The Field Trip Project

The Field-Trip Project

Want to know a secret? (You may not be ready for it yet, but give it time.)

History lives outside of books.f

Most obviously, it lives in you – in the words you speak and don't speak, the clothes you wear or ignore, the food you eat. History is what brought your parents together (via migrations, jobs, education, leisure time, etc.) History lies snug and almost hidden in the very monitor you’re looking at now, which comes to you thanks to a long series of technological innovations that stretch back to the first transistors and TVs in the 1920s and 30s. 

 History also lives in your city, town, or community. 

The aim of this project is to invite you to find and learn about this local history and to link it up with your own history and the larger history of the Western Civilization in the period we are studying in our course.  

Another aim of this project is to get you out from behind your monitor and textbook so that you can actually SEE and EXPERIENCE some of the course themes OUT THERE -- in the world around you. 

The Field Trip Project

There are three parts to this project and therefore three submitted pieces of work: 

1. An emailed proposal specifying 1. the place or event you will visit and 2. the reason you wish to visit this place or take in this event. (20 points)

2. A written paper of 1200 words that strictly follows the Paper Template at the end of this document. (80 points)
   
   
3. A Field-Trip Presentation that documents your Field-Trip Experience. It must not duplicate your paper.

 
The Field Trip Proposal (10 points)

Email me your proposals from within Canvas specifying 1. the place or event you will visit/experience and 2. the reason why you've chosen this place or event. Only when you receive my OK should you start on the project. If you wait until the last minute to gain such approval or if you are late in requesting it, you will lose points for this assignment. 

ALL PLACES OR DESTINATIONS MUST RELATE IN A SIGNIFICANT WAY TO THE HISTORY WE ARE LEARNING IN THIS COURSE given our time period (prehistory to about 1400 c.e./a.d. The more relevant themes you address in this project, the better. Focus on these thematic connections and develop them. They are the heart of this Project.

The Field-Trip Project Paper (45 points)

The Field Project Paper must strictly follow the Paper Template attached to the end of this assignment. Look for it now. The heart of the Paper is twofold: 1. to inform yourself about a part of Western Civilization that interests you and 2. to connect what you learn on your trip to the main themes in our class. 

I will assume that all papers will be written grammatically, will be punctuated correctly, and will have correct spelling. No exceptions.

The Field-Trip Presentation (45 points)

Your presentation should be a record of your Field Trip, what you saw and did, and your reflections on it. It must not repeat the information in your paper but be a record of your trip and your experience of it. It should be creative, forcing you to stretch a bit.

What form might this presentation take? It could be a video, blog, or website about your project, providing your photos, the documents you used in your research, music files, and so on. Be creative. If you want, the presentation can be a video of your trip with you as the narrator. You might think about designing an online "guide" to the site or event you visited that gives relevant history, facts, info, images, etc. 

PHYSICAL PROOF THAT YOU VISITED OR ATTENDED YOUR HISTORICAL VENUE IS REQUIRED. The proof must be at least one photo of yourself at your chosen destination/place of worship/religious community center. It could also be a photo of your ticket receipt. Bring your smartphone and include either or both of these proofs of attendance in your Presentation.

Where should I go for this project?

Go to a place you’re curious about, a place you haven’t visited before. You live in a cultural mecca that is jammed with amazing museums and historical sites and centers.

For starters, note the exhibits that are advertised on the light-post banners in your neighborhood. They will often alert you to current exhibits and attractions at local museums.

Any place that in some way, significantly explores the themes we are studying in our Western Civilization course is a good destination. Finding and presenting those thematic connections are the heart of this project. Where have students gone in the past?

The Fowler Museum at UCLA  / The Skirball Cultural Center /  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County / The Getty Center / The Getty Villa / California Museum of Ancient Art / Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Huntington Library, Art and Collections / La Brea Tar Pitts and Museum 

Do not be limited to this list. The city abounds with places to go that tie into the main themes and time period of our course.

Deadlines

Your Field-Trip Project proposal deadline is October 6, 2019. A late proposal submission means lost points. Send your proposal to me by using the Canvas inbox only. Do not send it to my college email address.

In your Canvas email, state the the place you will visit and why you've chosen this event or destination. Late proposals will lose points.

The Field Assignment Paper and Presentation are both due November 24th, 2019, before 11 p.m. (PST). Put that date in your calendar now. You'll be glad you did.


Submitting Your Work

The Field-Trip Project Proposal 

Email me your proposals from within Canvas specifying 1. the place you will visit and 2. the reason you are interested in visiting this place or attending this event. Only when you receive my OK should you start on the project. If for some reason I take longer than 24 hours to approve your proposal (highly unlikely if you send it during the week), remind with a quick follow-up.

The Field-Trip Project Paper

The Field-Trip Project Paper must bear your name, and it must follow the template (see below).

The Field-Trip paper must be submitted in one of the following filetypes: pdf, doc, docs. No exceptions. If I can't open your paper file, it will be the same as not having submitted it.

Click on the "Submit Assignment" button on the upper right of this page to submit your Field Assignment Paper. 

The Field-Trip Project Presentation

How you give me access to the presentation (due at the same day and time as the paper) depends on the form the presentation takes.

If your presentation is a website, please put the address to it in your Field Assignment paper (see #10 of the Field Trip Paper Template). To be safe, email the web address for it using the Canvas Inbox feature.  (To make your own website, see www.pbwiki.com  or www.freewebs.com ) or another free website service.)

If your presentation is a blog, provide me the web address for it in your Field Assignment Paper for #10. Then email it to me using the Canvas Inbox feature. 

If your presentation is a video (a potentially huge file), upload it on YouTube or some other free file-hosting site and, again, provide me with access to it by putting the access code in your paper (#10 in the template) AND emailing it to me using the Canvas Inbox feature. (Access might be a web address and any passwords or logins that allow me to view the video. If I can't view your video for any reason, I cannot grade it. It is the same as if you hadn't made the video at all.)

If your presentation is a PowerPoint presentation, I strongly suggest that you use a file-hosting service (I use OneDrive) and provide me access to the file. If the file is small, you can attempt to upload it using the "Submit" button on this Assignment page. To be safe, I would do both -- attempt to upload by "Submitting" it on the Assignment page AND emailing me the access info by using the Canvas Inbox feature. 

Remember:

If I can't view your video for any reason, I cannot grade it. 
It is the same as if 
you hadn't made the video at all.

You are far too intelligent to wait until the last few hours of the day of the deadline to upload these items: the server will likely be overwhelmed and you may miss the deadline. If you are not planning ahead, you are planning to fail. At the very least, you are tempting fate. No late work will be accepted. 

If I cannot open any of your files, you will lose two full letter grade points. 

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The Field-Trip Project Paper Template

1. The place, exhibit, museum, lecture, play, etc. that I attended was....
   
   
2. My reason for choosing this event, activity, or place was....
   
   
3. What this event, activity, or place dealt with -- its history or reason for being -- is..... (i.e. describe what you saw or did)
   
   
4. This event, activity, or place closely and significantly relates to the following themes and content of our Course:
                   1. 
                   2.
                   3. (list, at minimum, three key themes)
   
   
5. The first theme is related to the Course as follows....The second theme related to the Course.... The third, fourth, etc. themes relate to the Course....
   
   
6.  [Please note: Part 4 and 5 are the most important parts of this Paper: here is where the A papers will rise above the B and C papers. If you wish to do well on this Paper, work especially hard on this part!]
   
   
7. This event, activity, or place went beyond our textbook in several ways, such as..... (List several ways)
   
   
8. My event, activity, or place raised several questions about the history of the West (Western Civilization) that interested me or left me troubled or confused. These were.... (List at least two)
   In conclusion, this experience showed me that.... (what was the most important thing or things that you learned from the experience -- it's "cash value"? Put it here.) 
   
   
9. "The following is the working link to my Field-Trip Project Presentation: ____________________. I have tested the link and it works."