Country Study Project

Student Reflections:I chose China as my “Adopt a Country” to study because my family is from there. China has always interested me, and I’ve always regretted that I didn’t know anything about my where my family came from what the culture was like. I was surprised to learn about how the government advises you to have only one child, because of over population. Also how different China is from where we live, how privileged I am compared to people in China. But most of all I was surprised that there seemed to be so much information about China, but also no information about it at all. There were facts and pictures but not really any feel into what China is really like, like how a regular day would be like or what is a normal everyday meal is. The information I found was styles of food, culture, religion, everything but the simple things in life. What I enjoyed the most about this project was learning about not only my country but also information of countries around me. While people learned about my country I learn about theirs, which was fun. I learned a lot of technology skills that I never used before, like how to make a website. I didn’t even think I would be able t make a website in my life. Before this project I didn’t know how to make a hotlink, scan a map onto the computer and a lot more....

I like the Electronic portfolio for the Adopt a Country rather than the binder version. Probably my main reason is because I like to do electronic/computer stuff more than I like to do binder stuff. For me, the online version was much easier to do and read, much more organized, and more fun. The reason I picked my country is because the Liebold family is from Germany. Other than that, there really wasn’t a reason why I picked Germany. I learned that Germany has a wide variety of authentic foods, from sausages to breads. It is also a very traditional European style country. I think my favorite aspect of the entire project was making the power point. I really enjoy making power points, and thought it was fun to make. I also think it is cool and fun to watch/read through. A couple new skills I learned in this project were how to make graphs with Excel and other programs, and how to do some special animation for my power point. Both of these things helped improve how my project came out. I think that the project should stay the same for next year. There were just the right amount of essays (maybe even too many) and there was plenty of other things that we were doing to make our webpage fun and enjoyable.

I would prefer to complete the AAC as an electronic portfolio. The three ring binder would have used a lot of paper and would have been hard to take home to work on. Also, while doing this project online I learned how to create a web portfolio, how to make graphs online, and how to use a scanner. It was good to learn these skills before I go to high school. I chose New Zealand as my country because my cousin recently moved there and I have a friend from there. I wanted to learn more about their life and about their county’s history. I was surprised to find out that the first man to climb Mount. Everest came from New Zealand. My favorite part of this project was making the graphs online. It was a new skill that I think will come in very handy in high school. If I could change something about this project for the future I would spread out the writing of the essays because I feel like we wrote them all in a row and it was really stressful. Overall this project was a great learning experience and I am so glad we got to do it before high school.

I would rather do Adopt a Country as an electronic portfolio. The country that I studied was Italy. I was surprised about how different Italy and America were for example in their GNP or Population. My favorite part of the project was finishing and seeing everything all organized with hotlinks and pictures. I liked the way it was all organized on one page which would have been impossible with a three ring binder. I learned a lot of things during this project too. I learned how to upload PowerPoint’s, essays, pictures and maps onto a page and also how to make hotlinks for each of them. I thought that the project was great but I would have liked class time to upload each PowerPoint, essay, picture or map instead of having to find time at school to do it ourselves. That is why I think it was a great project to do online.

I feel that I would have preferred an electronic portfolio for the Adopt a Country project. The electronic portfolio didn’t take up as much space as a three ring binder. It was also easier to keep track of. I picked the country Estonia because my ancestors are from there. I also wanted to learn more about my grandmother’s heritage; after all of the researching I really understood her culture.

I was surprised about the kinds of clothing they wore in the 1800s, another thing that was surprising was what the houses looked like (which are very different form the houses in America. My grandmother and some websites really taught me about the hared times of when Hitler came to power, most of the information was interesting but sad.

I enjoyed writing and researching all about the country, and writing a biography about my grandmother. It was easy to wrote about her because she’s my family member ad I could ask her anything about her life in Estonia.

I learned how to make blogging profiles for other people to see, such as posting my biographies, graphs, and pictures about the country. Though, it was difficult at first to learn how to post or paste things, and it did get easier after a little while.
I would suggest making this process more organized, for everyone to feel comfortable with time management. I also feel that there should be a sheet of paper that names all of the possible countries for the project, just to make is easier for the new 8th graders.

I preferred the electronic portfolio. It was easier to work with than it would have been with a three ring binder. I picked my country because my relatives were from there. I was also born there and I wanted to learn more about India. I was surprised to learn about the life expectancy. It was a lot lower than the U.S. Also I was surprised to learn about the population density. I enjoyed learning about the famous people. I liked doing the biographies and learning about their lives. I learned how to scan my maps onto the wiki page. I also learned how to upload my files and create a hotlink. I wouldn’t change anything for next year’s class. The Adopt a Country project was fine the way it was. I learned a lot from this project.

I was really stuck on what country to do but I picked Spain because I take Spanish as a language in class so I thought it would be fun to learn a little bit more about the country who’s language I was trying to learn to speak. There weren’t many things that really surprised me. The people I did my biographies on were very interesting to me and Spain’s culture was very different from ours which I thought was kind of amazing. I liked doing this as an electronic portfolio because it was much easier to type everything and upload it. Plus you are wasting less paper. I learned how to scan maps and pictures on to a computer and how to upload things from a word document to the wiki page. I enjoyed looking at the way my whole project looked after it was all finished and uploaded onto my wiki page. I t looked really awesome. I think I would have enjoyed writing one more biography so I could get a real grasp on the kind of people from Spain.

I enjoyed working on this project. My favorite part was probably learning the technological parts of the project such as how to scan things in to the computer, how to upload a Powerpoint to a website, and how to make graphs online. I prefer an electronic portfolio compared to the three ring binder because it’s easier to add or remove or change things in it that way. Nothing’s set in stone. Originally I picked Japan to study because my Grandfather comes from Japan. I am one quarter Japanese. Even though I am part Japanese, there’s still much I don’t know. I was surprised to learn that mochi is not an every day food in Japan. I was also surprised to learn baseball is the most popular sport. Next year, I think it would be nice if the project didn’t consist of as many essays.
For the “Adopt a Country” project I liked using the electronic portfolio. It made it easier to take the assignments home, but it was harder to do a variety of projects instead of just essays. For this project I picked France. I picked this country because someday I want to go there. Some things that I found surprising about my country were that most of the population belongs to one religion, and all the islands that France owns. I enjoyed making the power points and the biographies the most. I like the power points because they did not focus on one specific thing. You could add something new to it. And I liked the biographies because each time I wrote one I learned so many new things I never knew before.

While doing this project, I learned how to make bar graphs on a computer, and how to create a website that you can easily upload maps and research papers to. If I could change one thing about this project, I would change the amount of essays we do, and focus more on other projects about culture, and different parts of the country we have.
I picked France for my “Adopt a Country” project because my family originated in France. I’ve always been interested in the country also. I was surprised to learn that the government is very unique and freer than I would have thought. I also was surprised at how sports are very much respected, especially soccer. There are also many beautiful buildings in the country which also was interesting. The most enjoyable parts in the project I think were the slideshow and Itinerary essay. I enjoyed doing the slideshow because it gave me the chance to be creative and independent. I liked doing the Itinerary essay because I enjoyed thinking of what I could experience when in France.

The technology skills that I learned are how to upload files onto another wed page. Before this project I didn’t know how to do that. The changes I would make for the next year’s classes are how there should be less essay writing. I think that the facts said in each essay got to be repetitive and I honestly got bored writing about the same things. It would be nice to experience some things done in each country researched about. It brings the students one step closer to knowing the country.

I liked completing the Adopt a Country project electronically compared to a three ring binder set up because our world is advancing and it is more efficient and easier to do things through the computer. Also for people who do not have a lot of experience with technology it is a good way for them to learn about computers. As our world is advancing I think the style in which we are learning should as well.

I was surprised to learn about the history of Turkey’s architecture through my biography of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. I also learned through my culture essay how China and all of Asia had a huge impact on the culture of Turkey, especially the clothing.
I enjoyed being able to pick our own countries the because it gave everyone the chance to pick a country based on their own reasoning, whether that be because of their family history or simply just liking the country’s name.

During this project I learned how to make graphs through the computer and colorize/label them. I also learned the process of uploading different files and how to create my own web page safely without releasing any personal information.

I would suggest that you only do two biographies and use another essay on some other topic for the country. I think that there should be more “projects” like a time line or graphs and not just essay. Id also suggest that these projects be more evenly spread out through the course of the year.

Country Study Project

Friday, July 16, 2010

Country Study Feedback - Tally by PeggyJo Sahlman

Student Reflections

AAC Ideas