Overall, this comprehensive project provides schema and understanding about the world and helps students make connections and understand concepts from all areas of the curriculum including social studies, math, science, economics, history, geography and language arts.

1. Research and identify important statistics of a country to compare with that of the US.

2. Use the writing process to practice writing a 5 paragraph research essay with opening paragraph, 3 supporting paragraphs, a conclusion

3. Identify ways to cite sources MLA style using both in-text citations and bibliography for both images/video and text.

4. Identify best ways to represent data in the form of a graph.

5. Explore the geographical context of a given country including historical sites and significant locations.

6. Learn about political and physical maps and examine the key components including in map representations such as key; scale, title and compass.

7. Explore databases and resources to learn about individuals who have historical or cultural influence on a country.

8. Use various forms of software and technology resources to develop multimedia presentations including slideshow, movie, digital poster, and web 2.0 and website tools.

9. Learn various ways to export, import, and convert files for viewing over the Internet.

10. Learn about historical events of ones country in context to events that occurred in the United States during the same period of time.

11. Identify a major historical or current event on another country and describe the impact on that country and how those events have or could effect(ed) the US.

12. Explore and review images and videos and/or podcasts about the selected country to find the most significant and telling.

13. Learn about traditional foods from other cultures and how they can be like and different from American cuisine.

14. Students will participate in activities that meet ICT, NETS, and New Media Literacies.

At the end of this project, successful students will be able to:

1. Use selected databases to gather facts and information to prewrite, draft, edit, review and complete a final 5 paragraph research essay with an introduction and conclusion, MLA style, with in-text citations and bibliography entries.

2. Embed images and video with text to create multi-media presentations.

3. Select an appropriate tool to create a graph that best represents the data with the proper elements of a graph including title, key, x/y axis labels and summarizing paragraphs.

4. Creatively present an itinerary for a 5 day journey to another country in a multi-media format that includes images and text.

5 Create maps political and physical maps with scale, title, compass.

6. Create a multimedia presentation to convey research on a significant person from a historical or cultural perspective.

7. Create a multimedia presentation to convey native plant and wildlife from a country contrasting to what is indigenous to the US.

8. Create a multimedia timeline that shows a historical perspective of another country to that of the United States.

9. Draw a storyboard and use images, text, narration, and music to create a digital "story" / documentary movie of a significant event of the other country and make connections to how it has or could effect / impact the United States.

10. Creatively form digital presentation of sound and imagery (with only captions) to tell a story or give a strong sense of what the selected country is like.

11. Create a presentation that gives an overview of the main "type" of food that is prevalent in the selected country. Identify key ingredients and make connections to why these dishes/ingredients are so popular. Contrast and compare with American cuisine.

Rationale behind the AAC Country Study "Portfolio" Project

"Social Studies isn't just the study of war and politics. It is also about food, music, and culture. We have the ability to bring all of this into the classroom now. Finally, young people need to analyze and interpret new media; they need to produce and create, and they need to understand the ethical implications of their work and the new technologies." Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap.

Title II Part D requirement from No Child Left Behind:

Every student should be technology literate by the time they finish the 8th grade.

*NH Ed 306.42 Information and Communications Technologies

Calls for an integrated approach to using *21st century tools...and to create digital portfolio(s).*

Integrated & Collaborative Approach to Social Studies Curriculum

A department collaborative and the goal is for every EIGHTH GRADER to have the same technology and curriculum experience throughout the year. The project lends itself to other curriculum areas and our goal is to extend our collaboration beyond the Social Studies and Technology Departments

Ed 306.2 Outline

1. develop knowledge of ethical, responsible use of technology tools

2. proficient use of 21st century tools to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information...

(w/in core subjects of reading, math, english, science, social studies, arts and world languages)

3. develop cognitive proficiency (literacy, numeracy, problem solving, decsion making, spacial/visual

4. develop tech proficiency at a foundational knowledge level in hardware, software, networking, digital tech

5. create digital portfolios that demonstrate use of**

a. basic operations (tech)

b. social/ethical issues (tech) - and represent ethical, responsible use

c. productivity tools (tech)

d. communications tools, (tech)

e. research tools (tech)

f. problem solving and decision making (tech)

ICT Literacy Standards are aimed for college and career readiness and includes reading and writing informational text...