What If Web Quest  

Introduction

The year is 2030, holographic images have gotten to so realistic, that 3-D virtual worlds can now be created. These virtual worlds are able to provide completely believable environments, which have become the latest entertainment trend.   It generates billions of dollars each year, for the companies that provide the technology.   The business has been ever changing and improving to meet the needs of the people who come to be entertained.   The latest trend has been the altered history world environments.   These are worlds where history has been changed by either small or large events to make the world come out different.   Some of these worlds are created by companies, to reflect what if events of history, like what if the South won the Civil War. Other worlds are created by customers who pay to travel to a time to make changes themselves.   For both these types of worlds, the companies have created teams of historians, mathematicians and researchers to make the worlds believable and accurate. These teams gather mountains of information and work out all the probabilities of different events, testing and retesting till the worlds seems right.

The Task

You have just been hired by the newest of these virtual world companies.   You will be working to create the preset worlds, and do research for possible events that people may want to experience.   Working in teams of four you are to create a presentation for the company on what these worlds may be like.  You will be presenting in both Microsoft PowerPoint and creating web sites for the company's board of directors.  Your presentations will be used to direct the building of the companies next What If theme park, and the web sites will be used as advertising.   In this presentation you are to include:

  12 historical what ifs and information about them

  information for how and why events could change

We are dividing the teams by the 4 most popular historical periods , one per group:

 1.  New World Discovery

 2.  Medieval Europe

 3.  American Civil War

 4.  Asian Dominated World

For each time period you are to include the following information:

  3 turning points in your time period

  3 major figures or leaders involved in the events

  3 cities or areas that are involved with events

  3 technologies or discoveries that can be added or taken away to make changes

  3 choices that could have changed history

  3 moments when a single person could have made a difference

  3 paths that history could take once events are changed

You may include more information if you wish.   You must use at least 3 images in addition to maps of the areas and timelines.

Your presentations should use fonts, sizing, and color effectively.  You will create the presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint and HTML for the web page.

You are to turn in, on a separate sheet of paper, a Bibliography of all resources used.  Be sure to use the correct bibliographical format.

For extra credit you can develop a what if for another time period.

Process

Divide up the historical periods, one per group. Together research the time periods, looking for turning points.  Divide up the research so each person compiles information about at least 6 areas of your time period.  In groups larger than 4, split the time periods in half.  Research each time period using web resources provided, maps, textbooks and other materials provided.

Hints:  Don’t forget to record the exact URL of each website you visit.  You may wish to bookmark them too. You are welcome to download images from the net that you feel will enhance your project; just remember to give credit for your images in your Bibliography.  It may be helpful to create a checklist of each item that you need to research.  Don’t forget when you take notes to identify the exact URL from web pages.  We must be able to find the web page from the URL provided.  You are not to print out complete web pages.

Online Resources

  What If History

  How to Write Alternate History

  3-D Tech

  Medieval Europe

  American Civil War

  Native Americans

  Japan

  Why Study History

  MLA Style

  A Guide for Writing Research Papers

  The Columbia Guide to Online Style

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on the following basis:

Presentation:

Research:

Conclusion

Share your presentations with your classmates and see the different things each group discovered.  See how each group changed history, were all the changes good, or was there negative outcomes to good changes.

This page was last updated on Sunday, December 12, 1999.