rise of civilization, presentation on area of interest
This activity provides an opportunity for you to learn more about a place and time you are interested in. Please prepare a 10 minute in-class presentation on a specific aspect of the emergence and development of an early civilization. These places include Mesopotamia, Mediterranean, Egypt, Indus Valley, Northern China, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. Your presentation topic must be coordinated with other students interested in the same area. Class time will be provided for you to coordinate your topics so there are no significant overlaps in the presentations.
The criteria I will use for evaluating your presentation is here. I have placed my Powerpoint presentation (delivered in class on 4 Oct) on developing your presentation in Blackboard under "Course Materials." I also suggest that you carefully consider the 4 October readings on "Effective Presentations in Engineering and Science" and watch the associated videos.
The goal of your presentation should be to teach the class about an important/interesting aspect of an early civilization. This is your opportunity to work with other students to create a classroom experience that results in significant learning. Your presentation will be mostly descriptive rather than analytical. The Research Report is where you will present the results of your cross-cultural comparative analysis.
Potential topics for individual presentations on an early civilization include: first cities, economy, religion, politics, social organization or evolution, history, factors that influenced the rise or collapse. After you have selected a general topic, find something specific within that topic to investigate and present to the class. Presentations on the "Religion of [Early Civilization]" are too general to create significant learning. Narrow topics will be more successful. For example, you could discuss a single well known archaeological site as your sole presentation topic.
Please mention in your presentation:
(1) how archaeologists know about your subject (e.g., what is the material evidence they used to infer what we think we know)
(2) interesting cross-cultural comparative research questions your investigation revealed.
I suggest you begin your research by reading the assigned chapter/article associated with your region. Next, read an overview of your selected archaeological tradition in the Encyclopedia of Prehistory and/or in eHRAF Archaeology under "Browse Traditions." With this general understanding, please conduct your research relying primarily on Traditions, Subjects, and Keyword searches in eHRAF. If the tradition/region you are interested in is not available in eHRAF Archaeology, you may use other peer-reviewed and reliable sources (see below). Not all traditions/regions will be in eHRAF because it is a "simple random sample" of the Outline of Archaeological Traditions. For a list of archaeological traditions included in eHRAF Archaeology, please click here. eHRAF Archaeology also includes complete temporal sequences for the following world regions: Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Highland Andean, Highland Mesoamerica, Maya, Mississippian, and U.S. Southwest.
Your presentation should cover one of the places where civilization emerged (oral presentation date in parentheses):
1) Mesopotamia (16 October)
2) Mediterranean (23 October)
3) Egypt (30 October)
4) Indus Valley (6 Nov)
5) China (13 Nov)
6) Mesoamerica (20 Nov)
7) Andes (27 Nov)
The learning objective of this activity is for you to develop an in-depth understanding of one aspect of an early civilization and to improve you oral presentation skills.
Other helpful data sources that will provide reliable, peer-reviewed material include:
1. Anthropology Plus
2. Anthropology Review Database
3. AnthroSource
4. Ethnographic Video Online
5. JSTOR
These databases can be accessed through the library’s home page at http://www.uta.edu/library/. Click on the Databases A-Z List link to access these databases which are arranged in alphabetical order.
Please email your Powerpoint slides to me immediately before or after your presentation so I can give you some specific feedback on your slides.
Missing your presentation date is strongly discouraged. The maximum number of points possible for the presentation (25) will decline 10% for each class meeting beyond your scheduled date. For example, if your presentation is scheduled for Wednesday and you present on Friday, the maximum points you can earn is 22.5 (a perfect score).
Optional Fall 2013: Evaluate your presentation using the same rubric I am using (above). Please send me your evaluation of yourself within 24 hours of your presentation. Include with your evaluation the list of peer-reviewed sources you used to prepare your presentation.
The criteria I will use for evaluating your presentation is here. I have placed my Powerpoint presentation (delivered in class on 4 Oct) on developing your presentation in Blackboard under "Course Materials." I also suggest that you carefully consider the 4 October readings on "Effective Presentations in Engineering and Science" and watch the associated videos.
The goal of your presentation should be to teach the class about an important/interesting aspect of an early civilization. This is your opportunity to work with other students to create a classroom experience that results in significant learning. Your presentation will be mostly descriptive rather than analytical. The Research Report is where you will present the results of your cross-cultural comparative analysis.
Potential topics for individual presentations on an early civilization include: first cities, economy, religion, politics, social organization or evolution, history, factors that influenced the rise or collapse. After you have selected a general topic, find something specific within that topic to investigate and present to the class. Presentations on the "Religion of [Early Civilization]" are too general to create significant learning. Narrow topics will be more successful. For example, you could discuss a single well known archaeological site as your sole presentation topic.
Please mention in your presentation:
(1) how archaeologists know about your subject (e.g., what is the material evidence they used to infer what we think we know)
(2) interesting cross-cultural comparative research questions your investigation revealed.
I suggest you begin your research by reading the assigned chapter/article associated with your region. Next, read an overview of your selected archaeological tradition in the Encyclopedia of Prehistory and/or in eHRAF Archaeology under "Browse Traditions." With this general understanding, please conduct your research relying primarily on Traditions, Subjects, and Keyword searches in eHRAF. If the tradition/region you are interested in is not available in eHRAF Archaeology, you may use other peer-reviewed and reliable sources (see below). Not all traditions/regions will be in eHRAF because it is a "simple random sample" of the Outline of Archaeological Traditions. For a list of archaeological traditions included in eHRAF Archaeology, please click here. eHRAF Archaeology also includes complete temporal sequences for the following world regions: Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Highland Andean, Highland Mesoamerica, Maya, Mississippian, and U.S. Southwest.
Your presentation should cover one of the places where civilization emerged (oral presentation date in parentheses):
1) Mesopotamia (16 October)
2) Mediterranean (23 October)
3) Egypt (30 October)
4) Indus Valley (6 Nov)
5) China (13 Nov)
6) Mesoamerica (20 Nov)
7) Andes (27 Nov)
The learning objective of this activity is for you to develop an in-depth understanding of one aspect of an early civilization and to improve you oral presentation skills.
Other helpful data sources that will provide reliable, peer-reviewed material include:
1. Anthropology Plus
2. Anthropology Review Database
3. AnthroSource
4. Ethnographic Video Online
5. JSTOR
These databases can be accessed through the library’s home page at http://www.uta.edu/library/. Click on the Databases A-Z List link to access these databases which are arranged in alphabetical order.
Please email your Powerpoint slides to me immediately before or after your presentation so I can give you some specific feedback on your slides.
Missing your presentation date is strongly discouraged. The maximum number of points possible for the presentation (25) will decline 10% for each class meeting beyond your scheduled date. For example, if your presentation is scheduled for Wednesday and you present on Friday, the maximum points you can earn is 22.5 (a perfect score).
Optional Fall 2013: Evaluate your presentation using the same rubric I am using (above). Please send me your evaluation of yourself within 24 hours of your presentation. Include with your evaluation the list of peer-reviewed sources you used to prepare your presentation.
