Part 2: Identity

Course Project Full Description Revision.html

HUMN 351 Course Project: The UNESCO Workshop on Myth in the World

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to understand and articulate the active myths in the world of a particular group or area.

Scenario: Your final project will consist of an exhibit in the (imaginary) International Conference on Myth in the World, a symposium called to discover, understand, critique, and advance the mission of UNESCO, which is outlined below. In today’s globalized world, where interconnections and diversity must serve as opportunities to build peace in the minds of men and women, UNESCO's messages are of increasing importance.

• UNESCO is responsible for coordinating international cooperation in education, science, culture, and communication. It strengthens the ties between nations and societies; it mobilizes the wider public so that each child and citizen
  • has access to quality education; a basic human right and an indispensable prerequisite for sustainable development;
  • may grow and live in a cultural environment rich in diversity and dialogue, where heritage serves as a bridge between generations and peoples;
  • can fully benefit from scientific advances;
  • can enjoy full freedom of expression—the basis of democracy, development, and human dignity.

Your exhibit at the UNESCO symposium will consist of a multimedia presentation on a particular group in a particular area, e.g., your unit in Germany or your family in the South. The exhibit will address issues regarding myth in the world. The following components are required as you build the project. Any sources used to build the parts of your project will be cited in MLA style, 8th edition.

• Identity
  • Answer the question of identity for your group with ten short but descriptive adjectives.
• Material Culture and History
  • Choose and explain the significance of five artifacts related to the history of your group. Explain the significance of each item to the group's history and/or important historical people in its past. 
• Origins and Others
  • Describe or tell your group's origin story, its creation myth. Remember that this is myth, not history, so tell the creation story as such, but base it on the group's history. Who are your group's enemies or others and why? These will be incorporated into your creation myth.
• Heroes/Heroines and the Future
  • Who are your group's heroes and heroines and why? You will answer this question by writing a heroic myth.What does your group hope for, or where is it going? You will answer this question by incorporating the hoped-for future into the heroic myth.

Due Dates and Grade Percentages

• Part 1: Choosing a Group and Area is due by the end of Week 3 is worth 0% of your final grade
• Part 2: Identity is due by the end of Week 4 and is worth 10 percent of your final grade
• Part 3: Material Cultural and History is due by the end of Week 5 and is worth 10 percent of your final grade
• Part 4: Origins and Others is due by the end of Week 6 and is worth 10 percent of your final grade
• Part 5: Heroism and Hope is due by the end of Week 7 and is worth 10 percent of your final grade
• Part 6: Multimedia Presentation is due by the end of Week 8 and is worth 25 percent of your final grade

Skills

The project will enable you to develop the following skills:

1. Evaluate, collect, and put to scholarly use information regarding myth in the world for your group and area
2. Synthesize scholarly sources and create your own informed perspective
3. The ability to design and produce multimedia communication appropriate to a given research or creative context (purpose/audience/event/form/genre/medium).

Knowledge

The project will enable you to obtain the following content knowledge:

1. Active myths for a particular group and area
2. Comparative features of other active myths in the world

Required Formatting and Documentation Style

Throughout the project, you will be submitting sources as part of your ongoing work, including the final version. All written material must be formatted in the Modern Language Association (MLA) style. All sources must be documented in MLA style. General assistance with MLA style (documentation and formatting) can be found on the websites below:

• MLA Citation Examples: http://sites.umuc.edu/library/libhow/mla_examples.cfm
• Research and Documentation Online, 5th edition: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/webpub/Ektron/ReWriting_basics%202e/rewritingbasics2e/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch04_o.html

Part 1: Choosing a Group and Area

Choose a cultural group from a specific area and time period in the 20-21st century to examine, e.g., groups: car sales people, accountants, WW II veterans, disabled veterans, the working class, evangelicals, police, urban professionals, the homeless, movie stars, refugees, immigrants, hackers, the elderly, Occupy Wallstreet activists, etc.; areas: the U.S.,Japan, India, Brazil, Germany, Canada, etc. or even a specific city; Time periods: the 1950s, the Civil War period, the 1980s etc. Your instructor must approve your choices and can help you with them. You will want to choose a group that is large enough to have a cultural mythology but small enough that you can answer the questions about it and present your findings in the workshop. Police in Los Angeles in the 1980s is a good example, for instance. 

This assignment is required, but does not count towards your final grade. The assignment is designed to get you thinking about your course project and to receive feedback for your choices.

Due Date for Part 1: This submission is due during Week 3, with the final day of submission being the Sunday of the third week (11:30pm ET). Please see the Course Schedule for the exact final due date for this submission. The submission should be carefully edited and proofed for standard use of English.

Part 2: Identity

In one sentence:

1. Use reliable, scholarly sources from UMUC's library, when possible, to describe the group's identity using ten adjectives in a sentence, e.g.  For example, "Urban professionals in Tokyo are young, dedicated, quiet, busy, frustrated, middle-income, nationalistic, confused, single, and hopeful."
2. Rely on some of the information in Week 1's Learning Resources and  Discussions to inform your decisions when thinking about cultural identity. 
3. Cite your sources using MLA format.
4. Carefully edit and proof your sentence so that it uses standard English. 

Due Date for Part 2: This submission is due during Week 4, with the final day of submission being the Sunday of the fourth week (11:30pm ET). Please see the Course Schedule for the exact final due date for this submission.

Part 3: Material Culture and History

In an essay of about 4-6 full paragraphs (4-5 sentences each):

1. Use reliable, scholarly sources from UMUC's library, when possible, to help you choose five objects that represent your group and explain their significance to the story of how they relate to the group's history. For instance, if your groups was Hackers in the U.S. in the 1980s, you might include a push button telephone as an item of material culture and explain its significance to the history of the group by talking about the history of phreaking or a famous phreaker in hacker culture. 
2. Rely on some of the information in Weeks 2 and 3's Learning Resources and Discussions about Material Culture and History to inform your decisions and explanations.
3. Cite your sources using MLA format.
4. Carefully edit and proof your essay for standard use of English.

Due Date for Part 3: This submission is due during Week 5, with the final day of submission being the Sunday of the fifth week (11:30pm ET). Please see the Course Schedule for the exact final due date for this submission.

Part 4: Origins and Others

In an essay of about 5-7 full paragraphs (4-5 sentences each):

1. Use reliable, scholarly sources from UMUC's library to help you describe or tell your group's origin story, its creation myth. Remember that this is myth, not history, so compose the creation story as such. In other words, mythologize the history of the group's beginnings. It does not have to be true, but it should be rooted in some kind of actual historical event. 
2. Include elements of creation myths that you discovered in Week 4's Learning Resources and Discussions.
3. In your creation myth, include one or more of the group's "others" whether they be monsters, villains, or enemies using some of the information you learned in Week 5's learning resources. Against whom does your group define themselves and why? This "other" should have some roots in the actual history of the group. For instance, hackers might define themselves against cyber security experts, who could be made into an "other" in the story. 
4. Cite your sources using MLA style.
5. Carefully edit and proof your essay for standard use of English.

Due Date for Part 4: This submission is due during Week 6, with the final day of submission being the Sunday of the sixth week (11:30pm ET). Please see the Course Schedule for the exact final due date for this submission.

Part 5: Heroism and Hope

In an essay of about 5-7 full paragraphs (4-5 sentences each):

1. Use reliable, scholarly sources from UMUC's library to help you compose a heroic myth that includes information about the future of your group. Remember that this is myth, not history, though it should be rooted in some real information about the group. Based on your research, what does the group's hoped-for future hold and how does the hero help them get there? 
2. Include elements of the heroic journey that you discovered in Week 6's Learning Resources and Discussions, as well as eschatological elements from Week 7's Resources and Discussions.
3. Cite your sources using MLA style.
4. Carefully edit and proof your essay for standard use of English.

Due Date for Part 5: This submission is due during Week 7, with the final day of submission being the Sunday of the seventh week (11:30pm ET). Please see the Course Schedule for the exact final due date for this submission. The submission should be carefully edited and proofed for standard use of English.

Part 6: UNESCO Workshop (Presentation)

Now, you will bring together the research you have completed during the duration of this course. Your final deliverable for this project with be a multimedia presentation of the previous responses using effective presentation skills and for your UNESCO audience. Your presentation should:

1. Present a well-organized and engaging summary of your work in the form of a narrated recorded presentation in PPT or another format. 
2. Contain at least ten slides, including an introduction a conclusion.
3. Include engaging visuals that complement the content and are mindful of the audience.
4. Be between 15 and 20 minutes long. You may use PowerPoint to narrate your presentation or use a screen casting software to make a video. There are some resources to help you with this below. 
5. Include a written transcript of what you say in your presentation. 
6. Include citations for your sources using MLA style.
7. Show evidence that you have edited and proofed each slide and your transcript for standard use of English and thought about the use of Standard English in your narration.

Resources to help you with the project:

• Sample PPT with Notes
• Website for help with designing a PPT
• Adding narration to a PPT
• Using iSpring for Voice Recordings
• Introduction to SmartArt Graphics
• Convert Slide Text to a SmartArt Graphic

Due Date for Part 6: This submission is due during Week 8, with the final day of submission being the Wednesday of the eighth week (11:30pm ET). Please see the Course Schedule for the exact final due date for this submission. The submission should be carefully edited and proofed for standard use of English.