Important Social Studies Exit Project Dates:

Monday, March 11                    Project Introduced in Class

Wednesday, March 13             Library Research Day

Thursday, March 28             First Research Worksheet Due

                                                Topic of projects must be selected by this date.

                                                For Full Credit

Friday, March 29                    Spring Break Begins

Friday, April 19                     Second Research Worksheet Due

Must have written Bibliographic Citations for all research

Monday, May 6              Lottery to determine Presentation Dates.

Tuesday, May 14             Project Reports Final Draft, Evaluations and

Presentations Begin

Thursday, May 30                        Last Day of Make-up Presentations

Friday, May 31                     All Projects must be removed from classroom or

lose points.

Steps to Prepare Your Exit Project

1.          Select a Topic.

            The Exit Project is your chance to make some connection with your life and the history of the past, do something fun, learn about something you never knew before or to develop a new skill. All projects MUST somehow connect to something in the textbook. What you do depends on how creative you can be at making that connection and being able to explain that connection to the class.

2.          Gather Information About Your Topic

            Look in the Library, on the Internet, in books and magazines at home, ask parents and knowledgeable friends about the things that you are interested in for your topic

3.      Take notes on the things you do to develop your project. Make sure that you write down titles, authors, publishers and the other things that you use for information about your project.

4.                 Keep track of the time you spend  

Thinking, working, creating, writing up your project. Use the guide on the following pages to make your own time sheet. When you add up the time that you spent on your project, you should be surprised how much time you spent.

5.          Review often the questions that you will have to answer
in your paper about your report. Make notes about your responses to those questions. Most of the points on this project are determined by how well you answer those questions.

6.          Collect all your information and write your Bibliography.

7.               Finish your project. Write the Final Draft of your Paper. Make sure that you have written complete paragraphs and check your spelling. The Final Draft must also be neatly written in ink (no pencil).

8.          Prepare your presentation on your assigned day

Make arrangements (if needed) to get your project to school that day. Practice your presentation at home with your parents or friends before you present it. You will have only five index cards to use for your presentation. Practice so that you will not have to read anything to the class. Your presentation must be at least four (4) minutes long, but no longer than ten (10) minutes. Make sure that you speak clearly and loudly

To pass the sixth grade Social Studies with a grade of C or better you must complete an Interest Exit Project with a grade of 75% (150 points) or better. These projects have three parts as outlined below:

 Part One: Project (100 points)

            You will need to select one topic of interest to you that deals with some aspect of civilization. You may want to review the characteristics of a civilization as found on page 140 or your textbook, A Message of Ancient Days:

Search the Library and other places for more sources of information about various civilizations. You will eventually need to have found three sources of information about that topic plus your textbook for a total of four sources. Make sure that as you use sources, you write down:

the author(s) names

the Titles

the Publishers

the Places and Dates of Publication

the pages you used for your information

You will be using that information from your notes to write your Bibliography (See Citations in your Handouts)

            Create a project of your choice. You may develop any project of your choice to demonstrate your talent and knowledge. Projects are only limited by your imagination. Final project products must be brought to school for class presentation beginning Tuesday, May 14, 2002. 

            Projects may be, but are not limited to the following:

Collection                                Sculpture                   Pop-Up Book  

Illustration                                Model                         Demonstration

Painting                                   Diorama                    Other of your choice

Part Two: Paper (50 points)

            In addition to the above project, students need to turn in:

·         A minimum one page Final Draft Paper that explains each of the following questions in at least one or more paragraphs:

1.     What did you learn about the topic by doing the project?

2.     What the project was?

3.     Why that project was selected?

4.     How the project was done?

5.     Where did you find the information you found?

6.     What problems developed as a result of the project?

7.     How were those problems overcome?

8.     What did you learn about yourself, your friends, or your family?

·         Timesheet log of time spent on project:

            (An example below)

Make sure that you keep track of all your time spent and don't forget to add your time up.

·         Proper Bibliography with minimum four sources including the textbook, A Message of Ancient Days. Make sure that your Bibliography has correctly written Bibliographic Citations with all the required information. Sample Bibliographies are available in the Library.

          Your paper and Bibliography need to be turned in before your project is presented to the class. If a paper is not turned in there will be no points given for project or presentation.

Part Three: Presentation (50 points)

            Starting Tuesday May 14, 2002 students will be able to begin to present their projects to the class. Presenters may show or demonstrate their project to the class. Students will explain their project to the class by explaining their answers to the questions presented in the project paper. Presentations must be well prepared and done with a maximum of five 3x5 index cards for notes and reference. Do not read your presentation to class. Know and practice before you present. After their presentation, students will be given a chance to answer class questions.

            Presentations should be at least four minutes long, but no longer than ten minutes. Any make-up presentations MUST be completed before May 31st. Students that do not present their project in the allotted time will receive the grade of ‘zero’ on this part of the project and might not pass this class.

Projects that are not collected by end of day May 31st, will be tossed out.