Computer Applications Final Benchmarks Project

Please read this entire page BEFORE beginning your project.
Once you have read through the entire page, then you should begin your project!

This final project will make use of the following skills you have learned:

• Developing a thesis statement
• Using subscription databases for research
• Using free Internet sources for research
• Using social networking software (Delicious; posting to a blog)
• Creating a presentation in Microsoft/PowerPoint
• Creating a spreadsheet and importing a graph using Microsoft/Excel
• Creating a document using Microsoft/Word
• Emailing attachments
• Creating a Works Cited using Noodlebib
• Giving an oral presentation in front of your class

There will be 6 required steps to complete this project. We will be doing the majority of this in class.

Step 1: Developing a thesis statement  (Hardcopy 1)

In college, you will be required to write many papers each week. You will need to be able to formulate numerous thesis statements throughout each semester. In this project, you will be expected to research a topic (approved by Mrs. Ryan) and develop a thesis.  Please choose a topic that you would use in college.

For example, you may be very interested in cars like Mrs. Ryan.

You cannot just write a REPORT on cars.

You must go deeper.

Instead, by connecting cars to business, you may decide to research the impact that the bailout of GM will have on the American auto industry.

Once you decide on a topic, you will have to determine a thesis.

There are several ways to develop a good thesis.
One basic way to begin is to look at your topic and decide on a way to create an argument surrounding it. Using the above example, for instance, we can either choose to argue that the bail-out helped the auto industry, the bail-out harmed the auto industry, or the bail-out will not produce any change.

So, several thesis statements around the same topic could be:

The American auto industry, once essential to the US economy, needed a bail-out to help it restructure so it could continue to provide much-needed jobs to Americans, as well as a solid manufacturing base to the country.

Despite America's prior success in the automobile industry, America's dependence on foreign imports has led to a failure in the manufacture of competitive cars, therefore bail-out money will not be able to save the American auto industry.

Please see Mrs. Ryan or Ms. Finlayson for assistance in developing a thesis statement.  A reminder that, this is a college level course and this is a college ready skill needed for ALL students.

Please note that all of these statements provide guidance and structure to your presentation. If your thesis statement is not suitably specific or is too narrow, you will have trouble with this assignment.

You will now apply all of your skills and knowledge that you have learned in Computer Applications I/II to your thesis.

· When dealing with an online newspaper, comment on the article if there is space for doing so online (usually listed as a comment box).

· If you do not wish to post your comments online for the sake of anonymity, you may provide the link for the article and your comments printed out, without submitting.

· Be sure to print a copy of your comments to hand in to Mrs. Ryan. (Hardcopy 3)

· If you are dealing with a print article or one where no comments are solicited, you must type your comment separately to hand in to Mrs. Ryan. 

· For this section, you will need to post to a blog.  Please feel free to use the following podcast as guidance: (Hardcopy 3)

Grammar Girl's podcast,"How to Write a Great Blog Comment", posted 3/20/2009 or read the transcript.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES (2):
You must choose any TWO additional articles from two other sources in one of the following formats:

• Internet
• Book
• Database
• Magazine
• Newspaper
• Video
• Personal Interview (approved by Mrs. Ryan - See Ms. Finlayson's "Interviewing for Informational Purposes" page for information on conducting an interview - under "Research Project Links.")

FOR THIS SECTION, YOU MAY CHOOSE TO USE DELICIOUS TO BOOKMARK YOUR ONLINE SOURCES.
Tag each item and provide notes for why you selected each article. Please print out your bookmarks that you used during this project. (Hardcopy 4)

Step 3: Creating a presentation in Microsoft/PowerPoint; Creating a spreadsheet and importing a graph using Microsoft/Excel; Creating a Works Cited using Noodlebib

For this part of the project, you will synthesize your research into a PowerPoint presentation for your class.
ANY IDEAS THAT WERE NOT YOUR OWN NEED CREDIT. Plagiarism in college will get you an F in the class. College professors have software that can detect plagiarism.

You will need to create a presentation with the following required slides:

When using PowerPoint, on the slide where you are citing info or a picture, connect it to your works cited by using the following format: (Smith) or ("Auto Industry"). If there is a picture, include the copyright symbol followed by the name of the person responsible for creating the picture in the slide itself.

TITLE SLIDE:
This slide will contain the following:

• A Title for your presentation
• Your first and last name
• A copyright disclaimer statement:
  Some material in this presentation is protected by copyright and is used under the Multimedia Guidelines and Fair Use exemptions of US Copyright Law. Further use is prohibited.

THESIS SLIDE:
This slide will contain your thesis and any additional information you need to make your thesis transition (in other words, you may construct a paragraph, similar to the beginning of a paper, to make your thesis more clear. If you use a paragraph, underline your thesis statement.)

Sample:

As the American economy faces its first major recession since 2000, the government is making attempts to curtail the threat of a depression. The American auto industry, once essential to the US economy, needs a bailout to help it restructure so it can continue to provide much-needed jobs to Americans, as well as a solid manufacturing base to the country. By restructuring the auto-industry, the American government can regain its footing as a manufacturing center and delay or minimize future economic downturns.


SEVEN SLIDES WHERE YOU MAKE YOUR CASE:

INCLUDE AT LEAST ONE SLIDE demonstrating your ability to create a spreadsheet and a graph and import them both into a presentation slide.
This slide needs to contain data relevant to your topic. So, if your topic is the above thesis, you may include figures for how many Americans have been employed by the auto-industry by decade since 1900. Or, you may create a chart that shows how many auto-makers there are in the US and how many people they employ per company. You could create a line graph showing the decline of those involved in manufacturing in the US.
The type of data you choose should support your thesis!

WORKS CITED SLIDE:
On this slide, paste your works cited from NoodleBib. To do this, create your works cited, choose export as a Word document, save the document, and then copy and paste into your final slide of your presentation. You may need to adjust the font, but do not adjust the format! (Hardcopy 5)

Step 4: Creating a document using Word

You will create a class handout (report, trifold brochure, an interoffice memo, or a newsletter) informing your classmates about the important pieces of your presentation. (Hardcopy 6)

It should not be an exact rendering of your presentation but act as a supplement and reminder of the information contained in the presentation.

It should include the following:

• A title
• Your first and last name.
• Your thesis
• A chart or graph
• One visual
• Citations for any facts, ideas, or pictures

Step 5: Emailing attachments

As a final step, please email ONLY your Microsoft/PowerPoint PRESENTATION to Mrs. Ryan.
Make the SUBJECT HEADING Final Project Computer Apps.
Include in the BODY of the message and evaluation of your efforts by answering the following questions:

• What specific source was the most helpful for your research? Why?
• What did you learn about the research process?
• How happy were you with your final product? What could you have done better?
• Were there areas of computer apps you would have liked to have had more time learning before the project began?
• What were the most helpful things you learned about research or computer applications while working on this project? Why?

Step 6: Giving an oral presentation in front of your class

Each student will be required to present their report to the class. You will NOT be reading your slides. Your slide presentation supports your presentation.

The presentation rubric can be found in the Business Department's formatting document which will be posted on the East Aurora High School Library Web Site.

In the meantime, you will get a copy from Mrs. Ryan! Put this in a safe place...