Assignment

Resource: Ch. 10 of The Art of Thinking

Suppose you live in a new suburban community that combines all the amenities and benefits of a close, small community with the benefits of living near the big city. Some years pass and several children and adults in the community start developing extensive and similar illnesses. You think this is clearly not a case of genetics, and you become suspicious that something has gone wrong in the development planning and execution of your community.

Write a 350- to 700-word paper where you reflect on the type of research needed to solve this problem. Answer the following questions in your paper:

• What types of questions would you ask?

• Who would you talk to?

• What type of research would you conduct?

• How can you overcome the obstacles to critical thinking?

• Explain what strategies you would have applied, if actually investigating the problem, to help foster critical thinking and to help lead you to the root cause of the illnesses.

• What assumptions did you have to be aware of to ensure that they did not interfere with your critical analysis of the situation?

Note. You are not meant to solve this problem. Instead, you should focus on the steps you would take to investigate the problem.