History Fair Topics and Annotated Bibliographies

By December 14th, everyone must have a topic and complete annotated bibliography.

Topic

Don't forget that topics must:

• Be HISTORY – It happened at least 25 years ago or more.

• Have SOURCES – It has plenty of primary and secondary sources.

• Be SIGNIFICANT – It connects to bigger themes in history.

• Have SOUL – You care about it!

• Demand INTERPRETATION – There’s a “big idea” that you want to communicate – not just facts. Interpretation means making an argument based on evidence.

This is not a list of facts or a biography.  You're telling the true story of a historical topic.  Make it interesting!  Be able to answer, "So what?"

Still having trouble?  See me or see a librarian for help.  Also, scroll down to see my topic post.

Doing Research/Finding Sources 

Primary Sources – What are they?  How do you find them?  What do you do with them?
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources/index.cfm

Library of Congress – Digital Collectionhttp://www.loc.gov/index.html#

National Archives (the building in DC where the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and millions of other records are stored)
http://www.archives.gov/research/

University of Chicago – Special Collectionshttp://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/

The Encyclopedia of Chicago – Electronic Version(includes primary sources from the Chicago History Museum Collection)
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/

Infotrac Gale Virtual Reference Library

 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/elmmsmctr?db=GVRL

If you are not at school and need to login,

login password: (*hint--our mascot)

http://access.gale.com/epcusd401/

You might need this link, too.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=STOM&u=elmw89890&authCount=1

 

Help with Annotated Bibliographies

Once you've found your sources and are ready for your bibliography, use this site:http://citationmachine.net/  or  http://www.bibme.org.

Use MLA format:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

 

Examples here (use the left for navigation).

Then annotate the sources with a brief one-sentence summary.  Examples are here.

Submitting Your Topic and Annotated Bibliography

You can submit hard copies or better yet post them to Edmodo or email me.  When turning these in,  don't forget to include your full name and block.

Here's what your Topic and Bib Sheet should look like:

George Washington, 4A

History Fair Topic: How the American Revolution Succeeded

Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources (3):

Secondary Sources (7):

You must have at least one book  and three primary sources