Democracy and Modern Nationalism Group Project Sections:
A. Project Binding, Cover Page, Table of Contents, and Evaluation
Your project should be binded somehow. Please do NOT use plastic slip
sheet covers on the pages. Collapsible file folders, three ring binders, Power
Point Diskettes with a complete print-out, or any other form is acceptable; if
you have doubts, simply check with me.
Your cover page should include the following information: (1) your country of
focus, (2) teacher (Borneman), class period, class title (American Government
CP or Honors), and date, and (3) the names of all group members. A graphic (such as
flag, photo, or design) is entirely optional.
The Table of Contents should be completed last (though placed at the
beginning of the project) of all the sections of the
project and should have each section listed by page number on which it appears.
There is no need to number the pages of the Informal Bibliography.
Provided you did the project as a group, you will then include the final
evaluation sheet with the Evaluator's comments, the Group Points distributed,
based on fulfillment of group
roles,
and the group members' signatures.
B. History I, II and III
Each of your nations has a history in the 20th century of being under a
repressive/oppressive regime and then emerging to a relatively freer democratic
status. The focus of each of the history sections centers on these dark
eras: leading up to the regimes, the regimes themselves, and the successful
transitions to democratic foundations.
The most difficult part of the History sections is avoiding plagiarism.
Feel free to use quotes as much as you like - just be sure to cite your sources.
You can cite using internal references (Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, 1998, p. 64)
or Footnotes* or Endnotes (3) . In
fact, you can string whole chunks of quotes together with linking material, just
be sure to give credit where it is due. When you use a quote over three
lines in length, widen the page margins and single-space the quote. If it
is merely one to three lines long, include it in quotes in the main body of the
text.
College Prep. students are limited to ONE PAPER ONLY (8 1/2" x 11") for each
history section. This includes both sides.
Honors students are limited to FIVE PAGES (single sided) per history
section. Text may not be presented in a font of less than 9 points. If the
section is single spaced, the font must be at least 10 point. Sections
failing to meet these standards will not be read and will be given grades of
zero (0).
C. Human Rights Monitor Report
This is the part of the paper which requires the most current and up-to date
research. Your goals: to show the current state of Civil and Human
Rights of your country as they are today. Honors
students, for this
section you are allowed to write up to five (5) pages of material and are
additionally required to present a current
portrait of your nation through
images, narratives, and/or dialogues (include as an appendix).
You will want to focus on particular groups which were oppressed under the
previous regime and the groups which did the oppression. In all of this, focus on the difference between "ideal"
and "real" government. Perhaps your government claims to be based on
Islamic law but also claims to give women "equal rights.". Is it really
possible for women to hold elected offices, get divorces on terms equal to those
of men, and hold jobs with equivalent pay as men? Find out. Perhaps your
government states that all have "equal protection under the law" and declares
"trial by jury" for all offenses. Does your country really give criminals
a jury trial? Or does it lock them up for years on a small island
off-shore without access to lawyers or even charges being brought officially
against them (the USA). Find out. Perhaps your nation has some of
the best environmental laws in the world - but then ignores them because the
system is corrupt and officials easily and frequently bribed (Mexico). Find out.
Your job is to determine the claims the country makes about itself in its
official pronouncements and legal documents (including in its Constitution, if it
has one), and then find out if it's true.
Where do you get such information? This is where current journalism and
personal contacts pay off. Engage in an on-line chat with a person from
your country. Download pictures and photos of your country. Read
current news articles on your country. Cite radio interviews with people
working in your country. Write to the embassies. Read travel
literature. Ask around. Read more current articles in various
magazines and newspapers about your country. Don't forget to keep track of
all your sources. I strongly DIS-recommend citing TV programmes, but use
of videos (like National Geographic Specials) you are able to obtain (rent,
borrow, buy) are a good source of information.
College Prep. students are limited to ONE PAPER ONLY (8 1/2" x 11") for this section.
This includes both sides but may not be presented in a font of less than 9
points. If the paper is single spaced, the font must be at least 10 point.
Papers failing to meet these standards will not be read and will be given grades
of zero (0). Honors students are
required to submit up to five (5) additional supplemental pages of images,
testimonials, or transcribed dialogues.
D. Statistical Comparison Chart
First Step: You will select ten (10) different statistics about the civil
rights and democratic foundations of your
nation. Honors students are required
to select fifteen (15). Pick relevant as well as interesting statistics. Stats
on refrigerators per household might be an acceptable piece of information
if you are focusing on issues of energy usage and poverty, but if
it is not particularly revealing or significant, it is best to find some more
topical facts. Use the resources on the
OHS Library Geography Internet Resources
web page to assist you in gathering these facts. The on-line data bases
are excellent.
Second Step: Find the same statistical information for the US. If you
get the population density of your nation, then find the population density of
the US. Often these can be done simultaneously at many of the sites.
Avoid statistics where data is not available for both countries.
Third Step: Analyze and write up ten (or fifteen) brief paragraph assessments of what the stats reveal
about the country. For example, if the nation has an enormously high
infant mortality rate among the poor, how does it compare to the US' mortality
rate among the poor and are the causes similar or different? If the nation has a predominantly
Roman Catholic population, what does that
mean for the country in general?
Fourth Step: Organize the information so that it is useful as well as clear.
You may make graphic displays (bar charts, pie graphs), or simply list
statistics. You may put the analysis next to each statistic, or create a
separate assessment section. Do whatever makes the information the most
useful and accessible.
College Prep. Students are limited to ONE PAPER ONLY (8 1/2" x 11") for this
section (both sides acceptable). Honors
students are allowed up to five (5) sheets.
This includes both sides but may not be presented in a font of less than 9
points. If the paper is single spaced, the font must be at least 10 point.
Sections failing to meet these standards will not be read and will be given
grades of zero (0).
E. Notes and Appendices
If you created end-notes, place them at this point, before you put in the
Bibliography. Likewise if there are any special sections you want to use
as a reference (your nation's Constitution would be a good example of this), you
can include them here as well (and not repeat them in the Bibliography).
Maybe you found a bunch of other statistics you thought were interesting - you
can include these here for reference. If it is just basic research
material, however, place it in the Bibliography.
H. Bibliography
The Bibliography is in two parts. The first part you will place
in the project is actually the second part you will create. It is the
formal bibliography. Be sure to use the school's
official style guide
references to see how to construct this properly. I am not
interested in seeing you make up a bunch of references that don't exist - use
the actual references (encyclopaedias, books, atlases, on-line data bases,
interviews, etc.) that you used to create your project. The purpose of a
Bibliography is to check facts and help others in future research. If your
paper is shown to future classes and it has a useful bibliography, you have made
the work a bit easier for the next batch of students.
The easier (and final) part is also generally the largest section of your
paper: photocopies of all the articles you used, all the web-pages you cited,
and copies of all the encyclopaedia and book entries you found useful. If
you checked out an entire book but only used one quote from it - then only
photograph that page, and indicate the quote with highlighter or underlining.
Highlight and underline all pertinent information you used in your
research, be it from a book or a magazine, a blog (online posting) or a
newspaper. The Archivist will have gathered all these sources, the
Bibliographer will be sure the formal Bibliography is done properly.
Because of the size of this section, some groups have chosen to place it in a
separate (but attached) folder.
Honors students are required to submit
bibliographical references (in both the formal and informal bibliography) which
include a minimum of ten different sources, only two of which may be
encyclopaedias.
A Reminder - How the Project is Graded:
I will grade the rough drafts you present, simply to see how your team is
coming along, on a 30 - 50 point basis. These grades will be given
separately from the overall grade on the project.
In addition to the project grade itself, teams generally receive 10 group points
per person on the Evaluation sheet. Thus a 5-member group will receive 50 points to distribute as
they wish. If everyone works equally, fulfilling their
group roles,
everyone receives 10 points.
If some worked harder than others, however, it is reasonable for the Evaluator
to give "slacker" members (negative) - 10 points (or more, with a
maximum negative equal to the maximum positive possible) and add those extra points to
the hard-working members' grade. Thus, a five member team with a slacker
could penalize the slacker with up to negative fifty (-50) points and reward the
actual working individual as much as 100 (50 for the group plus the 50 taken
from the slacker). Remember, however, all members of the group must sign
off on the Evaluator's written assessment of the team. These points are simply added onto the
total grade at the conclusion of the project. The project itself is graded
as follows:
Cover/Title Page |
5 |
Table of Contents |
5 |
Evaluation Sheet (w/justifications) |
10 |
Evaluation Distribution Points |
10 (average) |
History I |
20 |
History II |
20 |
History III |
20 |
Human Rights Watch Report |
20 |
Statistical Comparison Chart |
20 |
Bibliography (Formal and Informal) |
10 + 10 |
TOTAL |
150 points, Honors x2 for 300 total |
|