Final Project Examples

On the JUA each group is asking an essential question and each student will pose a Driving Question. This Driving Question will lead to meaning on the bigger issue the group is trying to address.

Coming out of all of these questions will be a single group product. We'll give you a great deal more detail on this product and how it will be assessed. For now we want to show you some examples of what kinds of projects you might create.

Ms. Saxe has found an essay, a video and a photo essay and imagined that they were the products of a JUA group. What Essential Question and Driving Questions would have led to this product? What meetings and interviews in Boston would have produced the raw material and what resources and skills would the group have needed to capture it and make meaning from it?

Read on to discover how three question groups might have come to create an essay, a video or a photo essay with captions.

Sample JUA and Product: Photo Essay

Selective Memory: What are the consequences when the world forgets history?

Darfur and Kurdistan are all places where tragedies have struck and the world has watched idly doing little to nothing. Even more devastating than the events in these regions are those that have taken place in Afghanistan. Caught between war and natural disaster, refugees from Afghanistan’s endless infighting now find themselves further trapped by a relentless winter and an aid drought. What are the consequences when the world closes their eyes and ears to a dying people?

Product: Photo essay.

Materials needed: camera

Driving Questions:

1. What is the U.S. foreign aid policy?
2. What NGOs exist to help provide aid?
3. How will the scandal of Zoe’s Ark impact future aid missions
4. How does the media decide what is “newsworthy”?

Learning Blocks:

State representatives

Local charities

Embassies

News station or Newspaper office

Community Survey

Our photo essay on Afghanistan

Sample JUA and Product: Essay

Do fences make good neighbors?

The border between Canada and the United States is the largest unprotected border in the world. However to the south it is a different story: President Bush had talked of building an actual wall the distance of the Mexican-U.S. border. Robert Frost said in his poem Mending Wall, “fences make good neighbors.” Was he right? What is the role that of immigration in American society? Is it migrant workers and illegal labor or the melting pot and the American Dream? Nothing captures the imagination more than a rags to riches story, but what are the long term costs of America’s policies toward Mexico, India and other countries?

Product:

We want to make a video! But wait, we don’t have a video camera and none of us are that great at using iMovie…How about an essay? Sounds good.

What do we need: Tape recorder for interviews.

Driving Questions:

1. How does U.S. immigrant legislation compare with that of economically similar countries?
2. What are the “costs” to American citizens for having illegal immigrants in the country?
3. Does the general public lump all migrants (legal and illegal) in one group?
4. What does it take to get a green card and then become an American citizen?
5. Why does “everyone” want to come to the U.S. anyways?

Learning Blocks:

1. Community survey
2. Various embassies
3. Community centers or places where English classes are taught to interview immigrants
4. Boston Cultural Society.

Our Essay on the Green Card Lottery

Sample JUA and Product: Video

Here is a sample write up for a JUA group on beauty.

What is the price of beauty?

Essential Question: Rail thin models glide down runways all over the world, perfectly symmetrical eyes gaze down from billboards above busy streets and men with chiseled abs lean seductively on the sides of city busses. Under United States law, a model's thinness and ectomorphic build may be a "bonafide occupational qualification" (BOQ) which would hold modeling agencies harmless from charges were they to exclude heavier women. From the 1990’s to the present less that 0.000000003% of the worlds population were supermodels, yet their images are plastered everywhere as the standard of beauty. This standard of beauty is unattainable yet billions of dollars are spent each year to enhance one’s image. Aside from the monetary impacts, what are the social, psychological and physiological impacts of the beauty industry on individuals?

Product: What skills do we have and what do we want to do?

Cara is really good at photoshop and Justin is great in iMovie, so we’re going to do something for that.

What do we need to bring with us for that product?

A video camera, digital camera, cords and a computer.

Driving Questions:

* Is there a correlation between spending on beauty products and eating/body image disorders?

* Do girls, boys, women and men equally feel pressure to conform to a certain standard of beauty?

* What is the history of dieting in America? How does this compare to other countries?

Learning Blocks:

1. MFA

2. Community Exploration and Survey

3. Health professional specializing in eating disorders

4. School psychiatrist

5. In the School of Fashion Design (SFD) meet with Mr. Calderin, Director of Creative Marketing & Special Projects.

The product: Video.

We created this video to show how a “plain jane” can be transformed into a work of art. literally. If more people could understand how many alterations and touch ups occur to create advertisements, maybe they would be less likely to idolize these men and women on billboards.