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The "Research Flow" refers to the year long research project. I chose the term “flow” because the work from each project contributes to the next project. The Research Flow begins with topic selection. Students may choose from my list of suggested topics or, with my permission, use their own idea. Topics must relate to the subject matter of the course. Seventh grade subjects must be about the United States outside of Louisiana. Eighth grade projects must be related to Louisiana. Students will list 10 topics in order of interest (from most interesting to least interesting) on a 3x5 card with their name. I will collect these in class and have a drawing. The first student gets whatever he or she listed as his or her first choice. The second student drawn gets whatever she or he listed as her or his first choice UNLESS the first student already has that topic. The drawing continues until everyone has a topic. In the unlikely event that all ten of a student’s choices are taken I will stop the drawing and give that student the opportunity to fill out another card. No two students in my classes may have the same topic. Be certain that you have chosen well because you will not be allowed to change topics and you will be doing projects related to your topic all year. You may focus on an aspect of your topic, provided that does not overlap with another student’s project. The nature of the Research Flow prohibits group work on projects related to the research flow, such as the Social Studies Fair. The benefit of the Research Flow is the removal of redundancy from research work.