Investigating a Region

This is the second project for this course that you will complete and submit for a grade. It is also worth 13% of your overall grade for this course. The subject of this second project is a study of the geography and culture of a country or state or region that you would like to live in or visit.

For this project, you will do an in-depth investigation into the culture and geography of another area of your choice (besides the one that you used for your Cultural Map in Project 1). You should explore and report on an area in a completely different part of the world from that which you have previously investigated, and a different part of the world from that in which you live.

The geographical region you choose can be an island or group of islands, a country, or group of countries that share many geographic and cultural elements. You are free to decide whether you would like to do your project on a small region such as an island or a larger region such as a state or nation or group of nations.

Just remember, whichever you decided to present, you need to do a thorough job. Besides basic factual information, you will need to include some of the interesting cultural traditions and geographic features of the region. Be creative in what you present as well as how you present it. You are encouraged to add pictures, graphics, or links to websites that will enhance your project. Just be careful that you don't overload the project with graphics and neglect the required content.

REMEMBER: failing to cite sources or submitting another person's work as your own is PLAGIARISM, which will result in a failing grade.

Essential Elements

Your project needs to contain the following information regarding the region you are investigating:

1. Geographical Elements. Include the following geographical information in your description of the region:

a. The name of the region.

b. Location of the region, both absolute location and a relative location.

c. Physical geography (including topography and climate) of the region.

d. Special or interesting geographical features of the region.

2. Cultural Elements. Include the following cultural information in your description of the region:

a. What groups of people originally settled this region?

b. What elements of cultural heritage are still found in the region?

c. How has the cultural heritage in this region affected the economic, political, or social systems that exist in the region today? (You may address just one of these, or more if you wish.)

d. Provide at least four examples of cultural contributions that the people of this region have shared with the world. These can be examples of art, literature, architecture, food, music, and so on. You are welcome to give many more than four examples.

3. Sources. At the end of your project you need to list at least five outside (not included in your course materials) resources that you used to compile the information for your project. You may feel free to use newspapers, encyclopedias, other history or geography books, the Internet (especially the travel sites!), and local governmental agencies (like the Chamber of Commerce or the Department of Tourism).

Make sure you include titles, authors and publishers' names and copyright dates of any written material, and if you use Internet resources, be sure to include their URLs (the full Internet addresses). You can also include interviews as long as you give credit to the person you interview. If you use people as a resource, include their names, titles (if they have one), and why you chose them as a resource.

4 Presentation. Make sure your project is neat, clean, and free of errors (such as typographical errors and spelling and punctuation errors). It should be organized or laid out in a way that is easy for the reader to follow. Remember that this is an in-depth investigation into the region, so make sure that you write full and complete paragraphs, have a good introduction and conclusion, and that you properly reference all sources of your information.

a. Feel free to make your presentation just as creative as you wish. If you choose to include written material-either as a written report, travel brochure, web-based presentation, or PowerPoint, you need to make sure that your written content is 1,500 to 2,000 words in length.

b. If you choose to submit a written document, it must be in .rtf, .doc, .pdf, or .ppt format. You should append the pages of the written report to this document and submit the whole project (including these instructions) as a single document.

c. If you choose to do a video or slide presentation with an audio component, please submit your script as well as your presentation.

d. To submit electronically, you will upload your files using the ISHS DropBox and the Project 2 page in the "My Work" section of your online course. Please follow all instructions carefully so that you can get full credit for this project.

e. Make sure that your name and ID number appear in a prominent place at the beginning of your presentation.