The shroud of turin, reputed to be the cloth that wrapped jesus’ body, appeared in a small french community in 1357 and resides today in turin, italy. Though many have tried, no one has yet proven conclusively that the shroud is legitimate. A student might follow the shroud from lirey, france, to turin and explain the role of religious relics in the catholic church. Thirteen quartz crystal skulls have appeared in various locations in central and south america. A history student who enjoys mysteries might track the discovery of the skulls or the various theories of where they originated and their purpose. The student might also look into aztec religious practices that appear to have used skulls in rituals.

Monarchies ruled many cultures, passing down the governance of the kingdom from one generation to the next. Family members might even marry one another to maintain a grip on the kingdom, as was the case in ancient egypt and europe. A history student might create a genealogy chart of several historical ruling families, noting how marriages were arranged to provide the best alliances between countries. The student might also report how inbreeding between near and extended families created health issues, such as hemophilia. The history student might write a report on ancient religious traditions and deities.

The student could use myths, fables, ancient temple ruins and artifacts to create an interesting and varied report on how religion influenced civilization. He might also compare and contrast the various deities and traditions as one civilization conquered another and absorbed it. Below is a list of sample research questions and topics broken into four categories: power, belief, exchange, arts and science and geography. Please consider using artwork at local art museums, such as the mfa, the gardner and harvard rsquo s fogg museum extra credit awarded to anyone who visits these museums for research. 1. Power: why or how did someone or a group become or stay powerful? sample 65279 research 65279 questions: compare or contrast two empires or rulers how did an empire unify a large territory? what are the causes of an empire's collapse? how did a culture or government gain power? 65279 65279 65279 example. 65279 65279 65279 how did chinghis khan transform a band of nomads into a powerful empire? sample topics: china, japan india chinese dynasties: qin, han. Tang, song, yuan, qing chinese emperors: gender roles in china kamakura shogunate japan or other period india: the caste system, gupta dynasty mediterranean and persia athens v.

Pope urban ii or other pope , machiavelli ldquo the prince rdquo , the medici family. How does the exchange mdash of goods, ideas, germs, technology or people mdash impact a society. sample r 65279 esearch questions: what was the impact and cause for the decline of exchange? how does culture grow and spread? how did a scientific discovery or medicine impact a culture? how did disease or science impact the population? example. How did medieval italian trade networks lead to the renaissance? sample topics: 65279 trade routes and cities silk road, trans saharan trade, indian ocean trade, grand canal, royal road persia slave trade medieval cairo, venice or florence during renaissance commercial revolution in renaissance europe conquest crusades.

Fences By August Wilson Essay

What impact did the exchange of goods between indians of the americas and europeans have? consider: cocoa, corn, potato, rice, cochinela and indigo dyes , etc. Impact on americas islamic spain, arabization in persia or africa medieval fairs 2. What impact did a philosophy, belief or religion have? sample research questions: what impact did buddhism, christianity, hinduism, etc.

John calvin, huldrych zwingli, emperess wu and buddhism , confucius monasticism buddhism, christianity fundamentalism and a pre modern fundamentalist movement impact of religion on architecture, gender roles, arts, music medieval church and science other aspects of: christianity, judaism, islam, confucianism, hinduism, renaissance humanism, buddhism 4. How does cultural expression reflect the values and ideals of a society? how does technology transform society? sample topics: italian renaissance. Painter and inventor , michelangelo painter, sculptor , raphael painter , titian venetian painter , ghiberti sculptor , brunelleschi architect bernini northern renaissance.

Jan van eyck, albrecht durer engraving , vermeer dutch painter , hans holbein german printmaker byzantine mosaics used in christian and muslim sacred buildings 65279 65279 mayan 65279 65279 or aztec art and architecture, including temples 65279 and 65279 city design. Buddhist or hindu sculpture ie ghandhara buddhist statues hindu temples islamic art: architectural styles of umayyad or abbasid mosques or comparison the alhambra in southern spain arabic calligraphy. textiles rugs, clothing: the indian textile trade with europe in the 17th 18th centuries native american textiles islamic and central asian textiles traded along the silk road. Role of court music or musical change during the renaissance, dynastic china, etc. medieval islamic world: maimonides, ibn rushd or one of the many, many other important muslim scientists optics, hydrology, medicine, astronomy renaissance.

Dante, erasmus christian humanist , diderot the encyclopedia , thomas hobbes english , mary wollstonecraft women rsquo s rights , john locke rights , cesare beccaria torture and imprisonment , jim spaghetti parmesan, owner of first cyber caf back when ldquo cyber rdquo meant communication through tubes, like spaghetti noodles, hence the name. technology and science: johann gutenberg printing press francis bacon scientific method , galileo gallilei scientist , isaac newton, gerardus mercator map maker medical science in medieval islam or the renaissance focused favorites: the spanish conquest of the americas, and the way they organized racial hierarchy, land use, etc. The portuguese quest for spices in the 1500s wollstonecraft and the struggle for women's rights during the enlightenment bartolome de las casas: pro slavery or supporter of indians in the new world the middle passage: capture and transport of african slaves julius ceasar and rule in rome the reconquest of spain medieval arab science adam smith: mercantilism v. This is the beginning of a multi step research paper process that encourages sophisticated historical thinking. It’s no secret that high schools across the country are turning away from the decidedly old school research paper in favor of shorter writing assignments or a variety of new school technology based projects like blogs or webpages. While these types of assignments are great for building historical thinking skills, we firmly believe that the research paper has been around for a long time for a reason: it’s the best way to engage students in sophisticated historical reasoning and prepare them for the academic world beyond high school. We have developed a comprehensive process with clear steps that walk the students through the creation of a research paper.

The first step is for students to create a context based historical question, giving their research a solid foundation and focus. Our research paper process guides students using a system with a seven part structure more detail on the entire process can be found here . In the first part, rather than simply asking students to choose a topic, we ask them to start with a topic of interest, narrow it down to possible subtopics, choose a subtopic, and develop an open ended historical question to guide their research. Identify and model the qualities of good historical questions, as described in handout 1. As lecture openings, test essays, class discussions, and at the beginning or end of structured debates.

As they gain understanding, have students develop good questions as part of classroom activities. When the students seem to have grasped the fundamentals of historical writing, i.e. There is no sure fire way to do it, and there is no systematic way to approach it. This section will outline some of the basic considerations in thinking about how to pose a historical question which will stimulate your own interest as well as provide a workable approach to a research paper. A question in astronomy, for example, might be why does the sun sometimes have spots on it? this is a question which stimulated a number of different research programs, using entirely different methods and assumptions, for hundreds of years. It is a question which can be answered using the tools of the discipline and the methodological approaches. A non astronomical question might be is the sun morally good? it might be a question answerable to a theologian or a philosopher, but an astronomer, using astronomer's tools be they telescopes or mathematical formulae , would have no way to even begin answering the question.

Similarly, there are questions which fit within the study of history and many which do not. Was richard nixon a good man? would not be a historical question, and neither would was the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki evil? these questions, while quite valid questions to ask in general, are not generally thought answerable by the historian using only the tools of history. Why did the united states bomb hiroshima and nagasaki? is a perfectly good historical question, one on which many books have been written. How did the experience of african americans change after the civil rights movement? would be another.