Research Projects [VI & VII years] on Charms

Professor Olivers

January 10, 2014 5:43 PM

Research Projects [VI & VII years] by Professor Olivers

By now for these sixth and seventh years Charms was no longer mandatory; those who were uninterested in the subject had dropped it and those who enjoyed learning had stayed. With a group of students eager to learn more about Charms it made teaching the subject all the more fun for her and opened up many opportunities. Before Florence had started officially teaching classes, she had always preferred tutoring older students because she never had to bother with the basics. The same luxury applied with these students and she enjoyed seeing them develop in more advanced Charms which, though more complicated, were more enjoyable to use.

At the beginning of the term Florence had told them to begin working on a research project. They were to research a particular charm of their choice, tell of its reception in the wizarding world, and argue a stance for or against it. There was the danger of lazy students picking mundane charms which really made no difference to society, but she hoped her students would be a little more ambitious. They were, after all, beginning to look into going to universities or throwing themselves into the unforgiving job market.

It was towards the middle of the term and that meant it was time for the sixth and seventh years to present their project idea to their peers. Their real presentation was to come at the end of the term where they would present their research to the entire class. For now, however, they were simply going to break into groups and have their ideas and research up to this point peer-edited. When it looked as though most of her students were in class ten minutes to three, she went to stand in front of the class and cleared her throat.

“I hope you all paid attention last class and prepared your research topic ideas for today. Though you may not have started on the actual essay writing, I do expect you by now to have an adequate amount of research done. Instead of an actual class, we’re going to have a peer-editing workshop. In groups of three, I want you to take turns pitching your idea to your group and, for the others in the group, I want you to give great feedback in order to strengthen the presenter’s case and argument. This project will be worth a little less than half your grade, so work hard on this. There will be class time in the future for you to work on your projects. However, this is all up to you. With that, go ahead and break into groups of three or four.”

OOC: Include your research projects in your posts. It doesn’t have to be a full-fledged project, just a summary of what your character wants to research. More points for creativity! This is also going to be based on discussing each character’s presentation, so there’ll be more points also for good questions. Have fun with it!

0 Professor Olivers Research Projects [VI & VII years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5

Michael Grosvenor, Teppenpaw

January 15, 2014 5:39 PM

Hear what I have to say by Michael Grosvenor, Teppenpaw

Michael's research project had been slow to get going. This was a combination of his general tendency to assume things wouldn't take as long as they actually did (though he was getting better at planning out big projects and not being complacent that the time allowed was 'ages') but also the fact that he hadn't been able to find out much about what he was interested in. It was pretty new, and most books seemed to enjoy going over and over tried and tested old magic. He'd eventually sought help on the issue, and been pointed in the right direction. Speaking up and asking for help was one thing he'd definitely learnt to do in his final two years. He'd even almost stopped feeling like it was cheating. Especially after this time. Being pointed in the right direction had definitely not meant someone else doing the work for him, and plenty of almost literal blood sweat and tears had gone into the notes he was clutching now. Funnily enough, they didn't hand out the answers to you on a plate in seventh year. Actually, he was fairly sure they never had.

Michael joined a group, feeling nervous and self-conscious. He wasn't sure he had enough... The way Professor Olivers had said they 'may not have started essay writing' had scared him. It implied some people might have and he didn't think they were supposed to be that far along yet. She'd also said they needed 'adequate' research to discuss. How much was that? His had felt adequate, when he'd been stressing over it but it now seemed like it might be a little on the light side.

“Ok, so... I'm, uh, working on a project about amplification charms,” he explained, “and maybe some others, I'm not sure yet. But I'm looking at a specific use of them, so I might do other things that are used in similar ways if this isn't enough. Erm, I'd say it's a universally good use... I sort hope most people would,” he added, though he felt like there were some people would object to anything just to make a point. There were possibly also stuffy old-fashioned wizards who had objections to the Muggle influence involved but... well, they could kind of shove it, as far as he was concerned. He couldn't see why there was any need to be that mean – denying people what they needed just for the sake of 'tradition'.

“So, I'm looking at how they're used in assisting the hearing impaired,” he explained, not quite meeting the eyes of the group. It felt like a slightly clunky way of talking, like he was effectively talking about himself in the third person. But it felt exceptionally weird to be talking about this to his classmates. Even though they all knew by now – even though he had come a long way from the first year who had tried to hide it from everyone, and had had seven years of it not being an issue to anyone – he was still very uninclined to actively drawing attention to his disability.

“Um, so for the introduction, I was going to talk about how the Charm was originally invented. Then explain that I'm looking at this use. And then I've got some stuff on how Muggle hearing aids work, to explain what the use of this Charm is trying to achieve,” he added, pulling out the diagrams of both the Muggle and magical versions. He'd taken time to try to understand that but he wasn't sure how much detail he was meant to explain to his group in and now that he'd started he found that all these things he'd thought about saying just made him feel like he'd be talking for far too long. “And um, talk about how it's good cos it helps people. And cos hearing aids aren't perfect – they never work as effectively as human ears, so maybe now a different approach, like a magical approach, to those problems will help make progress.” As part of his research, he'd got back in touch with the guy who had fitted his magical hearing aids. They'd discussed the cancellation of background noise. Magic had this.... weird ability to be personal. Like, it could tune into people in a way that science couldn't and maybe that was just what was needed to tell what was the human voice that you wanted to listen to. But, though he felt like he understood it in his head, he didn't think he could articulate those properties of magic. He'd forgotten his examples and, as he shuffled through his notes he couldn't easily see them.

“So, um, yeah... that's the basic outline...” he concluded. When he'd been speaking he'd just wanted it to be done with but now he'd stopped he felt like he'd done a bad job and he should have explained everything better. He sighed, waiting for their questions.

13 Michael Grosvenor, Teppenpaw Hear what I have to say 199 Michael Grosvenor, Teppenpaw 0 5