Material World

As the old saying goes, " a picture is worth a thousand words" has never been truer when looking at the photographs featured in the book the Material World. "Vividly portraying the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth this book puts a human face on the issues of population environment, social justice, and consumption." The pictorial examples featured in the book and on the CD-ROM capture the great differences in material goods and circumstances that make rich and poor societies. Let us take a closer look still.

In groups of two or three, you are to select or be assigned a family/country featured in the book and CD-ROM, Material World by Peter Menzel. You will virtually place yourself into the life and culture of your selected family/country physically and intellectually. You will be creating a minimum of a fifteen slide PowerPoint presentation. You will need to take pictures individually and in a group with a digital camera. You will be inserting/placing yourselves into the portrait of your family and other pictures of the family/country you have chosen using Photoshop 6.0.

You will be need to answer the following 15 questions. No information should appear on the slides. The answers to the questions are to be written as a script. Each individual of the group of three needs to answer five questions. The group will complete and hand in a bibliography of the resources used. You will also compare how your family lives, works, and plays with the family/country you are researching.

1. What religions are practiced in the country you have chosen? What religion do you practice with your own family?

2. What is the size and structure of the family in the country you have chosen? How many children are there? How many generations are living in one household? How many people under the age of fifteen and how many people over the age of fifteen are in the family? How does this compare with your own family?

3. What is the woman's role and status in the country you have chosen? What are your own mother's responsibilities?

4. What is it like to be a child in the country you have chosen? Compare this to your own life. Do you have your own bedroom ? Does the child from your country have her/his own bedroom?

5. Draw a physical map showing major topographic features as well as lines of latitude and longitude. Explain how the landscape influences where and how the people in your selected country live. How do the people in your country interact with the environment? Is there enough food, water, and natural resources in your country? What are the major sources of energy and food? What are the resources on the Monterey Peninsula?

6. What is the population density in your country as compared to California? Show this information using population density maps that you have scanned.

7. What kind of dwelling does the family in the country you have chosen live in? How does their home compare with the home you and your family live in? Does the weather determine the type of dwelling that the people of the country live in?

8. Keep a weather log for the country you have chosen for a four week period. Compare the weather data to the usual climate this time of year in the country you have chosen.

9. What do the people in the country do for a living? Do they engage in manual labor or are they trained in industry and services? Who constitutes the work force? What are the major industries on the Monterey Peninsula?

10. What type of government does the country you are researching have? What political changes have spread to and from this country? What type of government does the United States have? What relationship does the United States have with your selected country?

11. Draw a political map of the country you have chosen including bordering countries and scan this drawing and save into your student folder to insert onto the PowerPoint slide. Place this map along side or over a map of the United States. How does he size of your country compare with the United States.

12. Where and why might the people in your country need to travel and what kind of transportation does the family use? Compare this to your own family's mode of transportation.

13. What do the people in your country do for entertainment? Holidays etc. What does your own family do for entertainment?

14. What kind of access do the people in your country have to current news events, radio, TV, computers, newspapers? Do you and your own family discuss current events? Where does your own family get its information?

15. Evaluate and identify the level of development of the country you have been learning about. Is the country developed, developing, or underdeveloped? Support your reasoning by including the following data: literacy rate, infant mortality, life expectancy by gender, per capita income, and birth versus death rate.

16. Hand in on a separate sheet of paper a bibliography of all sources you used to answer the questions in the correct MLA format.

1. View the Material World CD-ROM to learn about the families and countries featured. After you have viewed some of the families/countries, gather the information available on the CD-ROM on the family/country you are researching and look for pictures for your slide presentation.

2. Each member of the group needs to select the 5 questions that he/she will be responsible for researching and answering out of the 15 questions.

3. When you have finished viewing all the information on the CD-ROM go back to the picture of your family. Using the "Print Screen" key (located at the end of the f keys row) capture picture of the family. You can only "Print Screen" one picture at a time. Repeat this process for pictures of the family/countries activities and home, etc.

4. Open PhotoShop 6.0 and paste the pictures you have captured from the CD-ROM using the "Print Screen" key onto a new page.

6. Open the picture you have taken of your group in PhotoShop. Using the tools of PhotoShop you will cut the group or individuals out of the pictures from the camera and paste them into the captured pictures from the CD-ROM. Save these new pictures into your student folder. You should also feature your group or individuals in the other pictures of the country you have chosen? Click here for the instructions on How to put yourself in the Picture Using PhotoShop 6.0.

7. Look for pictures and information in the book Material World, in other books about the country you have chosen, and the databases and web sites that are linked on the library webpage. Scanners are available to scan pictures from books.

8. Research and locate the information that you need to answer the 15 questions, each member is responsible for 5 questions. Please remember to cite your sources.

9. Scan a map showing population density of the country you have chosen. Also scan a similar map of California. Compare these two maps on a PowerPoint slide by size and population.

10. Create a fifteen slide PowerPoint Presentation. Each slide should feature a picture which gives a visual representation of the answer to one of the questions.

11. Write a script with the answers to the questions. As you present your PowerPoint show, you will be talking from this script. Do not place information on the slides they should contain just your pictures . Each member of a group of three will be responsible for presenting the information asked by 5 questions. The Bibliography, question 16, is done by the entire group.

Library Catalog http://www.pghs.org.
Click on Library Link. Under Catalog Access, Click on school. Click on home when at home.

Material possessions tell the story and truly show the level of development of the country you have been learning about. Can you imagine living as some of the families featured do in comparison to how you live and play. You have gained awareness of how families live and cope in our world. Hopefully you are able to better understand the global community. You will be graded on the following rubric: Click here to print Rubric.

Students Names ____________________________________________________________________________

Category	4--Excellent	3--Good	2--Satisfactory	1--Needs Improvement
Presentation	Well-rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds audience attention. Students are completely prepared and have obviously rehearsed	Rehearsed with fairly smooth delivery that holds audience attention most of the time. Students seem pretty prepared but might have needed a couple more rehearsals	Delivery not smooth, but able to maintain interest of the audience most of the time. Students somewhat prepared, but it is clear that rehearsal was lacking.	Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost. Students do not seem at all prepared to present.
Workload	The workload is divided and shared equally by all team members.	The workload is divided and shared fairly by all team members, though workloads may vary from person to person.	The workload was divided, but one person in the group is viewed as not doing his/her fair share of the work.	The workload was not divided equally and it is apparent that one person did most of the work. Very little effort to work as a team.
Script	The information is well organized and clear and presented in descriptive language with few grammatical and spelling errors.	The information is clear and well organized with few grammatical and spelling errors.	The information is not well organized and lacks clarity and includes many grammatical and spelling errors.	The information is incomplete and not organized and contains many grammatical and spelling errors.
Technology	Excellent use of PhotoShop and camera to create interesting graphics on the PowerPoint slides to illustrate the family and country lifestyle and culture.	Good use of PhotoShop and camera to create interesting graphics on the PowerPoint slides to illustrate the family and country lifestyle and culture.	Limited use of PhotoShop and camera to create interesting graphics on the PowerPoint slides to illustrate the family and country lifestyle and culture.	Poor use of PhotoShop and camera to create interesting graphics on the PowerPoint slides to illustrate the family and country lifestyle and culture.
Bibliography	Excellent choice of resources and research techniques which provide excellent information to answer questions.	Good choices of resources and research techniques which provide good information to answer questions	Reflects a limited amount of effort to find appropriate information resources and research to answer questions	Shows little indication of effective resources and research techniques to answer questions.