My Graduation Project
BaconTheory
Join Date: 2003-09-06 Member: 20615Members
Join Date: 2003-09-06 Member: 20615Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">WWII Afficianados come hither.</div> OK, so in my school we are required to do a large project in order for us to meet the requirements to graduate. Everyone says that I should do it my sophmore year, and I'm doing just that <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->. Anyhow, we are allowed to make this a group project, so I paired up with my friend Chris and we are doing it on WWII in my American Civilizaton 10 class. The topic of the project must be put in to question form so that we can answer it as we go along. Our question is this: "How did tactics used by WWII field commanders affect the outcome of battle?". The project is divided up into several sections, all of which is worth a certain percentage which adds up to 100%, which gives us the grade for our project. The sections are as follows: Written, Oral, Visual and Technology. We have pretty much planned out what things we want to do for each section, which I will list below.
<ul><li><b>Written</b>: 6-Page paper on tactics and famous WWII battles.</li><li><b>Oral</b>: Presenation of undetermined length about tactics.</li><li><b>Visual</b>: Large poster of a make-believe town, which will be used for pretend battle simulation.</li><li><b>Technology</b>: Use of Age of Empires: Rise to Modern Combat with custom map to demonstrate tactics.</li></ul>
These are the things that we are going to use as of now. My question to you guys is kind of important. What can we do to make this project really impressive? This project determins whether or not we graduate, and if we get any grade lower than a C on it, we fail it and it goes on our transcripts. As you can see, we need to impress our teacher and get a good grade on this. So I just need to know what we can do to go above an beyond. Thanks.
<ul><li><b>Written</b>: 6-Page paper on tactics and famous WWII battles.</li><li><b>Oral</b>: Presenation of undetermined length about tactics.</li><li><b>Visual</b>: Large poster of a make-believe town, which will be used for pretend battle simulation.</li><li><b>Technology</b>: Use of Age of Empires: Rise to Modern Combat with custom map to demonstrate tactics.</li></ul>
These are the things that we are going to use as of now. My question to you guys is kind of important. What can we do to make this project really impressive? This project determins whether or not we graduate, and if we get any grade lower than a C on it, we fail it and it goes on our transcripts. As you can see, we need to impress our teacher and get a good grade on this. So I just need to know what we can do to go above an beyond. Thanks.
Comments
Photocopies of pictures taken by veterans.
Loaned war artifacts from veterans.
Movie score (perhaps Saving Private Ryan) playing in background during Oral presentation (perhaps to fit the meter of the speech).
Use of period uniforms (both of you wear war uniforms - available on eBay).
Photocopies of pictures taken by veterans.
Loaned war artifacts from veterans.
Movie score (perhaps Saving Private Ryan) playing in background during Oral presentation (perhaps to fit the meter of the speech).
Use of period uniforms (both of you wear war uniforms - available on eBay). <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Taped Verbal Interviews</b>: Good idea.
<b>WWII Pictures by Veterans</b>: Google + Grandfather = Done.
<b>Artifacts</b>: This is a toughie. I have a few things but I def. neede more.
<b>Movie Score</b>: Already been thought of. Using Saving Private Ryan.
<b>Uniforms</b>: Got it covered.
Don't go too overboard, I remember doing a project on U-boats for my 11th grade history class...I had models and diagrams...I bought books and all kinds of neat stuff...but when I found myself looking for actual uniforms of German U-boat commanders on ebay I stopped myself. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Anyway keep us updated this looks pretty neat.
<a href='http://forum.axishistory.com/index.php' target='_blank'>http://forum.axishistory.com/index.php</a>
P.S. dont forget the allied invasion with the boats and airoplane combined forces landing....i suppose you could call it a military tactic. plus the deception surrounding it (making the germans think the landing where somewhere else) was itself classed as a tactic.
damn just realised "Field Commanders" wouldnt include the above....ah well ill leave it in <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
P.S. dont forget the allied invasion with the boats and airoplane combined forces landing....i suppose you could call it a military tactic. plus the deception surrounding it (making the germans think the landing where somewhere else) was itself classed as a tactic.
damn just realised "Field Commanders" wouldnt include the above....ah well ill leave it in <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
...
OF COURSE IT WAS AIRED IN AMERICA
...
with that out of the way and my throat cleared... which doesnt really matter.. dont need my voice to type.. unless its some fancy speach to text deal.. but you know that it isnt because im telling you its not...
with that out of the way and my caps lock key depressed.. i must say.. yes.. it was an amazing series.. there were 10 episodes iirc.. so if you have 10 hours to spare you should watch em...
IE someone's war stories, while good filler, generally have little to do with Tactics.
So you need to blend it together. Stories of groups of friends being recruited are relevant because you can say it was a tactic to keep units together and keep morale high on the front, as opposed to melding a bunch of strangers into a unit.
Stories about propaganda, how they were taught to "see" the enemy are also part of tactics.
You have hardcore strategy, and for this you would be looking at the major generals, perhaps selecting two to focus on. Rommel and Montgomery spring to mind as the most famous examples. When analysing their tactics, pepper your presentation with some interesting and little known factoids. For example, Montgomery was in reality a poor commander who failed to capitalise on successes, and as a matter of course would claim ANY outcome to have gone "exactly according to plan". Since its American history, you may wish to choose something in the Pacific sphere.
Keep a cohesive theme to it ALL. If your presentations dont seamlessly fit together, they will be disjointed and perhaps not appreciated fully. Try to link it all together with a common theme within your question - don't explore Monty and Rommel in age of empires then suddenly switch to a purely air related oral presentation.
If you want to be really clever, try to record a demo of your age of empires game (divx format stuff, standard fare) and hand that in with a written report. Thats a bit techy but it can help more than diagrams sometimes.
I don't know how you school system handles presentations, but certainly in my system you have written documents handed out with the oral presentation. NOT the oral presentation written down and handed out... but a summary or sometimes extra side to flesh out the speech. Technology and visual tools are used during the presentation also, so its pretty seamless.
IE - I get up, do a 10 minute talk on "Portrayal of Insects in the Media". I choose to focus on B movies and sensationalist documentaries.
My oral presentation consists of various fallacies with B movies - insects cannot be that large (factoid about prehistoric scorpion size of dog, prehistoric centipede 60 inches long and a foot wide, clip from Skeeter and Ticks), insects being portrayed as swarming and exhibiting hive like behaviour even if generally solitary (Arachnophobia clip). Hive like behaviour is escalated to true intelligence, and all insect groups are led by a "queen" (clip from Arachnophobia, clip from Phase IV). Summary suggests media is exploitative and sensationalist and promotes a poor understanding of insects. Insects frequently used as metaphor for the great danger of the time (giant insect B movies from fear of the nuclear bomb, 80-90s films about pollution creating giant bugs, 90s-00s films about genetically engineered bugs). Blah blah.
Good scores you would think, however most of those examples I listed are (deliberately) NOT true insects. You probably didn't notice while reading it, but the person grading you WILL. The handout that accompanies the talk would be, say, a double sided flyer with screen caps, film details, etc etc. One section on 60's B movies, one on 80-90s, one on more recent times. Highlights examples of each "era". In this case however the flyer makes a more cohesive speech than the speech does! The speech is a series of linked facts pointing out holes in the films, the flyer is a summary of the different areas. A better presentation would have been to use them the other way around.
So try to keep things cohesive and not just "fact a, fact b, fact c, clip, fact d" and so on. And ALWAYS be sure to check the equipment before you make your presentation - if the Class PC will not run video clips then you're in trouble. In your case, make sure the game runs smoothly, plan out how the poster will work (on the wall or on a table?) and be sure to prepare in advance so that people don't get bored waiting for your presentation.
Hope some of that information is useful, just a few common traps people fall into.
Patton literally wrote the book on tanks before WWI, commanded a tank platoon in WWI and an army in WWII.
And furthermore
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i didnt read beyond first paragraph so ill take your word for it...
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Aren't you lucky you're not doing a talk then, cos if you were, you'd be screwed.