Country Project

Objective: Students will demonstrate knowledge and skills on using MS Word, MS Publisher, and Paint.

You and a partner are the owners and ruler of your own country. You will be required to provide the world with information about your country (to include a map, flag and a family crest). You will write a letter to a dignitary that you want to invite to your country. You will issue a brochure to travel agencies to encourage tourism to your country. You will provide the world with a short 30 second video inviting people to your country.

Grades will be issued for the following items:

 Information about your Country – Press Release at least 1 ½ page

 Letter

 Map of your country

 Flag of your country

 Royal Family Crest

 Brochure

INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COUNTRY:

Using MS Word you are going to tell the world a little bit about your country (1 ½ to 2 pages). You will provide information about the following items.

 General Information (you will use bullets for this section)

  • Name of country
  • Rulers of country
  • Population of country
  • Language spoken
  • Size of country
  • Form of government
  • Main form of religion
  • Type of Currency

 Type of environment of the country

  • Is it desert, jungle, mountains, etc.
  • Animals native to your country

 Weather throughout the year based on its location

 The country’s history – (Ex. How old is it, have there been any wars?, Etc.

 Government Philosophy

 Main Attractions or things to do

  • Monuments
  • Sports
  • Shopping

 Economy –

  • What is the main form of business in your country –what creates jobs in your country

Title – name of country – use WordArt

For each heading, use a Heading 2 style. Underline the Heading

1.5 spacing

Font will not exceed 12 points (no all caps or large style font)

Custom Bullets for the General information section

LETTER TO DIGNITARY

Choose a dignitary (person who holds a high rank or office, Ex: Presidents, Secretaries of State, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Leaders of the House or Senate, etc.) that you would like to invite to your country. You are to write a formal BLOCK style letter to the dignitary asking them to come and visit your country. Indicate in your letter the types of activities that they will be participating in. Name the cities that they will be visiting. Tell them about the people that they will be meeting. Tell them a little bit about yourself and your country.

Letter must be spell checked and grammatically correct.

 The letter must be BLOCK STYLE.

 Margins: Left and Right 1”

 Font: Ariel 12

 At Least 3 Paragraphs

 Create a Letterhead for your country (we can scan your Royal family crest to include in the letterhead if you want)

MAP OF YOUR COUNTRY

Draw a map of your country indicating where the capital is located. Names of at least three cities to your country must be on the map. You MUST include animals, vegetation, any rivers or bodies of water and monuments on the map. Make sure to use your environment summary from the Press Release to keep it consistent. You MUST use appropriate colors in you map to represent rivers, mountains, animals, etc. Draw it out by hand.

FLAG OF YOUR COUNTRY

Use Word or Paint to draw your flag. Your flag must have the following:

 At least 2 colors

 A symbol by using circles, strips, stars etc. (You can draw your own symbol)

 Below your flag you will write a paragraph describing your flag. What are the meanings of the color scheme? What does the symbol symbolize? What are the reasons behind the particular design?

  • This paragraph will be single spaced and have JUSTIFY alignment
  • The paragraph will have a custom border around it
  • There will be a light shading (not highlight) background within the border

Example of Paragraph: US Flag

The 13 stripes of the U.S. flag represent the original 13 colonies. The colors represent the following: White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valor, and Blue, signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice. The stars and stripes also have meaning. The stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun and the star a symbol of the heavens (the highest place that a person could aim to reach). The fifty stars signify the fifty states.

Sample Flags

RomaniaBrazilUnited Kingdom

ROYAL FAMILY CREST

You will create a fun family crest.

Every noble family in Europe had a unique crest design. Hard to believe, considering just how many there were in creation, but one of the important jobs of Heralds was to ensure that each new crest had a unique element, and therefore could be used for identification. You were identified by your family crest during festivals, tournaments, and on the battlefield. Once everyone was in his suit of armor, it was difficult to tell friend from foe. The person's crest would be carried on their banner, their shield, and even on the cloth which covered their horse. It was also referred to as a person's "coat of arms."

There are a wide variety of basic shield designs. While some include birds such as ravens and eagles, some have land animals such as snakes and horses, and others still have mythological creatures such as dragons, many used solely geometric shapes. (Aha! You knew there had to be a math element to this activity, right? Good show!)

Challenge:
To create a family crest, or coat of arms. This is the design by which you will be known when your country goes into battle. Draw it out by hand.

  1. On the shield design provided, pick a design based on either geometric or natural shapes. It should be something that appeals to you, and symbolizes that this crest stands for you! Some of the basic designs have been shown above. Other shapes and figures which were commonly used in Medieval times were:
    - Lion, Leopard
    - Eagle, Falcon
    - Griffin, Stag (male deer)
    - Human hand, Heart (sometimes with arrow going through it),
    - Sun (with face), Crescent (with points facing upwards)
    - Tower, Pheon (arrow head)
  2. Sketch the design onto the shield provided.
  3. Pick the colors you want to use.

(Keep this appropriate for school. IE: No symbols that represent drugs, alcohol or violence. )

BROCHURE

Using MS Publisher, you will create a travel Brochure for your country. In this brochure, you can use several of the items that you have under your information report.

 Front of brochure – Name of country, Flag of country

 Back of brochure – General information about the country

 Inside Heading – Statement from the leader of the country inviting people to come and visit.

 Inside of brochure - Must have a bit of history of the country, attractions, things to do, places to visit, weather, terrain, Types of things to pack. Etc. Make it a real brochure for your country. What would you want to read in a brochure before you go visit the country?

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