My Plan B Research Question

The process of developing my Research Question has been an experience where so many whirlwinds of voices and ideas are going through my mind. When initially starting to develop my research question last semester, I had no idea what it was, what was it's purpose, why we had to make a research question, etc. but I just found out and realized last week of it's purpose. Actually, I also realized the purpose of a Master's and the purpose of a Plan B, crazy huh? I want to share this light bulb "aha" moment experience because I feel that I needed this realization in order to pursue and create a meaningful Plan B and research question. I am the first from my immediate family to receive a Bachelor's Degree and first of my entire family that all my living relatives are aware of to purse a Master's Degree. Therefore, I had no advise and no prior knowledge to what is expected from receiving a Master's Degree. Talking to Tara about it this past week and doing some extra research and reading (nobody really likes doing that but it helped!), I have come to find that getting my Master's is giving me the push that I need to find out what I have been wondering about education, about my curriculum, about my passion for STEM, and about our students.

From figuring out that our Plan B is research on our great wonders of education, I have decided that I really want to influence my students' careers and future opportunities. I want to teach my students skills that will allow them to do well in anything that they want to aspire to. Therefore, I am tweaking my original Plan B Research Question. Originally, my question was, "What are the differences and similarities of the student engagement between my upperclassmen and underclassmen in a STEMSS unit?" I wanted this to be my research question because I wanted to see when I could use this STEMSS unit, however, I am already seeing the answer to this question and don't see it as something that is as worthwhile as I intended. I'm not entirely changing idea of studying both my upperclassmen and underclassmen, but I am going to focus specifically on the skills that I would like to see my students gain within my classroom. I would like to study their ability to work within a group and make difficult decisions from my STEMSS unit, just like they would need to in the future when they need to work with others to make things work. Therefore, as of right now, my research question has transformed to, "Does my STEMSS Unit allow my students (both upperclassmen and underclassmen) to increase their communication, cooperation, and problem solving skills desired for future STEM classes and/or careers?" 

The reason for changing my research question is because I have honestly already figured out how to get my students engaged. I see no point in asking a question that could has been already answered and studied. What I really want to know is if my STEMSS Unit is worthwhile and even meeting standards that the DOE would like for the students to achieve. I would also like to share my STEMSS unit with other teachers and I feel that these are skills that could be applied to every classroom at every age. The only struggle that I have for changing my research question is that I am about halfway into my unit and I didn't do a written pre-assessment on the students' communication, cooperation, and problem solving skills. Nevertheless, I have known the students for a while now and can do reflections on their skills. I can also have the students reflect on how they felt where their skills were at the beginning of the unit till now. So I don't think it's too late, but just a little stressful. Hopefully I don't change my research question again! Thanks for reading :)