Thursday, August 31, 2017

Topic Brainstorm

Topic #1: Geography of the Ramayana
I have always had an interest in geography. With me also being a Social Studies Education major, this topic makes a lot of sense for me to consider. I think this would be a fun way to learn about the geography of India and some of the mythological places that we will see in the epics. Another positive to this topic is that there are no current projects on the "Project Ideas" page, although I feel like I may have read about one when browsing the storybooks during the first week of class.
A travel itinerary such as this could be a neat idea.

Topic #2: Sages and Gurus/Vishvamitra
I am interested in this topic because I am curious to see all the teaching styles that will be used. Seeing what worked and what didn't as well as why it did or didn't work is something else I will look for if I choose this topic. This topic is obviously centered around my future profession (teaching), which makes it stand out to me. A big downside to this topic is that there are currently four past projects listed. As uncreative as I am, I would like to be original if possible.
My research for this topic would probably start here before deciding if I want to go with just Vishvamitra or multiple gurus.

Topic #3: Epic Battles
I am considering this topic due to my interest in history, primarily military history. There seems to be many battles throughout the epics that we will read, giving me plenty of variety to choose from. I would start my research with the military history of India, and there are many directions I could go from there. This topic has been done twice, but I do feel I could take it a different direction, so it isn't that big of a negative.

Topic #4: Yoga
I have actually been going to yoga classes for the last few weeks and have really enjoyed it. I started going with no knowledge about it, and although I have learned many of the poses, I still don't know too much about the history or anything else really. This would be a very interesting way to learn about the activity, how and why it came to be, and a great complement to my classes. The yoga Wikipedia page would be my starting point.

Another option that I have given some thought to is taking a story or stories and somehow relating the story(ies) to what was going on in India during that time. After this assignment, I feel that this might work best with my Epic Battles topic, although it wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I first thought of this. I could even use the Wikitrails EC assignments to help with research. I do not know how feasible this would be, however.

Decisions (July 2015)
Image Author: Nick Youngson
Image Source: Picserver



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