Blogs

I believe that blogs can be a legitimate source of scholar or news.  I think it all has to do with whether the writing the blog is an authority or not on the topic and if the information they are presenting is factual. http://sportandsteroids.blogspot.com/
This blog is titled The World of Sports and Steroids written by a man named Charles Greier.  He does provide factual information and I consider him to be an authority on the topic from is background.  He is currently acquiring his Masters Degree at Hofstra University and his whole blog revolves around steroid use and he has quite a few posts on the topic so I feel like he knows what he is talking about.
C, Geier. (2006, December 11). The World of Sports and Steroids. Retrieved April 24^th, 2012

Statistics

The peer reviewed journal article I found containing statistal information was titled The Relationship Between Anabolic Androgenic Steroids and Muscle Dysmorphia and written by Lebur Rohman.  In his article, Lebur gives the statistic "Lifetime prevalence of AAS use in USA is 6–7% and increasing rates of use are
being reported from the UK" and cites where he got this information from.  He does does not say how this data was collected or analyzed though.  I'm not sure why not.  I think he chose not to include it because he was just trying to explain how usage has increased.  The main topic of his article is to show that the usage of anabolic steroids plays into the Muscle Dysmorphia Disorder.  The governement document I found containg statistical information was written by Kevin L. Ropp and titled Steroid Substitutes, No-Win Situation For Athletes.  In his document, Ropp refers to a steroid alternative named Gamma Hydroxybutyic Acid (GHA).  He gives and cites the statistic that in November 1990, there were 80 hospitalizations reported from the use of GHA.  Within15 to 60 minutes of taking one-half to three teaspoons of GHA, patients reported they acquired dizziness, drowsiness, unconsciousness, slowed heart beat, and difficulty breathing.  He says that the information came from a national Centers for Disease Control study on patients taking GHA.

 Ropp, K. U.S. Government Printing, (1993). Steroid substitutes, no-win situation for athletes. Retrieved March 8^th, 2012 from FDA U.S. Government Printing website

Rohman, L. (2009). The Relationship Between Anabolic Androgenic Steroids and Muscle Dysmorphia: A Review. Eating Disorders, 17(3). Retrieved March 9^th, 2012

Original Research

I don't believe that I have ever done original research before.  For all my classes in previous smesters and even in high school I've always done library research.  Orginial reaerch is different from library research because it is research that produces ew knowledge rather than showing existing knowledge in a new way.  Library research can guide someone to do original research by providing background information on topic that they are trying to discover new things about.  I think a pro of library research is that the information found is usually factual and accurate.  A con is that someone doesnt get to discover it for themself, they have to take someone else's word for it because they are told it is factual.  For both types of research, I think interpretation and evaluation are included.  I believe the most important for origninal research is evaluation because you need to make sure you really believe in your findings of your research.  For library research, I believe the most important critcal thinking skill is interpretation because you need to make sure you are completely understanding what yu are researching.

Checking In

My semester research project has overall been successful.  Lindsay, my partner, and I work really well together.  We've been successful in finding resources.  The only ones will still need to find are an encyclopedia entry and a documentary on steroid abusers.  We have also been successful in having good start on the Power Point we are using for our presentation.  We just need to add in pictures and colors to make it more interesting.  We also have a few more questions from the questions list to answer.

Urvashi Vaid Presentation

Before attending the Urvashi Vaid presentation, I wasn't very familiar with the topic so I wasn't really sure of what to expect.  Urvashi Vaid opened my eyes very quickly on the topic.  She presented the information though stories and examples, and asked question to expand the audiences thinking on the issues.  She also provided facts and even some jokes, which I really enjoyed.  Something I learned that I've never thought about before is after the marriage law is achieved for LGBT communities, where do the LGBT activist groups go next?  Is that the end point?  This really made me think.  I definitly think Urvashi is and expert on the topic she was presenting.  She has been an LGBT activist for almost three decades and has written many books.  In her presentation, Urvashi brought up a transgender activist named Dean Sparks, who has written a book called "Normal Life".  I'm thinking I could look up Dean and some of his information could help me with my alternative viewpoints paper.

Intellectual Property

I'm not quite sure what intellectual property is, but if I were to guess I would say it has to do something with the inner workings of the mind.  Someone's thought's and ideas would be their intellectual property.  When researching an official definition of what intellectual property, I came across a website called WIPO- World Intellectual Property Organization.  Their definition of intellectual property is "Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce".  One example I can think of would be McDonald's famous quote, "I'm lovin it", or Subway's "Eat fresh".  I think when something is manipulated and shared, it is no longer intellectual property.  for example, at one point in time, I'm guessing the stove top was someone's intellectual property.  Someone came up with the concept, then decided to share it with others.  Throughout the years, the design of the oven has changed and many different companies have started producing them.  There is no longer a patent on the design.

Google 101

In last weeks class, during Google 101, I learned quite a few things about Google that I wasn't aware of before.  The most interesting thing that I learned was a newer feature on Google.  This feature allows you to upload a picture and do a search on it to find out where the picture came from.  I think that this is really neat.   wanted to try it out for myself, so I uploaded a picture of myself and got some interesting results!  Another thing I learned about was using this symbol ~.  I don't think I've ever needed to use this symbol in my life until I learned that when I use it in Google, it will look for sites about the topic, but use related terms.  I will definitely use this in the future when doing research to broaden my search results.  Another thing that i learned was .gov at the end of a URL means that the site is a federal government site.  Google 101 didn't necessarily change my opinion about Google, but instead just expanded my thinking about it and the type of research I can use it for.  This in class exercise was very helpful!

Research Project Questions

From the research I've done so far, I can answer about four of the eight questions that need to be addressed in my oral presentation.  I need help with finding organizations that educate people on this population.  I also need help in finding some of the challenges this group faces in mainstream society.

Alternative Viewpoints Paper

The LGBT population I want to learn more about, and I think I should learn more about, is the transgender population.  More specifically, I would like to learn about transgender people and health care because I have little, almost no, knowledge on it.  I’m curious id transgender people have health care at all, and if so, what kinds of health care are out there to support them.

 I have very little knowledge on the transgender community.  I have never met a transgender person in my life so I’ve never been able to observe how they’re treated and I’m very unfamiliar with the discrimination issues they face every day.  I would like to learn more about them because the things I've learned about them I don't believe are accurate.  From what I’ve heard about transgender people, I assume that they are confused about their sexuality and they are actually just gay.  This doesn’t seem accurate to me though because I believe sexual orientation and gender identity are two different things.  I've also have been told that transgender woman are not 'real' woman and transgender men are not 'real' men, they just associate with their unassigned sex.  I have never heard anything about transgender people and health care, so I don’t really have any assumptions about the type of health care they receive.

 I'm not quite sure where I got this information and these ideas about transgender people from.  If I had to guess, I would say it had to have been in middle school and high school from my peers, when I first learned there was a thing as a transgender person. 

First Draft of Annotated Bibliography

Lindsay Valenzuela

Whitney Olson

IM 204

Annotated Bibliography

Waddington, I., & Smith, A. (2009). The other side of sports medicine: sports medicine and the development of performance-enhancing drugs. In An introduction to drugs in sports: addicted to winning?. (pp. 89-101). New York, New York United States: Routledge.

In this chapter of Waddington and Smith’s book, they say that sports medicine has been one of the major contexts within which performance enhancing drugs have been developed and used.  They give three case studies, the use of drugs in some of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe, the early development and use of anabolic steroids in the United States, and blood doping.  These case studies help to illustrate how performance enhancing drugs evolved from sports medicine.  This chapter gives good information on the evolution on performance enhancing drugs, but doesn’t do a good job of explaining why athletes began the use of performance enhancing drugs (steroids).

Use of performance enhancing drugs in sport. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10th, 2012 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_performance-enhancing_drugs_in_sport

This Wikipedia article describes that the use of performance enhancing drugs in steroids if refered to as doping.  There is a brief history given that includes the man who fathered the father of anabolic steroids in the United States, Jon Ziegler.  Zeigler was a physician for the U.S. weightlifting team who learned that the reason for the Russian’s success in the sport was due to their use of performance-enhancing drugs.  This article is interesting and good for a brief history on how performance enhancing drugs were brought to the United States, but doesn’t go into much detail.

C Geier. (2006, December 11). Steroid use in sports extends far out of bounds. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://sportandsteroids.blogspot.com/

In this brief blog Geier discusses that anabolic steroid abuse in sports is a major problem. He also talks about the decision that professional athletes make to use steroids and how it affects not only the athletes but everyone whether or not that person pays attention to sports. Geier also wrote about an incident with an athlete who was guilty of using steroids. This article is very short and is also very old but it does have credible information.

Rodriguez, A. (2010, August 4). Alex Rodriguez. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/alex_rodriguez/index.html?scp=9&sq=steroid%20abuse%20and%20athletes&st=cse

In this newspaper article the author talks about Alex Rodriguez career as a baseball player. He then talks about when Rodriguez started abusing steroids and how he had obtained the steroids. In the article Rodriguez says that he would inject himself with the drug twice a month for six months a year. Rodriguez became a spokesman for a group dedicated to educate people about the dangers of steroids. This article is fairly new still and has credible information. It has personal quotes that Rodriguez said himself.

The Transgender Community

The LGBT population I think I should learn more about is the transgender population.  I have very little knowledge on these people and would like to learn more about them because the things I've heard I don't believe are accurate.  I assume that transgender people are confused about their sexuality and they are actually just gay.  I've also have been told that transgender woman are not 'real' woman and transgender men are not 'real' men.  I'm not quite sure where I got these ideas about transgender people from.  If I had to guess, I would say it had to have been in middle school and high school from my peers, when I first learned there was a thing as a transgender person.I don't believe I will have many, if any, challenges in doing research on transgendered people.  The only challenge I could see is being able to get accurate information, but I'm not sure if this will be a problem at all.

MasterFILE Premier

For this search I used the search string, (people* or teen* or adolescen*) and (cause* or motivate*) and ("steroid drugs").  The database I chose to conduct a search on was MasterFILE Premier.  This database provided more relevant and less numerous results than Academic Research Premier did.  Both of these websites come from EBSCOhost so the way to narrow down the results in both is the same.  You can limit your results to full text, scholarly journal, publication type, publication dates, etc.  Academic Research gave me a total of 18 results, and none of them seemed to be related to my topic.  MasterFILE Premier gave me 6 results, but only 2 of them were related to me topic.  Of the two that were related to my topic, one of them was available in full text.  My research questions have changed somewhat since working with databases.  I've narrowed down my topic a bit in order to find more accurate search results.  My biggest challenge in forming a search question is creating a search string to go along with my research question and getting accurate results for that search string.  In order to overcome this I think I just need to keep trying to formulate different strings to find the results I'm looking for.

Magazine Article vs Scholarly Journal Article

Magazine:
Kane, E. (2008, April). Ananbolic steroids-uses and abuses. The news Magazine of Veterinary Medicine, 4.
Scholarly Journal:
Petersson, A. (2010). Substance abusers' motives for using anabolic androgenic steroids. Drug &Alcohol Dependence, 111(1/2), 170-172.

The magazine article and scholarly journal article I found on steroid abuse were a lot different.  The scholarly journal gave a lot a factual, informative information on the 'whats' of steroid abuse (what it is).  The magazine article gave more background on motives and the 'whys' of steroid abuse (why people do it).  I thought the scholarly journal was harder to read because the print was in two column side by side, rather than just have full text across the entire page, like the magazine article did. 

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

Overall, I liked using Academic Search Premier.  The features make it easy to locate your topic and narrow your results to something that you actually would like to use rather than unrealated materials.  I've never used Academic Search Premier for another class, so it's all new to me.  I know I have used other types of databases in high school, but that was so long ago I don't really remember the names of them or how I used them.  The only fear I have about using Academic Search Premier is that I will get confused with all the features and how each of them changes what kind of results I recieve.

My Population: Steroid Abusers

After doing some reading and research on my population, my assumptions have change a little bit.  For one, I didn't know that sometimes steroids are prescribed to people for lung conditions and other things.  I originally thought people just took them to gain muscle.  I now really would like to know what causes someone to become an addict.  I also want to know if steroid addicts use steroids just to gain muscle mass or if someone who is prescribed them can become addicted from taking them for other health related reasons.  So far I've found that steroid abuse is most common in people over 18 and it usually affects men more than woman.  Though, steroid abuse is growing rapidly among young women.

Encyclopedia vs Wikipedia

In my opinion, Wikipedia has more cons than pros.  For one thing, the authors are anonymous.  You have no way of knowing if the information you're receiving is coming from a creditable source or not, therefore you don't know if it is true or not.  False information is another big con of Wikipedia.  If you're trying to research something, you most likely want accurate information, and with Wikipedia, you don't know for certain if you're getting that.  One pro I see of Wikipedia is that if you are a professional on the topic, and you know for certain something is false, you can change it.  Another pro is the easy accesiblitly because it has different pages for each category. 
As far as encyclopedias, a pro would be that there are a large amount of them and often they are categorized into different topics.  Another pro is that they have sources for the information and you can easily find who published the book to know if the information is accurate or not.  A con of encyclopedias is sometimes they don't contain complete information.  Important information can be left out.
When looking for encyclopedias on my topic, steroid abusers, I went to the library catalog and did an advanced search.  I typed steroid abuse and encyclopedias.  Unfortunately, this search had absolutely zero results. :(  But the I saw something farther down on the page that said: Search other libraries in the Consortium for steroid abuse and encyclopedias?  I don't really know what this means, but I clicked it anyways and found two pages of encyclopedias.  Though, not all of them related to my topic.  I did find about 4 that did.
When looking for an E-encyclopedia on steroid abuse, I used the EBSCOhost page from the library website.  I again type in steroid abuse and encyclopedias in the search box but there was only one result on a book that was titled Health Issues, so that didn't help me much.
Since I wasn't able to locate and encyclopedia on steroid abuse in the Miller Center, I can't really answer if an encyclopedia or Wikipedia would be better for my research project.  Though, after looking at the pros and cons of both, I think I would prefer to use an encyclopedia because I can just trust it more.

OPAC Experiance

The topic I have chosen for my research project is substance abusers, but more specifically steroid abusers.  I'm looking for both general and specific information on my topic.  When trying to locate a book on my topic, I used the advanced search on the St. Cloud Library website and used keywords that included substance abusers and steroids.  I then wrote down the call number and made my way to the basement.  It took me a few minutes but I finally found some books on my topic.  I did find an EBook on my topic, but I wasn't very interested in reading it.  It is really hard for me to read things from a computer screen because my eyes usually start to hurt and I often get headaches.  This is why I choose not to have a mobile device that allows me to read an EBook.  I think if I did try to read a book of my mobile device, I would get really distracted by texts and calls.  When searching for a book on the Great River Regional Library System OPAC, they ask for a general keyword and a subject keyword.  I used abuse and steroid for this and then wrote down the call number again.  The experiences with both websites were similar.  I did however find more results on the St. Cloud Library OPAC.

What Do You Assume to Be True About _________?

A vulnerable population I would like to, and think I should, learn more about is substance abusers.  The reason I would like to learn more about this population is because I have many perceptions about them and I would like to find out if my beliefs are accurate or not.  When I think of a substance abuser, I think of someone who looks really skinny, tired, and frail, and seem to always have bags below their eyes.  I assume they are greedy people, that would go to any length, including selling all of their personal belongings, steeling, and prostitution, to get what they want.  When they're not using, I believe substance abusers get fidgety and on edge, and act abnormal from their using self.  I'm not exactly sure where I got these views about substance abusers from.  I've never been informed of true facts about substance abusers so I believe the media and my peers have had a lot of influence on my views.  I think the most difficult challenge in doing research on substance abusers will be trying to understand what is going through someone from this population's mind.  In my own head, me not being a substance abuser, I wonder why a substance abuser can't just stop harming them self and get their life on track.  It's hard for me to wrap my head around the concept of addiction, so I would like to try to discover what it's really like and how it feels for someone.

What is Critical Thinking?

I believe critical thinking is when you allow yourself to think outside the box.  If you're in an argument, you allow yourself to see both sides but form your own opinion and make decisions with out being influenced by anything.  I know I have heard this term before, but I'm not sure I can pin point exactly where.  I believe it must have been in a communication studies class that I have had in the past.  When searching for an expert definition on the topic, I found a website titled criticalthinking.org.  On the website, there is a statement given by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul for the National Council for excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction.  They define critical thinking as, "Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness."  A more simple definition on the website says critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking andnimposing intellectual standards upon them.  (http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/410).  The website doesn't necessarily provide a process for one to engage in in order to think critically, but says people who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and emphatically.  In order to be a critical thinker, you need to accept new and different ideas from your own and keep an open mind.  Critical thinking is related to my IM 204 Research Strategies class because the class is designed for us to demonstrate how well we can use different critical thinking skills.  The class involves researching and using observation to challenge the assumptions.