Journey to the Past

A WebQuery for 11^th Grade US History

Kyle Hjelm

Kevin Robichaux

Hjelmk@cwu.edu

Robichauxk@cwu.edu

Introduction

You and your best friend have been struggling throughout the year in US History, and if you do not pass this next project you two will fail the course. The problem you guys have with history is that it’s not personal enough and you cannot relate to the material. However, your mind is about to be blown because you’ve discovered a phone booth that allows you to travel back into time. You will have the chance to expand upon your knowledge regarding the content that you’ve been missing in my class.

Task

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel back in time and visit at least 4 historical figures/events. This will give you the opportunity to meet historical figures. For this task you will take the notes, which will be submitted for a grade, from your time travels to construct your final project, but what will it be?

            In the past students have done:

·      Papers

·      Presentations

·      Posters

·      And even skits

If you choose to do a paper it must be at least 4-pages, if you choose to do a presentation it must be at least 5-minutes, or if you choose to do a poster it must include a timeline of your trip, pictures of what you visited, and descriptions of what you visited. Ultimately, the choice is yours, but I must clear your idea.

The Process

For this mission, consider the following:

·      Where should you start?

·      Is your project “idea” possible to complete?

·      What kinds of information will you need?

·      Do you have enough information to complete the task, if not, what else is needed?

·      Where might you be headed? Why?

·      What problems might occur along the way?

·      Have you developed questions to ask during the trip?

·      What are the biggest social problems you will face during your stop?

·      Will there be any connections between your stops?

·      Once you have all the information you need what is the best way to use this information to complete your task?

·      Have you checked the rubric and task information to ensure that you have met the requirement?

·      How do you plan to utilize the resources provided?

These are not questions that need to be answered, but they are to help guide you through your travels.

Resources

The following will help you complete your mission, however, you are not only restricted to the following sources:

·      http://www.americanrevolutionarywar.net/ This website contains an extended amount of information on the American Revolution. It's not put together in the best way, but if your are willing to read through then you will be able to find almost all of your information here.

·      http://www.civil-war.net/ This website is to help research for the Civil War. It has combined numerous links onto one page and has a massive amount of information. This site also contains primary sources from the Civil War.

·      http://www.firstworldwar.com/ From looking at the website name you can determine that this website covers World War I. This is a great website that covers World War I from multiple perspectives. It has links to numerous articles and other sources of information, one stop shop.

·      http://www.secondworldwar.com/ As the link just before, this website does a great job compiling other links and information into one ea sy spot. This link is another great tool to find all the information you need about World War II.

·      http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history This is a great website to use when you need to find information on Civil Rights movements. It has an interactive time line that is very fun to use and makes looking through the information an easy task.

·      http://www.loc.gov/index.html This is another "one stop shop" website. It is the Library of Congress' digital collection of documents. The website is very easy to use even though it has such a vast amount of information.

·      http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ This website contains a very in-depth look at the history of the United States. It Covers from the settlement at Roanoke to present day events. It is a very interactive website and it is fun to use.

·      http://www.eric.ed.gov/ This is another digital collection website that is sponsored by the United States Department of Education. It is a great way to find articles to refer to when writing papers. It claims to be the largest digital library of educational literature in the world.

Evaluation

Research Report : Journey to the Past

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Teacher Name: Mr. Hjelm and Mr. Robichaux


Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	10	8	6	4
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Sources	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but a few are not in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but many are not in the desired format.	Some sources are not accurately documented.
Notes	Notes are recorded and organized in an extremely neat and orderly fashion.	Notes are recorded legibly and are somewhat organized.	Notes are recorded.	Notes are recorded only with peer/teacher assistance and reminders.
Diagrams & Illustrations	Diagrams and illustrations are neat, accurate and add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are accurate and add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are neat and accurate and sometimes add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.	Diagrams and illustrations are not accurate OR do not add to the reader\'s understanding of the topic.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Creativity	Totally original project, no element is an exact copy of information found in source material.	Most of the project elements are unique, but 1 element may be copied from source material.	Some aspects of the project are unique, but several areas are copied from the source material or other students.	The project is a duplicate that was taken from the source material (80% or more of the project has been copied).

Conclusion

Now that your journey is complete you now have successfully made history more personal. Before, when you were struggling with the class, you could not relate to history and it was never interesting to you. However, this project let you dive in to the past and create a better understanding of historical events. A wise man once said “I believe your journey through time has taken a most serious turn.” Will your successful journey to the past allow you to excel in the future?