AFRICA SPEECH AND RESEARCH PROJECT

On March 7 & 8, each of you will be required to do a speech on the African country that you have been assigned. This project is an individual project in which you will earn grades in three different classes: English, World Civilizations, and Applied Technology. The grades in each class will be broken down as follows:

1. Applied Tech- Mr. Cooper will be grading you on the technical expertise of your Powerpoint presentation that will accompany the speech.
2. English- Mrs. Harmeyer will be grading your ability to research (bibliography and notecards) and the elements and delivery of the speech itself.
3. World Civilizations- Mr. Landreth will be grading the quality of your speech's content.

THE SPEECH- WHAT'S EXPECTED

In this speech, you will be required to talk about three different aspects of your assigned country. Those aspects are as follows:

• Physical Geography- Physical geography has many components. The most important components are the climate, the landforms and water bodies, the vegetation, and the animal life. All of these should be covered briefly in your speech.

• The People- The following questions should be answered at least briefly in your research and speech: How many people live there?; Where do they live within the country? ; Is the population growing or shrinking? Why?; How long should they expect to live?; What kind of life could you expect to lead if you lived there?; Are people wealthy or poor on average (GDP per capita)?; Is everyone the same nationality or are there many different groups?; What languages do they speak? Is there a common language? Are there any aspects of the country's history that are particularly interesting?

Whatever you choose, make sure that it is something that you find interesting.

HINTS FOR A BETTER SPEECH

In the course of your speech, you will only be able to tell the audience so much. Because of this, you will need to reduce the information you are communicating to the most important and interesting points. As you research the country, these points will become clear to you. Do not simply repeat statistics from the CIA World Factbook and expect a passing grade. You must process and be able to explain any statistics that you include. Whichever points you choose to highlight, make sure they can be easily illustrated in your Powerpoint presentation.

RESEARCH

In researching your country, you have two main concerns:

• Obtaining quality information for an interesting, content-filled speech
• Obtaining interesting graphics, maps, and pictures to illustrate your speech using Powerpoint.

The following sites are where you should begin your research. Do not stray from these sites the first two days of research. There is a great deal of information available to you and the links provided at Lonely Planet and Geography World are specific to Africa. When you find a picture or a map which is appropriate for your presentation, save it to your hard drive account: