Inquiry Based Project (PBL)

Team member
Name:__Briauna Rieulle______
Name:__Carmen Bowser _____

Topic:_______The Holocaust and Impact of WWII Mass Genocide________________

Part 1: Driving question:

What are your three initial driving questions?
1 How can we learn from the Holocausts mass genocide in order to prevent history from
repeating itself?
2 How can we relate the social culture of World War II in Nazi Germany to todays social
culture? Are there similarities? What are the differences?
3 Reflecting upon the suggested literature readings, how does the author(s) make an
impact upon the reader about the Holocaust? Do you find them effective? Why, or why
not? How will you utilize these reflections in your exhibits?
What is your one, final driving question?
How can we demonstrate thorough museum exhibits the terrible events
that took place during the Holocaust and present reasons why we need to prevent
mass genocide in the future?
Background information of this driving question:
What grade level are you working? Which standard are you targeting? Provide
any background information the reader should know about this project, such as
time span, schedule and so on. Provide a brief introduction to your question as
well as an overview to what you envision your lesson looking like.

Each group of students will act as historians and curators to develop an

exhibit for their museum that reflects the impact that the Holocaust has
made on present society and prevent an act of mass genocide in the future.
This project would effectively target US History and World History
(10th/11th grades) curriculum and easily integrate ELA curriculum for cross
collaboration. Since this project will be working collaboratively with both
World History and ELA courses, a significant number of standards will be
targeted. Among them, World History Standards 6 & 7 (6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 7.1, 7.2,
7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6) and ELA Standards (11-12.RN.2.1, 2.3, 4.2, 4.3, 11-
12.RL.2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.2, 11-12.W.1, 3.2, 11-12.W.4, 11-12.W.5, 11-
12.SL.2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2). This project would best cover a unit of
curriculum spanning World War II, pre, during, and post, approximately 4 to
6 weeks in length. In utilizing this project in a collaborative effort with a
 corresponding ELA curriculum, and dependent upon daily or every other
day instruction, students will not only engage in classroom activities at
corresponding to the project, but also independently research as necessary
within their groups. Weekly check-in sessions will keep the instructor
aware of progress or concerns with focus and direction. This project will
connect students to particular themes or concepts in assigned ELA readings
(suggested: The Book Thief, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Night, The
Diary of Anne Frank, etc.) and encourage them to reflect on how the
Holocaust has shaped the society they live in today, and how to prevent
history from repeating itself. This project will bring a topic with very real
relevance in todays society and political climate into the students lives with
a number of collaborative and engaging activities, including ELA/literature
based assigned readings, interactive media, interactions with local
historians, and independent and explorative independent group research.
Why do you think this is a good driving question?
Try to answer these 4 questions. (But you should not answer them with yes or no,
instead explain the details and convince me that youve met these criteria)
Does the DQ warrant in-depth study? The DQ of the proposed Holocaust PBL warrants in-
depth study, particularly given our current political and social climate. Recognizing how
history is similar to the present is a vital tool in preventing history from repeating itself in
such a catastrophic manner. This PBL will also allow students to reflect upon different
perspectives and aspects to this particular historical era.
Is the DQ an authentic and relevant issue/problem for my students? While the proposed PBL
may seem to revolve around a past historical event, being able to draw similarities to
current society will allow students to consider how intolerance has gotten out of control
in the past, and how they can educate themselves and others to prevent such travesty in
the future.
Is there more than one plausible solution to the DQ? There are many plausible solutions and
proposed strategies that are possible with this PBL, encouraging critical thinking and
reflection from students. There are not right or wrong answers as a result of this PBL,
as the interpretation and creation of exhibits are a personal matter for the students.
Does the DQ provide opportunities for students to evaluate, analyze, present, and defend their
solutions? Considering the breadth and depth of information, both in primary sources and
secondary sources, that are available in a multitude of forms, there are a significant
amount of opportunities available for students to evaluate, analyze, present, and defend
their positions and exhibitions.

Part2: Grabber
What is your grabber?
 Instructor begins by posing the question, Does history tend to repeat
itself? Begin the sensitive discussion of the World War II and subsequent
Holocaust that resulted in a mass genocide of millions of Jews. Instructor
then presents the article found on the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for
Human Rights and Global Peace website regarding other instances in
history of mass genocide. Instructor then begins a discussion regarding
ways to obtain reflections, information, and present it to an audience in an
effort to prevent history from repeating itself in a social and political climate
ripe with strife.

Link to the article:

http://www.ipahp.org/index.php?en_acts-of-genocide

Why do you think this grabber is beneficial and how does it align with your driving
question?
Try to answer these questions. (But you should not answer them with yes or no,
instead explain the details and convince me that youve met these criteria)
Does the story, article, video, announcement, role play, or other resource
hook the learner into asking more questions about the topic? Yes, this article
addresses the concern that history is potentially repeating itself in the worst
way. Many think of the Holocaust when they are confronted with mass
genocide, but the fact is that mass genocide has continued to make an
impact worldwide. This article will allow students to begin to make
connections to what is going on in the world around them, and the past.
Does the grabber capitalize on novelty and / or high emotion situations?
Yes, the topic of continuing mass genocide and the impact that the
Holocaust has made worldwide allows students to reflect on how the topic,
their previous knowledge, and their independent research and reflections.
Does the grabber establish authenticity & relevance? Yes, the topic
directly connects to the driving question (which is also authentic and
relevant) because it connects the current social climate of our world today
with a significant event in World History and allows students to reflect and
create ways to make an impact in preventing history from repeating itself.
Make sure to explain in detail how this grabber would be used. Details
provided above.

Culminating activities: List all your activities here:

1) Activity 1
What is your first activity?
 List the name of your activity here. And explain how it would be
implemented in the class, describe the process, such as how to group your
students, when to present information to your students, what resources you
will use, what students will create or share, etc.

Suggested Readings (The Book Thief, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,
Night) and/or viewing of similar or representative films. Students are then
responsible for identifying and connecting impactful themes of both literature
and film and how they might consider using similar themes to make an impact in
their museum exhibit.

Why do you think this is a good activity for PBL?

Try to answer these 4 questions. (But you should not answer them with yes or
no, instead explain the details and convince me that youve met these criteria)
How is the activity authentic? This activity is authentic as it
allows students to reflect and identify major themes within the
suggested literature/media and how those themes are relevant in
todays social culture.
Does the activity provide students with the opportunity to present
and defend problem solution? It allows students the opportunity to
reflect, research, and identify why they believe to be the most
impactful tools and themes used by the author(s).
Does the activity require student collaboration? Students from
both ELA classes and World History classes will be collaborating with
one another during their research, reflection process, and writing a
synthesis essay over their findings.
How will I judge what students have learned from the activity?
Will be assessing students demonstration of reflection, concept
identification, essay synthesis, and writing skills based on individual
essays.

2) Activity 2

Students will take a Google Resources virtual museum tour of a

current or past museum exhibition highlighting the Holocaust.
Students will identify what makes a particular exhibit(s) impactful
and draw similarities to todays social and political climate.
 Students will identify and brainstorm ideas on what they envision
their exhibit will include in order to make the most impact.

Why do you think this is a good activity for PBL?

Try to answer these 4 questions. (But you should not answer them with yes or
no, instead explain the details and convince me that youve met these criteria)
How is the activity authentic? This activity is authentic as it
allows students to view in real time via technological resources
museum(s) and/or exhibit(s) in locations that may not have been
possible otherwise.
Does the activity provide students with the opportunity to present
and defend problem solution? It allows students the opportunity to
reflect, research, and identify why they believe to be the most
impactful tools used by other curators when developing Holocaust
exhibits for the public audience.
Does the activity require student collaboration? Students from
both ELA classes and World History classes will be collaborating with
one another during the exploration of museum exhibits, and also in
the synthesis of their groups own museum exhibit.
How will I judge what students have learned from the activity?
Will be assessing students demonstration of identification and
reflection of impactful themes or presentations of various exhibits
and a student led discussion of these themes.

3) Activity 3

Students will participate in a lecture/discussion and subsequent

interview with a local university historian from the IPFW Institute for
Holocaust and Genocide Studies and/or the ACPL Genealogy
Department to identify why the Holocaust happened, and if there are
similarities in todays social culture that could cause history to
repeat itself. Students will use this source (actual historian) as a
way to identify what themes in Holocaust education are most
impactful and ways to use those themes in their own museum
exhibits.

Why do you think this is a good activity for PBL?

Try to answer these 4 questions. (But you should not answer them with yes or
no, instead explain the details and convince me that youve met these criteria)
 How is the activity authentic? This activity is authentic as it
allows students to interact with an actual historian in Holocaust and
Genocide studies in a discussion/lecture and subsequent interview
setting.
Does the activity provide students with the opportunity to present
and defend problem solution? It allows students the opportunity to
interact with a historian in Holocaust and Genocide studies to
identify further techniques to impact an audience for their exhibit.
Does the activity require student collaboration? Students from
both ELA classes and World History classes will be collaborating with
one another during the lecture, and also with one another to develop
probing questions within their group for their historian interview.
How will I judge what students have learned from the activity?
Will be assessing students demonstration of identification of major
themes and concepts based on utilization of discussion forum and
interview of local historian.

*Activities centered around this museum exhibit PBL may be expanded, added, or
removed as time and instruction model dictates.