I need help with a school project. Any advise is good.?

Question

Next week during history class my group has to teach the class about the age of exploration. Our presentation has to be around 40 minutes long and go into the details of the subject matter.

I've never had to do anything other than a 5 minute presentation and I need help with idea on how to keep the class engaged. Both my partners aren't very helpful other than that they want to play games (which isn't bad but we need to be somewhat serious).

Any advise will go along way. Thanks!

Answer 1

I think a trivia game at the end will be a good way. Split the class into 2 teams and bring in prizes for the winning team. Make the questions about your presentation. Not only will this keep the class engaged during the boring part of your presentation but it will take up a lot of time. Just make a lot of trivia questions.

Also a funny video is good. I do that a lot for school presentations. Make it funny and the class will pay attention. Another good time-filler.

Answer 2

There are two approaches - Serious and light-hearted

Serious - make a power point presentation.  Have handouts with 3 slides per page and they can take notes as you give them the information.

Light Hearted - Have you seen the game show Jeopardy!  Play Jeopardy with the different categories - English exploration, Spanish, New World, South American, etc.  The categories are endless.  Have bells or whistles to signal. have different groups play against each other.  You will be giving them the information, and stimulating them to come up with the question.

Answer 3

Don't just sit there stating facts, ask the class questions like "does anyone know what this is?" and what not. I know when i have to sit and listen to a long presentation, the more involved they are with the audience, the less boring it is

Answer 4

The age of expolation had a lot going on all over the world, so if you could get a world map and then show the events and voyages on the map as you go, that would help stretch the presentation. Categorize your presentation by focusing on a number of voyages or presentations, breaking the 40 minutes into smaller, easier to handle segments. To keep the class engaged charts, handouts, and powerpoint go a long ways.

Answer 5

Well since your partners like to play games and you want your audience to be interactive, have them design a game that the class can play but will still teach the elements that you want.  You might want to give a short presentation first on what you are going to teach them (the history facts that you want them to learn) and then the game could see what material they retained. Other than that to engage the audience you should always ask them open ended questions to keep their attention and then make sure you give them the correct answers. An open ended question is a question that they cannot answer with a one word answer.

Good luck!