Paper #1 - Free Style
This paper can be on any academic topic!
Really, truly any academic topic.
Any area of high school or college study.
Just get my approval.
But,
Just remember this one key thing:
you must always have a purpose
for why you chose your topic.
Only Topics with a purpose
Will be approved!
Paper #2 Hard Science (or Applied Science)
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Medicine
Earth Sciences
Engineering
Mathematics
Physics
http://homeschooling.about.com/od/science/
Do write a paper about a science
topic that gets into the science
behind what we see or understand
with facts that are not commonly
known, such as:
How carbon dating works – or
doesn’t!
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/
http://www.stsci.edu/resources/
http://www.physlink.com/Education/Youth.cfm
How science helps detect art
fraud.
The mechanics of throwing
different kinds of pitches – curve
ball, slider, knuckle ball, how and
why they do what the do.
How viruses attack the human
body and how the human body
fights back.
What you don’t know about salt!
The science behind optical
illusions.
http://www.exploratorium.org/
http://www.sciencefriday.com/kids/
Do Not write about the life cycle or
habitats of animals, the water cycle,
the states of matter, the basics of
gravity or other commonly known
processes or topics.
HELP for 5th-6th graders only!
Baseball
http://www.exploratorium.org/baseball/handle_forces.html
http://www.webball.com/skill/sweetspot.html
Make a mummy
http://www.exploratorium.org/bodies/webcast_activity.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/mummy/
Space elevator
http://www.elevator2010.org/site/primer.html (article)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/kids/sfkc20050603-1.html (general)
Our Telescope in Space
http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/hubble/tools/telescope.html (worlds biggest
tool)
http://hubblesite.org/sci.d.tech/behind_the_pictures/ how it takes all those amazing
pictures
Can fruit make electricity?
http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/wolfman/fruity.html
What are microorganisms?
http://www.biology4kids.com/files/micro_main.html
Paper #3 Wow History!
The past is always a rebuke to the present.
Robert Penn Warren
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
History is a guide to navigation in perilous times.
History is who we are and why we are the way we are.
David C. McCullough
Write a paper about a past event and/or person (prior to 1900) that is not commonly
known and gives fresh insight about life in the past, and, as for the T3 original thinking,
is also useful for life today in 2008.
http://www.loc.gov/
http://www.historychannel.com/
http://www.besthistorysites.net/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/
Paper #4 - In The News!
The In-the-News assignment is to write a paper about events that are currently happening
that you believe will become an important part of history 50 years from now – in a similar
fashion as the Wow! History paper looks back to show how past events are still relevant
today.
The T1 and T2 of the paper should be on the current event that is in the news. Then, in the
T3 section, the student can use original thinking to speculate on the future significance of
the event/person.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/kidspost/orbit/kidspost.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/
http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/news/index.html
Some ideas that I offered students last year…
For instance, NASA just announced that it will build a permanent outpost on the moon by
2025. If the moonbase succeeds, then a Mars outpost will follow. After that…who knows!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120400837_pf.html
Or, how about the war in Iraq? In the 60s, no one realized how America would be affected
by the Vietnam war. How does the current war possibly affect our Nation’s future?
And an article today in the newspaper said researchers may have identified what might
cause obesity - Research Links Obesity to Mix of Bacteria in Digestive Tract by Rob Stein.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001271.html)