1st Quarter Research Topics
Europe & Christianity
- Medieval Pollution - Ugh: Many of the people of Europe during the Middle Ages lived in walled towns for protection-but these towns did not have any toilets, sewers, or garbage collection services.
- Why Didn't Christians Take Baths?: An average European during the Middle Ages might take a bath only once or twice in a lifetime.
- A Medieval Internet?: There was a communication system during the Middle Ages that used flags and windmills to send a message at 100 miles per hour.
- Cats & Rats: What was the role of these two creatures in spreading and preventing the Plague?
- Design a medieval tournament video game: Create a video game that imitates a medieval tournament between knights. Describe your ideas in a proposal that you might send to a video game company. Consider the rules of the game, the dress of the characters, the system of keeping score and the weapons that should be used.
- Join the Crusades!: Different people joined the Crusades for different motivations. Create an advertising campaign that will use varied messages to appeal to various target audiences.
- See the Legacy of Rome!: Plan a two-week vacation through the Roman Empire. Determine an itinerary that will have you visiting locations that represent various long-term legacies of the Roman Empire still felt in today's society. Include maps, photos, video/audio clips and reasons each site is an important destination.
- Dinner Party: If you held a dinner party with the founders of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Confucianism, what would they talk about?
- The Real Pied Piper: Tell the sinister background of the fairy tale where a rat charmer lured children away from their homes.
- African Geography: Use movie clips to show the vastness of Africa's geographic landscape.
- Map of Trade: Various trade routes, products carried, time periods during which those routes were used, empires that dominated those trade routes, the destinations of African goods.
- Salt: How was such a simple, cheap item once one of the world's dominate trade items?
- Mansa Musa: When he left the his kingdom of Mali for the hajj to Mecca, some people say he changed history. On the trip, he gave away enormous amounts of gold that it put Africa on the map.
- The Kaaba: This is the holiest spot for all Muslims. Ideally, faithful Muslims travel to Mecca at least once in their lifetime to circle around the Kaaba while praying.
- Dome of the Rock: More humans have died fighting for control of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem than any place on Earth.
- Islam's Golden Age: The Abbasids governed during an immensely prosperous time in Muslim history. Their empire supported science, mathematicians, philosophers and the arts.
- Hagia Sophia: The dome architectural beauty of this building was unmatched for 1,000 years.
- Confucius: How did a simple man with not born into power create an ethical system that rivals the world's great religions for influence?
- Great Wall of China: Why was this Wonder of the World built and did it work?
- Silk: How could a simple bug be responsible for so of an Empire's wealth and power?
- Mathematicians Think Up Zero: How did such an obvious concept remain "undiscovered" and what impact did its invention have?
