On Friday, students showed the signed EH Museum Topic Selection Letter to Ms. Falls and I. We initialed the letter to let students know if we approved their topic choices. In order to get a variety of artifacts in the museum, we did not be let every student have their first choice. On Monday, students will begin taking more detailed notes from books provided in class using the following forms:
- Artifact Context Notes – students should record notes about the context in which their artifact was created. This includes looking at the tribe, culture, or kingdom that created the object and examining the geographic features of the region where it was made. The sheet also has a prompt for “Source(s)” to help students keep track of where they find their information. On this line, students can write “Book #1″ or “Web site #2″, which are references to the resources they list in the Research Sources worksheet described below.
- Artifact Description Notes – this forms has a series of questions to guide students to take detailed notes including what the artifact looks like, how it was used, when and where it was created, and more. This information will help students write the caption and it will also help students remember physical attributes of the object when creating the replica. Students should also record their sources on this sheet.
- Research Sources – as students take notes, they are expected to record the sources they use for information. This form has prompts for information commonly used in citations, such as author, title, date published, and more. If students cannot find some of the information, such as publisher or edition, after five minutes of searching, they can leave it blank. Students are required to have at least one print resource and at least one online resource.
Students will have time in class on Monday and Tuesday/Wednesday, then the notes will be checked during class on Thursday, March 11 2010.