by Josephine Moore and Freya Seebald
Perspective One: Josephine
A core class of the New York State curriculum is Global History; at STEM High School, we have Tech in the Ancient World, generally taken in 9th grade. Because History is one of my favorite subjects, I was excited to learn throughout the year. What really made my year was Mr. Munro’s Research Paper Assignment.
The topic was anything I wanted.
My experience was great.
At first, I was freaking out, because I had no clue how I was going to write a 5-page paper on my topic, a topic which I had yet to choose..
It turned out to be super easy. I think this is because my teacher was supportive through the entire process. At the start, he helped us decide on our topic. Then we got to choose our topic, our only constraint was that it had to be related to history; besides that we were able to choose anything that interested us. He helped us refine the topic so we could actually find reliable information on it. After that, he showed us how to make notes, submit a first draft, revise, and edit before submitting the final copy.
I learned a lot from this experience. I think all students should write a research paper before attending college, because knowing how to write one really helps.
My topic was windmills and how The Industrial Revolution made the technology of wind turbines that still power parts of our lives. I learned how The Industrial Revolution created man-made climate change and – interestingly – also created the technologies currently used to fight climate change. This assignment made me feel connected to history and the present.
To find out where wind turbine technologies came from and to see how far windmills have evolved is fascinating and truly engaged me. Man-made climate change and global warming are HUGE issues that have been going on for the last 100 years; global warming is melting glaciers and is making our oceans warmer, so many species are being endangered and extinct because of our doing. The use of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which traps heat in earth’s atmosphere. This greatly contributes to global warming. Because of this, we need to start using renewable energy that will not hurt the environment any longer.
My research process helped me better understand why wind energy is a great solution. By 2050, The Department of Energy’s wind energy technologies office, believes that wind will be an energy source for all 50 states, and will have avoided 12.3 gigatons of greenhouse gasses, which is the equivalent of taking 1.3 million cars off the road. They also believe that wind energy will provide over 600,000 green gobs in installation, maintenance, and manufacturing (The History of Wind Energy, 2024).
Wind energy can help end the fight against climate change and global warming, while providing jobs for people who are unemployed and struggling, this is why wind energy deserves so much of our attention and support.
To finalize how I feel, the research writing process is important for all students to understand. Achieving this skill provides hope for me, because I believe that more students will strive in college, and will not have the feeling of being unprepared for expectations professors have when it comes to writing. Knowing the research writing process also provides possibilities for the future generations, because the learning of his process could be learned in schools everywhere, and the students’ future work can be positively affected. This mentality is an inspiration for me to do my best work so my future work is of excellent quality.
Perspective Two: Freya
For our last assignment in Global history, we were assigned a research paper, which was irregular for the ninth-grade curriculum. Because it was our first time writing research papers, we were allowed to pick any topic that was social studies related. While other people chose tanks used in warfare, the Crusades, or the history of ramen noodles; it took me a while to decide what I wanted to do.
I had to be interested in the topic, or else I would be researching something I am not passionate about for at least two months.
After much thought, I chose the history of picture brides in America from the 1800-1900s, because I previously heard about the topic in class and thought it sounded interesting. The way the picture bride concept was similar to dating apps like Tinder, and picture brides faced with harsh criticisms piqued my interest.
We used the Hudson Valley Community College library to get started on researching our topic, and at first, it took a lot of work to find good sources. A lot of them were either off-topic or very difficult to understand. The large amount of text made it feel overwhelming, and some of the text did not have a relation to the title, which made it frustrating and difficult to find reliable sources.
There was a limited amount of articles that were about picture brides, so although very difficult, I read through all the sources and compiled a list of notes. Our teacher, Mr. Munro, was the most helpful in the whole process. He provided step-by-step instructions and examples from the research paper he wrote in college, showing us how to write good paragraph structures and citations. If it weren’t for him, I would have never been able to write a good research paper. He helped us feel comfortable writing our paper, showing us where things could go wrong and telling us how we can avoid those mistakes.
One thing I noticed while writing, was that most picture brides in America came from East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and China. Many of these immigrants were faced with prejudice and racism because of their race and culture. Although for different reasons, Asian people still face racist prejudices and hate. I recall during the pandemic in quarantine, many Asian hate crimes occurred because of false information that they “Started Covid by eating Bats”. While looking at the research paper and recalling past events, I noticed how history repeats itself. While many Americans openly help and support Asian communities now, the first-generation Asian immigrants, such as picture brides never received such support; yet it shows how much we have changed as a society. People can share their culture and traditions with one another without the fear of being ridiculed, and it is beautiful to see the cultural diversity nowadays.
When I finished my paper, I showed my mother what I worked on over the past few weeks. When I explained the topic to her, she told me that my great-grandmother was a picture bride in Japan. Because my great-grandmother is currently deceased, I usually never hear anything about her; so hearing a piece of her past was very comforting and interesting to know. I realized that I was subconsciously drawn to choose that topic, hoping to know more about my heritage; and hopefully my great-grandmother. Writing my research paper led to me learning more about myself and my family’s culture, which makes me feel that all of this was worthwhile in the end.
Josephine Moore and Freya Seebald are sophomores at Questar III and HVCC STEM High School, a dual-enrollment program located on the Hudson Valley Community College campus. Outside of school, Josephine is a competitive swimmer and avid reader. Freya is a dedicated skeet shooter and enjoys learning about the science behind Biotechnology.