7. What If... Project

What if? What if? History presents us with a lot of these questions, and you have presented some to me and your peers throughout our almost two years together. People often wonder how history would be different if something changed.

This project is your opportunity to explore one of those questions. For instance, what if the British had won the Revolutionary War? How would the world be a different place? What events would not have occurred because of this change in the Revolutionary War? How would the world be a different place? This is what you are going to spend the next couple weeks looking at.

Your job in this project is to ‘break’ history somewhere - anywhere you choose - and describe how the world would be a different place today had your ‘break’ occurred. What would be different? What would be the same? This is an opportunity to create a new future (technically our present) for the world. Explain why things would have happened - or not happened as the case may be.

Another way to look at this project is to think about a change you would like to see in the world. Perhaps you would like to see:

• an end to poverty.
• no more racism.
• an end to sexism.
• no more world hunger.
• an end to homophobia.
• world peace.

What change could you make to the past in order to create this ideal world? How could you ‘break’ history and at the same time break these negative cycles that are present all over the world? Think hard about how a change in the past would cause your desired outcome in the present or in the future.

The project requirements and the rubric can be found here.

Brainstormed What If... questions from all 4 classes