Isearch Background -REVISED

Ever since I was old enough to think logically, I have wondered why I can't remember everything. I have random memories about times from my childhood, like that time when my baby brother stole my favorite baby doll and started chewing and drooling all over her head. I started freaking out and crying, but my dad held him and laughed at me, and told me it was just a doll and he wouldn't ruin it.
I can remember everything and anything about proper grammar and proper English (even if I don't always use it...), but after taking a year of AP U.S. History, I couldn't tell you what year Paul Revere took his ride, or what Teddy's Big Stick Policy was, or what happened in the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
I can remember a dream I had a few years ago, about my brother trying to kill me because I had a cold, but I can't remember what I dreamed about last night.
I need to know, why can't I remember most of my life? Was spending all that time in school and working so hard a waste of time if I can't remember any of it? 

Graf #9

When I was a little girl, I had a giant, pink net that went across my ceiling that was filled with hundreds of stuffed animals. Nothing was more exciting to me than getting a new stuffed animal. All different varieties of stuffed animals, from the teddy bear I would get every Christmas with the current year sewn onto its left foot, to Cabbage Patch Kids. I remember I had stuffed dogs, dolls that talked, characters from shows like The Big Comfy Couch, Care Bears, Barney, Pokemon, etc.

But my favorite stuffed animal of all time was my Bugs Bunny. Bugs was my very first stuffed animal, given to me by my dad when I was born. He stands about a foot tall, holds a bright orange carrot in his left hand, and wears a big grin that shows off his dominant buck teeth.

Bugs always lived on a shelf in my bedroom. Unlike the other hundreds of stuffed animals I had, he sat on a mini, wooden rocking chair on that shelf, mocking all the others trapped in the net above.

Settled in my very first apartment, living on my own now, Bugs Bunny still sits and protects me on that mini, wooden rocking chair on my bureau. He's in perfect condition, other than a small chocolate milk stain here or there, and is the only stuffed animal I have left from my giant collection.

Graf #8

Reaction to Isearch Samples

After reading through these samples, I have a better understanding of what to look for, and what is expected. I also found how amazing it is that some things interest some people a lot more than they do others...
From these samples, I've decided I need to figure out why I'm writing. What questions I have. What I see during my search for the answers. What I've learned. Why this matters in the future. And of course the infamous bibligraphy.
I think now it'll be easier to direct my search!

Graf 7

Why is it that we only store some memories, but not others?

Why do we only remember some dreams?

In what part of the brain are memories stored?
How does storing memories work?

Are there ways that we can recover memories or dreams?

Are there ways that we can improve our memories?

Graf #6

My "girl car," or my navy blue 2001 Chevy Malibu, is my baby, and my most prized possession. It's usually pretty messy; you'll see things like clothes, shoes, paper, movies, etc. My favorite movie of all time is the Lion King, and you'll see a large collection of Disney movies on my DVD stand in my living room. My favorite outfit is my EMCC sweatpants and my boyfriend's comfy sweatshirt that's way too big for me. I like to be comfortable. If I could choose anywhere to be right now, it would be having the time of my life at a live concert. Any type of music, but I prefer country or rock. I'm not the kind of person that always likes to sit at home and relax. I would rather be out around people doing something fun. Of course ocasionally I like to sit at home, watch Netflix and do a puzzle. Currently I'm working on a puzzle of New York. My favorite food is chicken alfredo; I could eat it all day, every day. My favorite color is purple, and I'm addicted to coffee.

Isearch Worksheet

What do you want to write about? How children's brains work.

What do you want to find out aboit your topic?
Development and how they work.

What are your questions about the topic?
1. Why are children able to learn so quickly?
2. What is it about children's brains that make them "spongy" and able to retain more information?
3. How are they different from adult's brains?
4. If we're able to learn so much as children, why do most people not remember the first few years of our childhood?

Subquestion?
1. What age do you stop retaining information as well?
2. Why can I remember some things, but not everything from my childhood?
3. What's different about the brain of a child with Autism that makes them less able to retain certain information?

Give three reasons why you like the topic
1. I work at a daycare and we teach children. It's interesting how much they can learn and remember in such a short period of time.
2. There is one child that has mild autism and has a harder time learning things at the same pace as the children without autism. I'm curious what is different about their brains that make things more difficult for them.
3. Memories and dreams have always fascinated me. I've always wondered why we can only remember some memories as well as only some dreams, but not all of them.

Give three ways your life might change if you answer your questions
1. I'll be able to better understand the children that I work with almost every day.
2. I'll be able to find new ways to work with the child with autism so that he can maybe catch up to the other children his age.
3. I'll answer my life-long question of why we can't remember everything.

Graf #5

Reaction to Isearch Brainstorm

I'm loving the fact that we are able to choose ANY topic we want. I also love that we're not expected to be neat and organized about our brainstorms. When I was in middle school, my brainstorms use to be webs. These webs looked like confusing, jumbled, unreadable nonsense to anyone but me, and my teachers use to get frustrated because they couldn't make out any fathomable ideas from them. I was told that I was wasting time and needed to come up with one idea. We normally had about ten minutes to create a brainstorm and choose a topic. Throughout high school I continued the habit that my middle school teachers got me into: just take the first topic I think of and go with it, I just need a grade. When I read the Isearch brainstorm, I got excited that I get to go back to my confusing, jumbled, unreadable nonsense that my teacher will be exited about, too.