Research Project Instructions

 

Research process

1.      Your subject. Select an individual or group to study that interests you. The person or group could be from any area, including the arts, social science, politics, history, or science. The subject must be shown to have significantly impacted American society.

2.      Guiding questions. To understand the historical importance of a subject, you must ask questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. Do not only ask when you subject lived but also how the events of the time contributed to the impact the subject had. What factors contributed to their development? How did the subject affect other individuals, communities, states, nations, and the world? You will think of at least five guiding questions to explore, such as:

a.      What political, economic, religious, environmental, or socio-cultural perspectives influenced and/or motivated your subject’s life or lives?

b.     What contributing factors led to the subject’s success or demise?

c.      How did the subject impact society? What groups or individuals did your subject affect?

d.     How did the person or group communicate their perspectives? Who were his/her/their primary/secondary audiences?

e.      What if the person or group had lived in another time? Would his/her/their point of view have changed?

f.       What if the person or group had lived in another part of the country or the world? How might he/she/they have been different?

g.     Has the person or group increased or decreased in popularity over time?

h.      What rights or responsibilities did your subject’s work influence? How?

i.        What perspectives (e.g., political, historic, scientific, economic, religious, environmental, gender, etc.) did person or group influence?

3.      While these examples are general, your questions should be specific to the chosen topic.

The Exhibit.

Your report, answering your guiding questions, may be in an essay or power point format. Either format will include:

1. Introduction and overview
2. Guiding questions and your findings
3. Your assessment of the subject’s impact on American society
4. Examples of how America would be different if the subject had never existed.

All work will be well-written, using complete sentences!!!

In addition, you will create a museum exhibit with five artifacts, highlighting the impact of this person or group on history and/or contemporary life. Highlight changes in American society that this person or group influenced. Include artifacts that represent issues that the person or group impacted. Each artifact need not be student-created. For example, you may photocopy, as appropriate, maps, photographs, or drawings. You need to think about how you can convey what the person or group stood for and how they impacted the times in which they lived and/or the future.

Final Submission will include:

1. A cover sheet
2. The research proposal, including guiding questions
3. A research log – list all resources and note what is learned from each
4. The essay or printout of the PowerPoint presentation
5. A list of the five items in the exhibit and a rationale for including each of them
6. A Works Cited Page with at least five references