Cultural Geography
Folk and Popular Culture Project
Name: _____________________ Partner(s): ________________________
Project: _____________________________
Your mission is to analyze the spatial distribution of folk and popular culture. Select a topic of your choice from
the list on the next few pages. Determine if you will work by yourself or with another person or two (teams of
three are the max amount). Project expectations can change depending on the size of the team. Upon researching
your chosen topic, you will then develop your own website portfolio to showcase your work, using Google Sites as
your platform.
General Guidelines
It is suggested that you read the specific chapter key issue that pertains to your project.
Your website portfolio will be created using Google Sites and will serve the purpose of showcasing your online APHUG work..
Use your school email account already set up by Google. Your site must have visuals and clearly display content. The
webpage should have a title, table of contents menu, and have an overall professional style. All work and ideas not yours must
also be cited. See the rubric.
For the purpose of audience engagement and content delivery, embed at least two of the following elements into your
webpage:
 A self-made video on YouTube
 A self-made instructional video on or Educreations …. Type in Class code: TQNUDVA at
https://www.educreations.com/sr/TQNUDVA )
 Slideshow Presentation
 A link to your Pinterest page
 Map (Google Maps)
 Photos
 Other …
Also include:
 At least one URL link to other pertinent information on the web.
In general, I challenge you to professionally display your findings through a creative and effective medium with the purpose of
educating and engaging your viewers.
Date
Thurs. 10/30
Fri. 10/31
Mon. 11/3
Tues. 11/4
Tues. 11/4, 3:00 to 4:30
Tues. 11/12 by 11:59 PM
Thurs. 11/14 by 11:59 PM
Goal
Determine partner(s) and project
Google Sites overview
Work on project
Work on project
After school workshop or tech. support
“Hand-in”/ share project with Mr. Reidy through GDrive
Blog Posts
KI1: Where are folk and popular leisure activities distributed?
Project One
Topic: Origin and Diffusion of Folk and Popular Music
Goal: Compare the characteristics of folk and popular music.
Method: Evaluate your musical tastes in light of the characteristics discussed in this
chapter. How have your musical preferences been affected by the diffusion and
distribution of folk and popular music, perhaps even long before your favorite songs and
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groups first appeared?
Project Two
Topic: Origin and Diffusion of Folk and Popular Sports
Goal: Describe how sports have been transformed from folk to popular culture
Method: Apply the insights on the diffusion of soccer to another sport of interest and
formulate a hypothesis about the origins and spread of your sport. Next:
 Describe the sport if it is not obvious already (I don’t think we need to know what
basketball is).
 When the sport started.
 Give a brief history (timeline is good way to this)
o Where the sport started?
o How the sport started?
 Where the sport is most popular today?
 Did this sport start as a folk activity?
o If yes, what steps led to its diffusion and popularization? Where did it diffuse to?
o If no, explain how it began as a popular sport and the steps that led to diffusion diffused.
KI2: Where are folk and popular material culture distributed?
Project Three
Topic: Folk and Popular Clothing
Goal: Understand reasons for folk clothing preferences and taboos.
Method: Create a fashion expose for current folk clothing preferences for
men or women in at least four different regions of the world. Include a brief
history of the clothing for each; including its origin, diffusion and
distribution.
Project Four
Topic: Folk and Popular Clothing
Goal: Understand reasons for folk food preferences and taboos.
Method: Compare and contrast the distribution of jeans (or another clothing type) with the distribution of wine,
coffee, or soda (Coke Cola). What factors seem to account for the differences?
Project Five
Topic: Folk and Popular Food
Goal: Describe regional variations in popular food preferences.
Method: Choose one of your YLP countries and research a specific traditional dish from that culture. If working
with a partner, choose two dishes to prepare (one from each of your YLP countries). Produce a cooking show style
video of you and your partner preparing and eating the dish or serving the food to others. If this will not work out
you can create a page on our class Wiki of the dish, that includes MANY pictures, quotes, and details on how it is
prepared. Your cooking show presentation AND report must include the following information:
1. A brief history of the dish; including its origin, diffusion and distribution.
2. A map that demonstrates the origin and diffusion of the dish.
3. The ingredients and process of preparing the dish.
4. Specific connection to geography.
A. Why is the dish popular in a given region?
B. Are the ingredients native to that region? If not, how do
you think they initially arrived in the country?
C. How does the method of preparation tie into the culture
and society?
D. What are some other interesting facts, meanings or
cultural connections related to the dish?
E. If two dishes were created, then how were they similar in their origin, diffusion, and distribution?
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Project Six
Topic: Folk and Popular Food
Goal: Understand reasons for folk food preferences and taboos.
Method: Think of a food that you love. Think of a food that you dislike greatly. Sometimes even the qualities that we
take most for granted (like sweetness and saltiness) are culturally selected.
1. What perspectives does cultural geography provide to help you
understand your choices of "best" and "worst" foods?
2. Research a folk dish that your family creates during important
family functions. Provide:
A. A brief history of the dish; including its origin, diffusion
and distribution.
B. A map that demonstrates the origin and diffusion of the
dish.
C. The ingredients and process of preparing the dish.
D. Why is the dish popular in a given region?
E. Are the ingredients native to that region? If not, how do you think they initially arrived in the
country?
F. How does the method of preparation tie into the culture and society?
G. What are some other interesting facts, meanings or cultural
connections related to the dish?
3. Describe at least one food taboo that you seen in your own family. How
does this food taboo reflect patterns in cultural geography?
Project Seven
Topic: Folk and Popular Housing
Goals: Understand factors that influence patterns of folk housing. Understand
variations in time and space of housing in the United States.
Method: What kind of housing does your family have, and how does it compare to
the housing types discussed in this chapter? If you had to make an educated guess,
what patterns of diffusion might you say accounted for these housing styles? How does
your housing compare with dwellings in each of your two YLP countries? Explain why you think the similarities
and/or differences exist.
KI3: Why is access to folk and popular culture unequal?
Project Eight
Topic: Electronic Diffusion of Popular Culture
Goal: Describe the diffusion of TV around the world.
Method: Using the internet and YouTube specifically, research
television game shows or other shows popular in the US and look
for international versions. Beyond marking obvious connections,
what’s similar and different? Discuss the ways in which television
has diffused popular culture historically as well as in your own
experiences. How does your experience (or inexperience) with
television compare to those larger trends?
Project Nine
Topic: Electronic Diffusion of Popular Culture
Goal: Compare the diffusion of folk and popular culture
Method: From your own experience, give an example of the diffusion of an element of popular culture in your
community, neighborhood, or school. Explain how it is similar to the examples provided in this chapter and how a
geographical perspective helps you to analyze and understand it further.
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KI4: Why do folk and popular culture face sustainability challenges?
Project Ten
Topic: Sustainability Challenges for Folk Culture
Goal: Compare the distribution of folk and popular culture
Method: How do corporations manipulate folk images for their own
purposes? Discuss an example that you have seen in a corporate or
political advertisement. How might this kind of manipulation have
contributed to the diffusion or distribution of related folk customs or
materials?
Project Eleven
Topic: Sustainability Challenges for Folk Culture
Goal: Summarize challenges for folk culture from diffusion of popular culture.
Method: How do movies, television shows, and advertisers portray famous sites around the world? Do they tend to
dedicate more resources to showing folk or popular culture? How realistic are
the depictions that they make? Give two or three examples and discuss the
motivations and effectiveness of their portrayals.
Project Twelve
Topic: Sustainability Challenges for Popular Culture
Goal: Summarize major sources of waste and the extent to which each is
recycled
Method: Over the course of three days, keep a detailed record of all of the
wrappers, containers, bottles, cans, vegetable matter, and other items that you
(a) throw into the garbage or (b) throw into a recycling bin. Record each item
on a separate line, noting its size, weight, and makeup (animal, vegetable,
mineral, paper, etc.). On the third day, compare your list to that of another
classmate. How much of the waste was directly linked to popular culture? How
might you change this pattern in the future? And in what ways did this project
affect your habits—that is, did you throw away less waste because you were
paying special attention, or were other factors involved? How would you judge
the environmental impact of your classmate’s list in comparison?
Project Thirteen
Topic: Sustainability Challenges for Popular Culture
Goal: Describe how popular culture contributes to the depletion of scarce natural resources.
Method: In your school, discuss one way in which popular culture contributes to the depletion of scarce natural
resources. What factors (geographical and other) seem most to blame? And how could the situation be improved?
Explain how a geographical perspective helps you to analyze and understand these matters. Then, create a feasible
popular culture type solution that work here at MASH. I recommend researching what other organization in the
country or world do to sustain their natural resources. Create a brief proposal in the form of a business letter for
school administration with your purpose, method, findings, and solutions.
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Folk and Popular Culture Web Design Project
Topic: _______________________
Student Name: _________________________ Partner: __________________________
CATEGORY
4
Content x2
The site has a well-stated clear
purpose and theme that is carried
out throughout the site.
Content x3
All information provided by the
student on the Web site is accurate
and all the requirements of the
assignment have been met.
Layout
Fonts
The Web site has an exceptionally
attractive and usable layout. It is
easy to locate all important
elements. White space, graphic
elements and/or alignment are used
effectively to organize material.
The fonts are consistent, easy to
read and point size varies
appropriately for headings and text.
Use of font styles (italic, bold,
underline) is used consistently and
improves readability.
3
2
The site has a clearly stated
purpose and theme, but may have
one or two elements that do not
seem to be related to it.
Almost all the information
provided by the student on the
Web site is accurate and all
requirements of the assignment
have been met.
The Web pages have an attractive
and usable layout. It is easy to
locate all important elements.
The purpose and theme of the site
is somewhat muddy or vague.
The site lacks a purpose and
theme.
1
Almost all of the information
provided by the student on the
Web site is accurate and almost all
of the requirements have been
met.
The Web pages have a usable
layout, but may appear busy or
boring. It is easy to locate most of
the important elements.
There are several
inaccuracies in the content
provided by the students OR
many of the requirements
were not met.
The Web pages are cluttered
looking or confusing. It is
often difficult to locate
important elements.
The fonts are consistent, easy to
read and point size varies
appropriately for headings and
text.
The fonts are consistent and point
size varies appropriately for
headings and text.
A wide variety of fonts, styles
and point sizes was used.
Color Choices
Colors of background, fonts, unvisited
and visited links form a pleasing palette,
do not detract from the content, and are
consistent across pages.
Colors of background, fonts, unvisited
and visited links do not detract from
the content, and are consistent across
pages.
Colors of background, fonts, unvisited
and visited links do not detract from
the content.
Colors of background, fonts,
unvisited and visited links make
the content hard to read or
otherwise distract the reader.
Graphics
Graphics are related to the
theme/purpose of the site, are
thoughtfully cropped, are of high
quality and enhance reader interest
or understanding.
Graphics are related to the
theme/purpose of the site, are of
good quality and enhance reader
interest or understanding.
Graphics are related to the
theme/purpose of the site, and are
of good quality.
Graphics seem randomly
chosen, are of low quality, OR
distract the reader.
(including
Audio/Visuals)
5
Interest
The author has made an exceptional
attempt to make the content of this
Web site interesting to the people
for whom it is intended.
The author has tried to make the
content of this Web site
interesting to the people for
whom it is intended.
The author has put lots of
information in the Web site but
there is little evidence that the
person tried to present the
information in an interesting way.
Navigation
Links for navigation are clearly
labeled, consistently placed, allow
the reader to easily move from a
page to related pages (forward and
back), and take the reader where
s/he expects to go. A user does not
become lost.
Partners
show
foraone
Every
Web
pagerespect
contains
another's ideas,
divide theschool
work
statement
of authorship,
fairly,
a commitment
to
name, and
and show
date of
publication/date
quality
work and support for each
last
edited.
other.
All links point to high quality, up-todate, credible sites.
Links for navigation are clearly
labeled, allow the reader to easily
move from a page to related pages
(forward and back), and internal
links take the reader where s/he
expects to go. A user rarely
becomes lost.
Partnersallshow
for onea
Almost
Webrespect
pages contain
another's ideas
and divide
the
statement
of authorship,
school
work
There
name,fairly.
and date
of is commitment
by some memberslast
toward
quality
publication/date
edited.
work and support of one another.
Almost all links point to high
quality, up-to-date, credible sites.
Links for navigation take the
reader where s/he expects to go,
but some needed links seem to be
missing. A user sometimes gets
lost.
Cooperative
Contact
Work
Information
Links
Blog x2
Partners
show respect
for one
Most
(75-80%)
Web pages
another's
ideas and divide
the
contain
a statement
of authorship,
work
is little
schoolfairly.
name,There
and date
of
evidence of a commitment
toward
publication/date
last edited.
quality work in the group.
Most links point to high quality,
up-to-date, credible sites.
The author has provided only
the minimum amount of
information and has not
transformed the information
to make it more interesting
to the audience (e.g., has only
provided a list of links to the
content of others).
Some links do not take the
reader to the sites described.
A user typically feels lost.
PartnersWeb
argue
or are
Several
pages
do not
disrespectful
of other's
contain
a statement
of ideas
and
input. Criticism
is not
authorship,
school name,
constructive
nor is support
and/or
date of
offered. The worklast
is mostly
publication/date
edited.
donethan
by one
Less
3/4oroftwo
thepeople.
links
point to high quality, up-todate, credible sites.
Provided insightful commentaries
on at least four student websites (at
least one pertaining to each key
issue); connections, questions, etc.
Total: ___________ / 60 Points
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