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US 10th Grade Research Project

THE PROJECT

The goal of this culminating project is to allow you the opportunity to explore a topic of interest to you and to practice the thinking and writing skills that you have been honing all year in your English and History classes. Focusing on an American artifact of your choosing, you will embark on a journey of research, planning, outlining, sourcing and drafting. Class time and homework for both History and English will be devoted to working on this project - consider this the pièce de resistance of your 10th grade year!

What is the assignment?

This assignment offers you the opportunity to deeply explore a period or topic of great interest to you. Ultimately, you will write a 6-8 page, double-spaced research paper on an artifact of your choice that relates to a significant American cultural or historic theme (see list of categories below). So that you have some historical perspective, your artifact should come from 2010 or before. As you are considering artifacts, ask yourself: “Can this artifact support the scope of this project?” 

While you will develop your own research question to guide your work, consider the questions below as you formulate yours: 

  • How does this artifact reflect American culture over time?
  • To what extent does this artifact represent the era in which it was created?

What constitutes an artifact?

When looking for an artifact, you need to identify something that can be close-read. Plays, novels, short stories, works of art, albums, films, speech/address, Executive Orders, court cases, laws and policies, etc. are all great options. Objects (ex. individual people, Babe Ruth's baseball, Zippo lighters, Air Jordans, etc.) are not suitable for close reading as artifacts.

Research

Your sources must include a minimum of each of the following:

  • Two primary sources (Your artifact serves as one of these.)
  • Two secondary sources
  • One tertiary source

 

**Important note about AI: You may only consult generative AI (ex. Chat GPT, etc.) to support your artifact selection and identify, but not summarize or interpret, sources. Your teachers will provide specific instructions for the use of AI in this step of the process.

RESOURCES

Princeton Day School Libraries subscribe to a number of online databases which can assist you in this project. This LibGuide includes suggested databases for primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. However, many of these databases cover more than one type of source, so explore!

Use this optional RESEARCH PLAN to help you organize and strategize your searches.

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