I-Search+by+Briana

Global Warming in The Arctic by Briana Arctic is a continent that is effected greatly by global warming. Because there are so many mounds of ice the effects are not that visible. Not many people live in Arctic, therefore it is the Arctic animals that are being harmed. Some of these animals are polar bears and penguins. Since the ice caps are melting, their home is being affected, their are less places for the animals to hunt and therefore they are dying off, because of starvation.Global warming is an important problem that needs to be tended to. They're several questions about my topic that I want desperately to be answered.What are people doing to help these poor animals? The only way we can help stop global warming is by changing our daily routines. Is global warming reversible? Maybe there is still a way to save these wonderful creatures and protect the little land left. In what other ways is global warming affecting the world? Since this is //global// warming its happening world wide and affect everyone everywhere but in what ways? With the technology we have why aren't we changing our daily routines to help with the effects of global warming? Would the animals adapt to the change in environment or go extinct? Global warming is affecting their habitats, but are they managing? Could global warming be prevented? What did we, as humans, do to trigger this?
 * Part I--What I already know about my topic **
 * Part II--What I Want to Find Out **

//As I continued to play games like Ayiti: The Cost of Life and Hurricane Katrina, I noticed a few things. The more I played the game the more goals I set for myself. In Ayiti: The Cost of Life I often asked myself can I do better than I did before? Is it possible to have all my family members educated? Can I earn more money for them than I did before? In the Hurricane Katrina game some questions I asked myself were: How can I get from one destination quicker than I did before? Can I help more people than I did the last time? These are the types of questions people ask themselves in any intriguing game. This is something I would want the players of my game to do after they play the game. When players of a game set personal goals for themselves its more than just a game, you than begin challenging yourself, seeing if your capable of completing certain levels or missions. I think that global warming in the Arctic is a serious issue that needs to be tended to. My goal is to create a serious game that displays what is happening in the Arctic and make the player of the game feel as if they need to do something to help. For example, when I played the game Ayiti: The Cost of Life, i felt remorseful, although I did not do anything. I had a sense of depression wash over me as I saw what the Haitian family was going through. This is something I want the players of my game to feel. I want to create a game that allows the player to think about the issue and come up with an overall opinion about the topic. I think these are the type of games people find compelling, ones that have new challenges each time you play the game. //// The book I chose to read to help me learn more about my topic is called "The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming" by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon. I chose to read this book because I thought it would be the best book to describe my topic in a way that is easy to understand. As I read further into this book questions I did not have the answer to were answered. I now know what we can do to help global warming, and that sadly global warming is no longer stoppable. The website I used was called "Global Warming Interactive, Global Warming Simulation, Climate Change Simulation - National Geographic" //One question I asked myself during this search was, " Would animals adapt to the change in the environment?" As I read further in my book and did more research on the website I chose to use, there were pieces of information that answered this question. The book explained how animals were becoming endangered, they need they ice caps to help shelter them and hunt. Many people would not think that ice is so important but it is vital for the Artic animals, and is key to helping them survive.
 * Part III--The Search **


 * Part IV--What I Learned **

There were many important things I learned about my topic, about myself as an investigator, and about the process itself. As an investigator I learned several things. One thing I learned, with my personal experience, is that I learn better by reading articles about the serious issue. I think this helps me learn more about my topic as an investigator because I am able to see different views from different people, at the same time. When I investigated my topic using a book, there wasn't as many different opinions and thoughts about the topic, there was only feedback from one dierction. Another thing I learned from myself as an investigator is that its not as easy as I thought it would be. My first impression of being an investigator was someone who just gathers information about their topic. I definitally had the wrong impression. Being an investigator requires alot of critical thinking. This isn't the everyday thinking you do, this is the thinking that helps you get farther in to the search about your topic. There were many things I learned about this topic during my investigation. I learned how we has humans, are the cause of global warming, and how we created this serious issue. Based on the techonolgies we created, such as cars, and factories. These machines addmit gases into the air, that slowly breaks down our ozone layer. If we did not create these technologies, we would not have global warming as a serious issue, or at least not yet. During this investigation I also learned about the process itself. There are many steps you have to take to get to this point. You have to have knowledge prior to your investigation. You also have to play different games, to get ideas for how your serious topic would look like as a game. This whole process was a learning process. I enjoyed discovering new things about my topic, and thinking of ideas that would help my serious topic become a game. This is something that I would enjoy doing agian.

**Works Cited:**
 * "World Book at Nasa." //www.nasa.gov//. N.p., 29/11/07. Web. 17 May 2010. <[]>.
 * "The Future is Drying Up." //New York Times Magazine// n. pag. Web. 17 May 2010. <[]>.
 * What Is Global Warming?." //nationalgeogrphic.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2010. <[]>.
 * David, Gordon, Laurie, Cambria. //Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warming//. 1st. 1. Scholastics, 2007. 112. Print.