Today you will begin your journey towards creating a project that will help to explain how the United States emerged as an international player.
Final Project
Partners will choose a job that existed in the 1870-1900. and will examine how the job has change. One partner will give a speech as the 1870-1900 version of the job. The other partner will give a speech as a modern person in that job.
Choosing a job:
Choose a job that existed in 1870-1900. This might include, but is not limited to the following: Banker, factory worker, meat processor, police officer, military, teacher, railroad (or transportation worker), miner, etc.
-Make sure when you choose a job that it is something that exists in some form today.
Research phase:
You will need to conduct thorough research on your job so you have a good understanding of what it is that your person does in their job.
Your research will need to include the following things, at a minimum, but you will likely need more. Remember, you will need research this for both past and present:
-Hours worked
-Dangers of the job
-Pay
-Number of people that work with you
-Responsibilities of the job
-Expectations of the job
-Rewards of the job
You might also want to find a way to get some stories of funny, interesting, etc things that happen in the job.
You will need to use the following resources:
Primary source documents x3
Live interview x1 (or more)
Checklist
-Choose a job. Make sure it exists (in some form) in both eras
-Make a preliminary list of what you expect about your job in the current era and in the past.
-Do an initial Google search about your job to confirm or change your preliminary list.
-Use www.docsteach.org to search some primary sources about your job. Remember, pictures can be primary sources and might be able to tell you thing, or develop questions about your job.
-Use Google and your prior knowledge to think of businesses that could be useful to talk to. Remember, it doesn't have to be just local businesses. The power of the internet, email, and telephones makes it easy to get ahold of people around the world.
-Research people you could call, email, or visit to gain information.
-Call or email your contact to arrange or ask to schedule an interview.
-Develop a list of questions that you want to get answered.
-Call or email your contact person to conduct the interview
-Compile your information
-Develop your speeches
EMAIL START
Hello, my name is ________________. I am in eighth grade at New Hampton Middle School in New Hampton, Iowa. We are working on a project in social studies class in which we are investigating jobs from 1870-1900 that still exist, in some form, today. The final project is to give a speech in the character of the worker in our field. My group has selected ___________________. As part of our research, we would like to talk to someone with knowledge in _______job you selected______. We would like to request an interview with ___--___---___----__---____ to talk about ___--___----____----___---__--___. We can be reached via email at -------@new-hampton.k12.ia.us or by telephone at ***-***-****.
Thank you for your consideration, we look forward to hearing from you.