posted
I need to make a guide to Congress for my Gov. class. What I mean with this is taht my teacher wants me to make a booklet or pamphlet, what ever I want or comes out, with information on our Congress, what they do, how the work, intresting facts, pictures, diagrams and little drawings. Trouble is that I don't think I can gather all of this information by mself, so I came to Hatrack for help.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, you are supposed to gather it by yourself, so if it is an impossible task, I suggest you take it up with your teacher.
Posts: 751 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Um, yeah. I'm going to say this isn't an unreasonable homework assignment, and if it was, you should be clarifying the expectations with your teacher, not asking us for help.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I can gather the info, but I might skip stuff or something. I'm not saying I can't do it by myself, I have to; What I'm saying is that I need ideas and stuff. i.e. What theme should I pick? Will I make is a pop-up book? How should the layout be like? Is there anything anyone knows about the CA senators or reps. that I don't? Are there any intresting things about Congress besides all the techy stuff that people know about?
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Anything works. This assignment is one of the most important in the year, I fail this and my graduation is put at risk. I guess that's why I'm so jumpy about it. I'm not expecting, or asking, anyone to do my work, I'm just asking for some ideas.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
come one people. Stuff that people do have a right to know. I doubt my Gov teach wants to know about what their spouses know.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I vote for a pop-up book, with the centerfold being a neat little chart of all of the seats in congress, with a popup for every member, with funny little pictures on the outside, and one fact, preferably funny and cynical, on the inside (of the little popup flaps).
Yay Congress.
Or, the popup can be in the middle of one of those 3-sided posterboard display boards.
And you can have several "how congress does this" sections with law making and time wasting and attendance and stuff like that with lots of cartoon pictures and paragraphs explaining things.
Ooooh, and the whole thing can actually be on this huge cutout that looks like the congressional building (there is one, right?) and different parts of it open (like a flat dollhouse) with the different sections.
You can even have a little peek into the bathrooms with bathroom talk where the real deals are made.
And on the bottom, you can have a bunch of really little people all holding up pieces of paper that represent what matters to them, but they're completely unheard, because there are great big giants, representing lobbyists, who are drowning them out.
How fun.
Edit: Oooh, and the giants can be squishing the little people, with blood leaking out between their toes.
posted
I'll be your senators and representatives have websites.
In fact, I know they do. I would start there. Then, you might even try the actual websites for the Congressional houses. They have those, too. This doesn't sound like an overwhelming assignment. And you could try the Constitution -- Article 2 might be of help.
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Your commetns are funny I admit, but I don't want you guys to take it as if I was asking you to do my homework. I've been to the websites, so I know whats in there. you guys don't have to be so cynical either. i'm just asking for ideas, and I don't want the entire pop-up thing to take so much time. I don't want it to be the main thing about the book, either. I am planning to make some pages pop-up, but not overwhelmingly so. The part where I'm having the most trouble is in picking a theme. Soem one did a recepie book in the past, and there was also someone who did one based on a menu theme. I'm thinking about doing one on sushi with a lot of vector graphics featuring cute little sushi and sashimi pieces. Those would only be the graphics of course. They wouldn't be so big as to distract the reader, they would only be there for decoration and to make the book look pretty. What other themes could I pick? I guess that's my main concern right now, not just getting my information, but knowing how I want the completed assignment to look like.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
Okay, here's an idea... you may still be able to find peeps from easter in drugstores or other places like that. A friend of mine would buy a bunch of them, dry them out, and have her students (in high school) create panoramic scenes from novels they had read. They looked pretty cool. They make peeps for all sorts of holidays now.. maybe you could do something like that. chicks could be republicans, bunnies could be democrats.. (that was random..not a comment on what easter animal I think each party should be.)
A buffy song just came up on my playlist... you could do a sort of dark theme.. play off of that movie.. was it Underworld with the werewolves and the vampires? You choose which party goes with which creature.. You could decorate it in blacks and reds, with each side decked out in goth wear.. and fur... I think that'd look pretty darn cool.
I dunno.. I'm sure you can think of something creative..
posted
...Which actually brings up the whole issue of accountability of online reference sources. I wouldn't trust wikipedia because users can enter information. I would go with a more reliable academic source, even if it isn't as cute, or succinct.
I've had to resort to telling my students that their references must include at least one non-online source, and that all online sources must be from reputable academic sources (i.e., no user-entered information).
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Its more that wikipedia's going to give a person a lot more leads to start with for looking around -- a traditional encyclopedia's typically going to leave out so much when discussing a complex entity like congress that its going to miss many important things.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
True, I guess, but many, many students just use that as their primary source of info and leave it at that.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
any encyclopedia is not a primary source (or even a secondary source). They should be used as guides, but not as an actual source for your paper. I have found giving students a guide like this: types of sources before having them write a paper can be beneficial.
For the most part wikipedia is just as good as any normal encyclopedia. Since there are a large number of people monitoring the main articles, errors and vandalism are corrected rather quickly (often within minutes). Errors in print encyclopedias are there for years. But anytime you are not using a primary source, you need to check up on the information that you were given.
posted
Its not that them theme has anything to do with congress, its that I like sushi. The themes is used basically for the graphics and layout. It can or cannot have anything to do with goverment or congress.
About the squishy stuff...I'm thinking about doing something like that. Just not so complicated. As for the peeps, I might just do that....
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
iqexpress.com has links to pretty much anything you could possibly want to know about congress.
Posts: 4292 | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'll have to take lots of pictures of these little peeps then. I could have democrats in the house be sashimi sushi and the Senators be nigiri while the Republicans are peeps. Yellow chick peeps for representatives and pink bunny ones for the senators.
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
