Junior paper

/me sighs

I'm a junior this year, and this semester I have to write a research paper, which will be the basis of a larger senior project next year.
I think it has to be six pages long, but I can't decide on a topic. I do know that I want it to be related to computers though.

Here are my thoughts so far:

• How an operating system works
• How BIOS works
• Building a computer/How different parts match up (I doubt I could do this one, because the senior project requires you to do something that shows you learned something, and I won't have enough money to build a computer)

What do you guys think might be easiest/best for me to do? Any suggestions for other topics?

....nobody?

Senior project is so fucking lame.

Do you have to make a tangible product and put like 15 hours into it as well?

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Originally Posted by Catbus

Senior project is so fucking lame.

Do you have to make a tangible product and put like 15 hours into it as well?

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Yes there has to be a tangible product, and she did say something about putting x amount of hours into it, but I don't remember exactly.

Hehe, you're going to bore your poor teachers to death! But it's your paper and not theirs, so I guess your interest should take priority to theirs. Anyway, have you thought about writing an historical paper on some aspect of computing, e.g., networking? Another fun area might be something to do with the hacking/cracking computer culture.

And I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "tangible product." You mean other than the paper itself?

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Originally Posted by DuB

Hehe, you're going to bore your poor teachers to death! But it's your paper and not theirs, so I guess your interest should take priority to theirs. Anyway, have you thought about writing an historical paper on some aspect of computing, e.g., networking? Another fun area might be something to do with the hacking/cracking computer culture.

And I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "tangible product." You mean other than the paper itself?

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I really like that idea.
The tangible product has to be something that demonstrates that you have gained knowledge about your subject.
An example a teacher gave me one time wast that this girl decided to learn about horses for her project, so her "tangible product" was a video she shot of her riding a horse.

Just a heads up, my senior thesis was 200 pages long, I don't think 6 is going to cut it.

An operating system thesis might be better suited for that. You could demonstrate your knowledge by building one.

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Originally Posted by ninja9578

Just a heads up, my senior thesis was 200 pages long, I don't think 6 is going to cut it.

An operating system thesis might be better suited for that. You could demonstrate your knowledge by building one.

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The junior paper has to be 6-8 pages.
The senior project has to be 8-10 pages plus a tangible product.

Also, building an operating system??
Do you realize that I know absolutely nothing about code of any kind?
I can't code HTML, somehow I doubt I could build my own operating system.

he's in high school. not college.

History of w/e sounds like a good research topic.

My bad.
I probably should have mentioned that I'm a junior in High School, not College. Thanks Zocks.

Yeah, writing a paper about history sounds like a good idea. Then all you need to do is go back in time and record a video of you talking to King Louis III.

Your product doesn't have to be too related to your overall topic. For instance, my senior project was on the Big Bang Theory and why it's the best cosmological model to explain the current state of the universe. For my product I built a simple telescope (which, in all actuality, was just a lens and an eyepiece glued to a cardboard tube).

Maybe you could just code a simple program, or something like that.

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Originally Posted by Xox

he's in high school. not college.

History of w/e sounds like a good research topic.

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Oh, my bad.