This exercise is designed to have each student conduct research, assess and summarize his or her research findings, and present it in PowerPoint format. This will be just like writing a research paper, except that the research findings will be presented in outline form in PowerPoint, rather than as a research paper. Just like a research paper, your presentation should include slides that contain a title, introduction to the topic, main body, summary and conclusions, and bibliography. Creative use of properly cited graphics and photos from the Internet, which are relevant to your topic, is encouraged. Please check the Research Project Discussion Board for the details on the research project.
Goals of this project include encouraging development of research skills, familiarization with presentation of academic material, and practice in communicating research to an “audience”. If you do not have access to PowerPoint, you may download free compatible software at OpenOffice.org. Projects change by class, so the exact topic will be provided in the online classroom.
Title: Research Project
Due Date: End of Week #7
This research assignment is designed to challenge the student to be creative as well as demonstrate subject matter knowledge. You are also challenged to learn a new skill/practice an existing skill in applying PowerPoint (or OpenOffice) software to your research.
You will not find the “answer” for this assignment in the text or any other single location – this is an integrative assignment that requires you, the student, to create your presentation template and apply your own knowledge on the assigned topic.
You MUST stick to the topic – projects turned in that are not on the topic will not be considered for grading.
Please create a 15 – 20 slide (to approximate a 15 – 20 minute spoken presentation) PowerPoint presentation discussing the way that the following geographic concepts are represented in in a particular food item or cuisine:
1. Regions
2. Diffusion
3. Cultural landscape
4. Distance decay
(ie. How does Mexican Cuisine represent the idea of distance decay? How has it created a cultural landscape?, etc.).
You might want to define each term first to make sure that you and your audience understand the concept. Then be sure to address each geographic term or concept. You might also want to use “subsets” of these definitions (e.g. contagious diffusion).
Rubric descriptions:
Synthesis of concepts:
Presentation showed a clear understanding of the chosen topic. Ideas are clearly and properly organized.
Use of technology:
Student demonstrated ability to use PowerPoint software to create a slide presentation. Creative ideas are incorporated into the presentation.
Clear citations:
References to the course text or to other materials were properly cited.
Writing standards:
The writing was grammatically correct, clear and concise. The presentation was well formulated, and easy to read and understand. Correct terminology was used when needed