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How does the SACE Research Project work? 🔬

So what is the research project?

Unlike your other SACE stage 2 subjects being 20 credits, the research project is a 10-credit SACE subject you will either complete in year 11 or 12 depending on which high school you attend. The subject consists of three parts: the folio, outcome, and review for research project A or the evaluation if you are undertaking research project B.

Despite research projects A and B having different performance standards, both encourage you to explore a topic of choice in depth, gathering various sources and writing reflections on your learning. In the first few weeks of the subject, your teacher will guide you when developing your question.

The folio is 10 pages in length and typically consists of your reflections and the main sources you have collected through your research (both primary and secondary sources!). You will then write an outcome that is essentially answering your original research question. Lastly, comes the evaluation or review where you will write an overall reflection and evaluate the findings in the outcome.

How do I develop the best question for my topic of interest?

The most important part of the research is picking the right topic.

You want to pick something you have a strong interest in. This way, it will be much easier for you to feel more motivated to sit down and do your research. However, at the same time, you want to pick a topic that will have lots of research behind it, you don't want to be stuck for sources!

To avoid this, write down a list of topics you have an interest in and do some research on each - see what is available online or at a local library. This way, you will be more prepared when your teacher comes over to your desk to ask you what you have done so far!

Once you have picked your topic, create another list of possible questions you could investigate. These questions should be open-ended, not just with a simple yes or no answer. Keep in mind you will be writing a 1500 to 2000-word answer to this question, so make it a question you can go into complete depth with. Typical questions should be specific and may begin with ‘to what extent’, ‘evaluate’, ‘what’ or ‘how’. For example, if you picked social media as your topic, your question could be ‘to what extent does social media use impact the attention spans of teenagers aged 13-17?’ rather than ‘does social media impact attention spans?’.

You may then have to break down your main question into four more guiding questions to help you structure your folio and outcome. For example, ‘how much time do teenagers aged 13-17 spend on social media every day?’. It is important that you keep documentation of this process as you will be displaying it in your folio.

Want an expert tutor to read over your Research Project before handing it in? You've come to the right place.

Send it through to us now and we'll return your Research Project to you with detailed marking and feedback. We'll even compare it to any criteria or rubric you've been given to make sure it aligns with your marking standards 🔥