History Fair Topic Ideas

History Fair topic ideas can be difficult to develop and you shouldn't rush into it.  Here are some sites to help you out.

Start here, at Chicago Metro History Fair.  It's a lot of text but has some very valuable information.  There's also a list of topics on their site here: http://www.chicagohistoryfair.org/history-fair/history-fair-a-nhd-theme/nhd-suggested-topics.html

Next, try the NHD site.  Scroll down to "Choosing a topic".

The theme is year is Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.  While I'm not too concerned at this point about you fitting your topic into this theme, here are some examples (opens up a pdf).

Ms. Hawes also has some good info up at her blog.
And the Senn HS site has a lot of great PowerPoints, links and resources.  

Reasons the US entered WWI

Here are a few about the sinking of the Lusitania.

The first is from Winsor McCay, one of my favorite illustrators.




And this documentary that I haven't had time to screen.

Are Banks Too Big to Fail?

Food for thought

Stock Market WebQuest

Simulation I

1. Click here and make sure that it opens in another window.

2. Read the introduction and then click on "Trade Traditional Stocks"

3. (You don’t need to update the Shock player. Don't update. If you have trouble, let me know.)

4. Buy stock in Duke, YeeeeeHaw.com, the Electric Co, and hypercola in any combination.

5. You don’t need to spend all of your money right away and you can buy and sell with each turn.

6. Hit the “two week advance” button.

7. Click on the "news flash" option, read and evaluate. Then buy and sell stock.

8. Repeat step 6.

How'd you do? Record your percent return in your notebook.

Simulation II

If you've mastered the first one and have time, try your hand at this one. It's more complex and has a variety of scenarios. It also uses real company stock for examples.

Bonus question:
Was the 1929 crash the biggest stock market crash in U.S. history? It depends on how you measure but there's some interesting info here.

If you still have time, check out the Golden Age of Radio WebQuest.