Olympic Research Project

Your final writing assignment in English IV is a research project. You and a partner will be researching a country participating in the Winter Olympics. Only one country may be chosen per class period. Details about the assignment are below.

Partners

  • You may choose any student in your class period to work with on this assignment.
  • You are INDIVIDUALLY responsible for ensuring all work is turned in. Any and all work may be divided by the partners, but you are BOTH responsible for getting ALL work turned in on time. This means that you will receive a zero if your partner does not turn in an assignment. CHOOSE WISELY!!!!
  • You do have the option of working on this project alone; however, this does not change the requirements of the final product.

Final Product

  • All projects must be done in a multimedia format. You may use PowerPoint, Prezi, or other digital format. If you are using a program from a computer class, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure it will open and play on the teacher’s computer. I encourage you to include video clips from the games in your presentation.
  • Each pair will also be responsible for presenting the information to the class. Each partner must say something, but one person may do the majority of the presentation if one of the partners is uncomfortable.
  • The final product will count for 80% of your test grade, and the presentation will count for 20% of your test grade. For details, please see the attached rubric.
  • There is information in this packet to help you with both the product and presentation; please read it!

Countries

Albania / Hong Kong / Norway
Algeria / Hungary / Pakistan
Andorra / Iceland / Paraguay
Argentina / Individual Olympic Athletes / Peru
Armenia / Iran / Philippines
Australia / Ireland / Poland
Austria / Israel / Portugal
Azerbaijan / Italy / Puerto Rico
Belarus / Jamaica / Romania
Belgium / Japan / Russia
Bosnia and Herzegovina / Kazakhstan / San Marino
Brazil / Kyrgyzstan / Serbia
British Virgin Islands / South Korea / Slovakia
Bulgaria / Latvia / Slovenia
Canada / Lebanon / Spain
Cayman Islands / Liechtenstein / Sweden
Chile / Lithuania / Switzerland
China / Luxembourg / Chinese Taipei
Croatia / Macedonia / Tajikistan
Cyprus / Malta / Thailand
Czech Republic / Mexico / Togo
Denmark / Moldova / Tonga
Estonia / Monaco / Turkey
Finland / Mongolia / Ukraine
France / Montenegro / Uzbekistan
Georgia / Morocco / Virgin Islands
Germany / Nepal / Zimbabwe
Great Britain / Netherlands
Greece / New Zealand

Information to Include

  • Title slide – Must include country’s name, flag, a picture of the country’s top sporting event, and the students’ name. You need to be sure to explain what and who is in the picture.
  • Two sports – You should include the top two events that your country participates in. You should include how long the country has participated in the sport, why it is popular, and basic rules and regulations for the event.
  • Country – How is the program funded? You should also find out how many participants the country sends and past medal counts. For bonus points, you can include information obtained either from the country’s official Olympic twitter or the general Olympic Twitter.
  • Athletes – You need to provide basic information about the top male and female athletes. You should make sure they represent the top sports of the country. Tell us a little bit about their training, how long they have been involved and the role they play in the country.
  • Works Cited slide – must be in MLA format

Details

  • You MUST have at least four sources. One source MUST be the official Olympic page.
  • Wikipedia does NOT count as a source, and you will NOT be given credit for using it.
  • You should have a minimum of six slides for the final product.
  • You MUST include a work cited slide. If you do not have this you will NOT receive a grade higher than a 50!!!
  • You need to include a minimum of one picture. You are not limited to one picture. You can, and are encouraged to, include pictures, video and music as long as it is not distracting. Please note, you need to include the URL on the page for any picture or video used.

Presentation

  • Each person MUST say something, but one person can do the majority of the presenting of the material.
  • You can NOT read the presentation to us. You need to be elaborating on what is on the screen.
  • You need to make sure you are making eye contact and speaking at a volume where everyone can hear you.
  • Pull hair back, avoid jewelry, and plant your feet. Fidgeting is very distracting. You are providing good information; let us hear it instead of being distracted by your movements.

Product Suggestions

When creating a presentation in a professional environment, you should keep the following items in mind:

  • Avoid bright or neon colors; they are very distracting and can be hard to read.
  • On a similar note, pay attention to the size and style of your font; teachers are in the back of the room, and we need to be able to read what is on the screen.
  • Less is more; slides should not have more than 3-4 bullet points. Piling information on the slide means people are reading the slide and not listening to your information.
  • NO MOVING CLIP ART!!!! This is one of the worst things you can do during the presentation.
  • Keep transitions to a minimum; your teacher will NOT hit the space bar for every line on your slide. It is distracting and disruptive. Plus, most people don’t speak until it is all on the screen anyway.

Important Dates

  • February 19/20th - Research Day
  • February 28th - Research Day & 2 Sources Due
  • March 19/20th – Final research/work day & final source is due
  • March 25th-27th – Presentations

Source Sheets

Fill out the information below. You will need it for your work cited page. We recommend that you visit a site to help you such as easybib.com before closing the site down. This way you know you have everything you need to cite the information correctly.

Source: Internet

Name of website:

Date the website was last updated:

Date you accessed the website:

Hosting company for the website:

Information used: ______

Citation: ______

Source Sheets

Fill out the information below. You will need it for your work cited page. We recommend that you visit a site to help you such as easybib.com before closing the site down. This way you know you have everything you need to cite the information correctly.

Source: Internet

Name of website:

Date the website was last updated:

Date you accessed the website:

Hosting company for the website:

Information used: ______

Citation: ______

Source Sheets

Fill out the information below. You will need it for your work cited page. We recommend that you visit a site to help you such as easybib.com before closing the site down. This way you know you have everything you need to cite the information correctly.

Source: Internet

Name of website:

Date the website was last updated:

Date you accessed the website:

Hosting company for the website:

Information used: ______

Citation: ______

Source Sheets

Fill out the information below. You will need it for your work cited page. We recommend that you visit a site to help you such as easybib.com before closing the site down. This way you know you have everything you need to cite the information correctly.

Source: Internet

Name of website:

Date the website was last updated:

Date you accessed the website:

Hosting company for the website:

Information used: ______

Citation: ______

Rubric

Product

Title slide……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………______/5

(country’s name, flag, a picture of the country’s top sporting event, and the students’ names).

Two sports ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..______/20

(top two events, how long the country has participated in the sport, why it is popular, and basic rules and regulations for the event)

Country

(How is the country’s team/program funded, how many participants the country sends, and past medal counts) Athletes

Male……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………______/10

(about their training, how long they have been involved and the role they play in the country)

Female…………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………..______/10

(about their training, how long they have been involved and the role they play in the country)

Works Cited slide – must be in MLA format………………………..……………………………………………………………______/15

(no bullets, alpha order, hanging indent, all required information, page is properly titled)

Total…………………………………………………………….….……………………….…………………………………………………______/80

Bonus: Twitter information used……………………….………………………………………………………………………………______/5

Presentation

  • Eye Contact ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….______/5
  • Volume……………………………………………………………….…….…………………………………………………………………______/5
  • Appropriate knowledge Presented……………………………………………………………………………………………...______/10
  • Total………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………..______/20

Score ______

*Remember that no Works Cited page equals an automatic 50!!!!!!!!