IB Culminating Task: Colonial America
Option #1
This culminating project challenges you to assemble a time capsule that answers the question: Which aspects from colonial America significantly shaped society during the 1750’s?
You will assemble a time capsule for future generations that highlights the reasons for settlement, home life, society, mind and spirit, and the life style of the early colonists. For example, you might create items to represent what life was like on a farm, class differences, education or food. After determining which aspects to include in your time capsule, you will collect or create items such as drawings (paintings), recipes or newspaper headlines, which best represent these aspects. You will also write a summary statement that explains the items in the capsule and ranks them in order of significance. Use the information from your notebook and textbook (Chapters 3 and 4) to create your time capsule.
Your time capsule must be assembled to support your answer to this question: Which aspects from Colonial life shaped American society during the 1750’s? Your project must include these elements:
1. An appropriately adorned time capsule. Your time capsule can be made from anything that can hold 8 items, such as a shoe box, an oatmeal box, or a coffee can. The time capsule should have a title and appropriate adornments—such as illustrations, color, words, symbols, or pictures—to reflect the colonial life and to make it visually appealing.
2. At least one symbolic item to represent each of the 5 aspects of colonial life, of your choice.
a. Journey to America (reason for settlement)
b. Home life (farm or city)
c. Society (rights of colonists, crime and punishment, class differences, African Americans)
d. Mind and Spirit (religion or education)
e. Life Style (families, leisure, food)
3. Collect or create your items for the time capsule. Make them look as authentic as possible. Adorn your time capsule so that it reflects the colonial life and is visually appealing.
4. A summary statement that ranks the aspects in order of significance. They must also include two to three sentences that describe the item and why it’s significant to colonial life. Make sure the paragraphs for each aspect contain proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Option #2
Pretend you are a British journalist who has spent a year living in colonial America. You kept a journal to record your impressions of daily life. You want your journal to be published so that the British will have an accurate view of life in colonial America. Use the information from your notebook and textbook (Chapters 3 and 4) to create an illustrated journal, as follows:
1. Date each entry and use it to describe at least one aspect of colonial life.
2. Include well-chosen details in the narrative to make the journal more realistic. Use your imagination to explain how you learned these details. For example, you might write, “November 18, 1750. Over the past six months, I have been lucky to be a houseguest of several families throughout the colonies. Through my experiences, I have learned that colonial families….”
3. Include information on at least eight aspects of colonial life. The information should be written for an audience that has never been to America and knows little about colonial life.
4. Include at least four simple sketches to illustrate key ideas that you mention in your journal.
5. Add creative touches to make your journal personal.
6. Write a total of 500–700 words, free of grammatical and spelling errors.
DUE October 9th