The second part of Capstone has begun! But it wasn’t as easy as it would seem. We had to conference with our teachers, deal with rejected ideas and think up of questions from scratch! But that was only the start of it.
For my main question, I chose to do research on if the Spartans helped build up the Greek empire or just made more problems along the way, or if they did both and how. The question I wanted to research at the start was to see why Spartans were always portrayed as vicious and brutal characters and if this was even true. If this was my main question, my sub-questions would have been to learn about schooling and to see if the subjects that kids were taught made them like that, or if it was their geological place in the world. My second choice was the question that I actually chose. When I conferenced with Mrs. Cooper, she said that my first choice might have been a bit too broad, but she said that my second question would be nice. So that’s the one I chose to research.
In truth, I was a bit disappointed with what Mrs. Cooper said because I was really looking forward to my first choice. But when I started to think of sub-questions, I realized that this new question was definitely better.
For my sub-questions, I wanted to see how Sparta helped or didn’t help Greece’s empire. But I wanted 6 sub-questions. After my first four, I had a big writer’s block. This was because I wanted good questions, not easy ones. And I wanted questions that would relate to my topic in a good way, not just bad ones that would be bumps in a road.
Soon, I got 6 questions. But there were still problems! Most questions I thought up of started with ‘did.’ My teacher said that these would be too easy to answer, even though I totally disagreed! I loved all my questions. So I had to reword just about all of them, which made me really angry and just felt pointless to me.
In the end, this was what my whole main inquiry question and sub questions chart looked like;
| MAIN INQUIRY QUESTION:
How did Sparta contribute to the the successes and downfall of the Greek empire? |
| Sub Questions | |
| Sub Question #1 | What is/was Sparta and where was it, how strong was its armies, what rules/beliefs were important to them and what was Sparta’s code of honor? |
| Sub Question #2 | Did Sparta’s love for war, blood and theft come in the way of Greece’s harmony and cause unwanted problems? How did important Greek leaders feel about this? |
| Sub Question #3 | Did the Spartan belief that they had to be rough to survive come in the way of other cities thoughts and lead to some cities looking down on Sparta for this? Did Sparta gain back their respect in other ways |
| Sub Question #4 | Did the strength of the Spartan army aid Greece when fighting foreign armies? Did it ever not or did it ever not aid to the full ability? (Famous examples)
Bonus: And did Greece help Sparta right back when it needed help in battling armies? |
| Sub Question #5 | Did Sparta’s independence raise fears about the fact that Sparta might split up from Greece or rage war on the country? How did leaders deal with this? |
| Sub Question #6 | Did Sparta depend too much on Greece and cause problems in how the country was run? How did leaders deal with this? |
I was really proud of this chart. A lot of work had gone into making it into what it was.
My favorite questions were the last two. They were opposites, and it would be one or the other. I kind of liked that, because I could compare and contrast, and no matter what, one of the questions would turn out to be true.
The hardest question was the first one. Mrs. Cooper told me to add that one because no one knew what Sparta was. But I thought it was a bad sub-question. For a long time, the question remained, ‘What was Sparta.’ Then I added the rest and the stuff about the army and I started to like the question. Before, it was boring. Then, I made it interesting. I’m happy I did that.
My easiest sub-question was the second one. I knew Sparta was a country known for its strength, so it obviously waged wars with other countries. So all I did was think about it and then form it into a sub-question.
I liked all my sub-questions, I didn’t dislike any. So my sub-questions were a success, though there were some challenges. And my main inquiry question was also a success. So, overall, I enjoyed this process. The question finding was fun. I hope that the rest of Capstone is fun too.