Students will be assigned one of the following stages of human development:

• Lithic Stage
• Archaic Stage
• Formative Stage
• Classic Stage
• Post-Classical Stage
• Early Horizon
• Middle Horizon
• Late Horizon

They will be expected to make a short presentation detailing the general years that define their era, the major groups and empires of their era, important technologies, and include images of artifacts.

The entire class will then work together to build a timeline of prehistoric human development.

Students will be assigned one of the following major civilization (or suggest their own):

• Maya
• Mapuche
• Aztec
• Olmec
• Inca
• Kwakwakaʼwakw
• Pomo
• Hopi
• Guarani
• Muisca
• Anasazi

Students' presentations should include all of the information in the project graphic organizer and be visually appealing. First, they will be expected to find 3-5 trustworthy, credible sources that they will use when filling out their visual organizer, writing their brief essay, and preparing their presentation for the class. Students will be expected to fill out the “Evaluating Sources Checklist” for each of the sources and create an annotated bibliography.

Presentation should be a minimum of five minutes and include all of the information from the project visual organizer. Student presentation should be visually appealing and include images of artifacts, maps, reconstructions, and major monuments. Students will be allowed to use notes during presentations, and power points should amplify the information shared verbally, not contain all of it as written information.

Honors students will also be expected to write a short 3-4 page reflection detailing the historical information that they have learned during your research. They should detail how you went about doing their research and how you would alter your approach going forward.

This assignment will require students participate in an in-depth analysis of The Second Democrates by Juan Ginés de Sepulveda andThe Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas as a way of understanding the key disagreements present at the 1550-1551 debate at Valladolid. Students will be expect to answer the following questions in essay form:

• Who were Juan Ginés de Sepulveda and Bartolomé de Las Casas? How do their points of view differ in regard to the treatment Native populations in the New World by the Spanish? What views of the Natives and Spanish colonization do they share?

Students will be expected to properly reconstruct the central tenets of both sides of the debate and include some background information on both participants. This essay should be sure to include important historical terms we have covered in class. The essay should be a minimum of 4 pages and be sure to include quotes and a work cited.

Students seeking honors credit for this assignment should submit a minimum 6-page essay. There will be an expectation of 3 academic sources and a deeper and more complex involvement with the material, including reading larger, more substantive literature from both sides of the debate. In addition to comparing and contrasting the arguments of Juan Ginés de Sepulveda and Bartolomé de Las Casas, honors students will be expected to provide a paragraph in their essay providing their own evaluation of the arguments and declaring an independent thesis regarding the nature of the debate involving a greater scope of historical content.