Someday I want to persue more information about our house, but I think it will require quite a bit of time.
So, the other topic I've thought about, and the one that has excited me the most, is exploring a trip to wine country in California. My husband's good, and long-time, friend has asked us to travel with them to California this summer to celebrate his retirement. I have only been in California twice. The first time was with my husband on a business trip. We didn't do any sightseeing. The other time was when our son graduated from high school. His graduation present from us was a trip to Pebble Beach to watch the U.S. Open. We spent the week following golfers. It was a golfer's dream, but I still didn't see much of California. This time we are going to Pebble Beach again, but we will also spend a few days either at Napa or Sonoma Valley. This is what I would like to explore. I need to find out how many days we are planning to spend on my kind of pleasure (the wine) and how many days we are spending on golf. I know that there will be much information. I'm looking forward to my explorations.
I have been "watching", and in Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) model, this first part of my inquiry has been "Initiation" and "Selection". In the next day or 2, I must do some exploring just to give me enough background to begin forming questions.
Yes! I have a topic.
