I-Search+by+Emily

//Warning! this is a work-in-progress. When I remove this warning and all the other text in red, you can assume my work is finished and ready for assessment. // by Emily The topic that I am interested in is making children become soldiers in Africa. In Africa, you could be playing soccer with your friends, and out of nowhere, a humvee with men with guns could jump out and take and your friends, or just you or maybe just one of your friends.
 * Title **
 * Part I--What I already know about my topic **

- Why do they force young children to become soldiers? Is it because they want to train them for adulthood, or do they actually make them work when they are children? - Were the men who take the children also taken as young children? - Is there a certain age group that the men take? - Are the men actual soldiers with the government, or are they a self- made army like a gang who is possibly against the government? - When these children are taken, are they given an education or are they just trained most of the time?

__FOCUS SENTENCE__: Why are children in Africa being captured and forced to be trained or fighting?

In Africa, children are captured on a regular basis and forced to be soldiers. A child could be outside playing with friends, and out of nowhere they could be chased by group of armed men who want them to worked in their army/ gang. This is a major problem because many children are be taken from their families.

I want to find out more about what is happening in Uganda. Children everyday are being taken from their homes and forced to be soldiers as children, and people everywhere, including me, thinks it should be stopped. There are the questions that I want answered:
 * Part II--What I Want to Find Out **
 * Why is all of this happening?
 * Who is trying to prevent it?
 * What are they doing to prevent it?
 * Is anyone working towards fixing the problem?
 * How many children taken each day?
 * Who is the leader of the children's war?
 * What is the African government doing to stop this?
 * How do the people in Uganda, including the government, react to this situation?

The first thing I did to get started was I searched about my topic. I did this because I knew that I couldn't make a game about a serious issue without knowing about the serious issue, so I looked on as many websites I could find about the issue. I looked at a lot of websites, until I found the right information that I believed I needed; such as things like: who, where, when, why, how, etc. I found out almost of these things, except for "why", so i'm guessing that is just one of those unknown wonders out there. The next thing i did was I started creating this I-Search, where I could record my information and game plans. Then, I started making my game plans, about what I wanted my game to look like, be like, and what I wanted the goal of the game to be; such as a board game, computer game, playground game, or any other type of game i can think of. Next, I decided which game plan i wanted to create, which was my board game, which is a mod of the famous board game, "Monopoly". The next thing I did was I made a list of supplies that I needed, such as: a game board, a scissor, markers, 2 index cards, a computer, a ruler, and card stock paper. , I went to the store and I bought the board I wanted to create my game on, and I also bought professional- typed markers so my game would look good. After I gathered and bought the supplies I needed, I moved on to making my game. The first thing I did on my board was make even squares for my game squares, and when I did that, it came out to a total of 32 squares. Then, I filled each square with words saying things like: "Congrats, you just saved _ children", "Oh no! You just lost _ children", "Move up _ steps", "Move back _ steps" Then, in the middle, I made space for my Title, and I wrote it in the middle of my board. Then I labeled the areas where my cards would be placed, saying their names and how many of each there were. Now, I just have to make four game pieces, create my cards, and try out my game.
 * Part III--The Search **

While doing my I-Search, I learned a lot about Uganda and child soldiers. One thing I learned is that the leader of the army is Joseph Kony, and the actual name of the army is " the Lord's Resistance Army ". I also learned in the past 20 some years, approximately 30,000 children have been abducted and forced to join the Lord's Resistance Army.
 * Part IV--What I Learned **

__Bibliography__


 * =====SOS children's villages, . Child Soldiers in Uganda. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2010. .=====


 * =====Lira Children. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2010. .=====


 * =====Invisible Children Org., . Invisible Children. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2010. .=====