Ms. Dybdahl - Early Scholars

Preface: One of our most exciting ventures for the 2001 - 2002 school year is a partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage. ISER is home to the Alaskool.org website, a database of Alaska and Alaska Native History materials. Our class, and each of you, is going to help add to their website, specifically developing curriculum material for Southeast Alaska. This project will take place over the first semester, emphasizing research, interview and technology skills. The end result, and how you will be graded, will be the publishing of your piece on the Internet.

Samples: Kyle Barril, one of your illustrious TA's, has already contributed to the site - "A Day in the Life of an Alaska Native Student". He will be a great person to chat with when you are working on the details. In addition there are to sample project proposals below that your peers are interested in developing. Read these to give yourself some focus for this assignment.

I. The topic that I will be researching is the history of the Russian Orthodox church in Stika, which is Archangel or New Archangel. It will have pictures, historical information, and other things like that. I plan on taking about a month to do extensive research, which will hopefully include going to Sitka and conducting an interview with the minister of the church. It will also involve myself going to the State archives and getting info on that. Feed back is appreciated.

II. I plan on doing the national anthem of the Tlingit Nation. I believe the time of completion would be the end of 1st quarter. I will analyze the words and tell what they mean and who wrote it. I will also try to get a video camera and ask a dance group to perform it and I will have that on tape. Then with some help I can put that tape on the Internet. Please let me do this project. If you have any questions then ask or email me.

Grading: This grade will affect your final semester grade only, although the due date and check in points will be all semester long. In order for something to be published with this organization it must be error free. So, if you finish this on time and it is good stuff you will get an "A". It is that easy!

Timeline: This first week of school for us is dedicated to your project proposals. We will have some time to investigate topics and to write up the necessary proposal itself. The first deadline is September 4th. I will need a hardcopy of your proposal due in class, and you will need to email me a copy. Copies of your proposal will be evaluated by myself and by the ISER big wigs. After they are approved we will set further due dates.

Much of this work will take place on your time, so organization is key. For those of you who suffered through sophomore project this is similar!