Guatemala Mini-Proyecto
Presentación
Script/Guión
Reflexión
What did you like about this project?
I really enjoyed the structure of this project. Such as, we all research different things about Guatemala (or a topic in question) and come together and teach each other about the things we learned, effectively learning much about the subject. I think its a really efficient way to do small projects with a meaningful impact without taking up too much time. After all, we only meet for four hours every week and I’ve found with past Spanish classes its really hard to dedicate enough time for a big project.
What were some of the most interesting discoveries you made?
I thought it was incredibly interesting that Guatemala, although it is relatively a small country, is occupied by not only twenty four different indeginous people, but as well as thirty volcanoes! Sure, most of them are dormant but the fact that they just have tens of volcanoes alone is impressive! Along with that there were a few interesting comparisons to their way of life versus ours here in the USA. Such as their national bird has the same name as their currency. I mean, what if dollars were called eagles? Their president was a former comedian, which is slightly shocking but less so when one realizes that our current president was a former business man. They also have many more, like said above, indeginous cultures and people who occupy such a small country, however we do not have nearly as many (prominent) cultures than them.
What was the most difficult part of this project?
The most difficult part was definitely making the presentation. It was really fun researching and putting it together, but at times it was tedious and took a lot of time. I spent about three or four hours total on the presentation, and after presenting it it just didn’t feel like that much time had been devoted to it because it was such a short presentation. However it was still a lot of fun.
What would you like to learn more about?
I’d love to look more into how the different cultures live in Guatemala. Sure there was a presentation on the indigenous people, but I feel like it did not go nearly into enough detail about each specific culture and how they live amongst each other in the country. How do their politics work with one another as an entire country? What are some different and similar traditions each of the people have and what are their independent values, how are those different from the majority’s?
What would you suggest to do differently next time?
I think the only thing about this project that I would change would be to have more specific expertise (rather than one research group be devoted to four topics of Guatemala, make it one specific topic). Allow students to choose their field of research and give them the time to present in the full class. Not only would this make the presentations more concise, we’d learn much more about the subject. This is counterintuitive as the whole point of a mini-project is to be short, and individual presentations would take a while, but if everyone is concise and the maximum time allowed is kept to a minimum, it shouldn’t impact the length of the project too much.
I really enjoyed the structure of this project. Such as, we all research different things about Guatemala (or a topic in question) and come together and teach each other about the things we learned, effectively learning much about the subject. I think its a really efficient way to do small projects with a meaningful impact without taking up too much time. After all, we only meet for four hours every week and I’ve found with past Spanish classes its really hard to dedicate enough time for a big project.
What were some of the most interesting discoveries you made?
I thought it was incredibly interesting that Guatemala, although it is relatively a small country, is occupied by not only twenty four different indeginous people, but as well as thirty volcanoes! Sure, most of them are dormant but the fact that they just have tens of volcanoes alone is impressive! Along with that there were a few interesting comparisons to their way of life versus ours here in the USA. Such as their national bird has the same name as their currency. I mean, what if dollars were called eagles? Their president was a former comedian, which is slightly shocking but less so when one realizes that our current president was a former business man. They also have many more, like said above, indeginous cultures and people who occupy such a small country, however we do not have nearly as many (prominent) cultures than them.
What was the most difficult part of this project?
The most difficult part was definitely making the presentation. It was really fun researching and putting it together, but at times it was tedious and took a lot of time. I spent about three or four hours total on the presentation, and after presenting it it just didn’t feel like that much time had been devoted to it because it was such a short presentation. However it was still a lot of fun.
What would you like to learn more about?
I’d love to look more into how the different cultures live in Guatemala. Sure there was a presentation on the indigenous people, but I feel like it did not go nearly into enough detail about each specific culture and how they live amongst each other in the country. How do their politics work with one another as an entire country? What are some different and similar traditions each of the people have and what are their independent values, how are those different from the majority’s?
What would you suggest to do differently next time?
I think the only thing about this project that I would change would be to have more specific expertise (rather than one research group be devoted to four topics of Guatemala, make it one specific topic). Allow students to choose their field of research and give them the time to present in the full class. Not only would this make the presentations more concise, we’d learn much more about the subject. This is counterintuitive as the whole point of a mini-project is to be short, and individual presentations would take a while, but if everyone is concise and the maximum time allowed is kept to a minimum, it shouldn’t impact the length of the project too much.