Land Use Unit - Final Project Choices

Your group will choose one of the following methods of presenting the land use issue that you have researched. Whichever method of presentation you choose, your final product must contain the following information:

• A clear explanation of the issue (the viewer should know this immediately just from glancing at your poster)
• A map of the area affected by the issue
• A description of each of the "players" (these are the different individuals and groups taking sides in the conflict)
• What does each player want?

• Has a resolution been reached? If so, what is it?
• What is your group's opinion on the resolution or potential resolution of the conflict? How should similar conflicts be handled in the future?

In addition to the above required information, other things to look at and discuss (if you find enough information) include:

• What are the potential effects of each player's proposal? (environmental, political, economic, personal)
• How is each player going about getting what it wants? What strategies is each side using to make its message heard?

1. POSTER - Create an eye-catching, visually appealing poster. Your poster must include all of the information listed above. In order to make it interesting to look at, balance the written information you provide with visual aids, such as photographs, graphs, charts, illustrations, and logos of groups involved. All visuals should have an explanatory caption. You will also need to think carefully about how to lay out the information so that it (a) flows logically from one idea to the next, and (b) looks attractive and neat.

2. NEWSPAPER - Create one or more pages of a newspaper that is reporting on the conflict. You might choose to make this a large poster, like the front page of a full-size newspaper, or you might choose to use 8.5 x 11 paper and make it look more like a newsletter. In any case, you must address all of the information listed above. You must have a masthead (states the name of the paper) and headlines. Include a blend of articles, editorials, advertisements, letters to the editor, and photographs. All photographs must have a caption. Your layout should be neat, logical, and appealing to the eye. Look at a real newspaper in order to get more ideas. Make it as realistic as you can, but also make it unique!

3. CHILDREN'S BOOK - Illustrate your conflict in a form that will be interesting to and understood by children. You may write a fictional story that relates the content listed above, or you may write a non-fiction account of the conflict. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, you must write in language that will be easily understood by a child between 4 and 8 years-old. Additionally, you must use illustrations to balance out the text, and you must have a front and back cover and a title page. Look at several children's books before you begin.

4. DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT - Imagine that you are the producers of a television documentary and the topic is the land use conflict you have been studying. Write the script for the documentary, incorporating all of the information listed above. Remember that a documentary mixes narration with images, so you will need to indicate in your script the image that will appear on the screen when each block of text is read by the narrator. Attach the images (maps, photos, and/or illustrations) to your script, and label each one according to where it goes in the script. Lastly, if you have the equipment, and you'd like to make the documentary, go for it!