POSSIBLE CLASS VIDEO TOPICS

TOPICS FOR BOTH AMERICAN HIST AND CIVICS/ECON

I will keep adding topics as I think of them

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HONORS AMERICAN HISTORY - Possible Video Topics (Remember that your video topic does not have to be argumentative; it can be only informative.)

1. Introduce your audience to Nelly Custis, adopted daughter of George Washington.

2. Do a video about the home of George Washington, Mnt. Vernon.

3. Introduce your audience to Sally Hemings, mistress of Thomas Jefferson.

4. Create a video about the history of Ninth Street in Durham, NC.

5. Make a video about Erwin Mills in Durham, NC. Interview elderly people who worked there before the mill closed. Include information about Erwin Auditorium, which was destroyed when 147 came through.

6. Act out, or role play, the Transcendentalists writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau.

7. Act out, or role play, the Civil Rights leaders. Have a discussion about what they are each trying to achieve.

8. Dress up as a historical figure in the Spanish-American war of 1898. Tell the whole story of what happened, from start to finish.

9. Make a video about Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and how this town relates to the construction of America’s first atomic bomb.

10. Make a video showing the inside of a home-made airplane. Play the role of Amelia Earhart and film discussions, inside of the aircraft, describing her life and accomplishments and disappearance.

11. Make a video about the Harlem Renaissance. Role play the part of various individuals who became famous in the Harlem Renaissance. Introduce music of the period. Perhaps you might read the works of Langston Hughes.

12. Make a video about abandoned places (perhaps abandoned school buildings) in Durham, NC.

13. Make a video about America’s “orphan trains.”

14. Role play the parts of generals in the Civil War, such as Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee. Discuss the war and its strategy.

15. Make a video about Robert E. Lee's mansion which today is in the middle of Arlington National Cemetery. Why is it there?

16. Make a video about Lawrence, older brother of George Washington, and original owner of Mount Vernon home, which George Washington later lived and died in.

17. Introduce your viewer to what General George Custer did to Chief BlackKettle and his people one cold winter night. Place emphasis on the children who were killed, hurt, or captured.

18. Make a video about the history of the White House. 

19. Edenton Tea Party, Edenton, NC. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/50/entry

20. Do a video about Edward Bishop Dudley, first elected governor of North Carolina. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/518/entry  

21. Do a video (possible role play) about the life of Tabitha Ann Holton, first woman to be licensed as an attorney in North Carolina and in the southern states. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/478/entry

22. Create a video about the NC pirate, Blackbeard. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/466/entry

23. Make a video about the Palmer Institute and Nineteen-year old Charlotte Hawkins Brown. It is located not far from Durham. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/437/entry

24. The Oxford Orphanage, in Oxford, NC. I really wish I had grown up here. A great video topic. http://www.ibiblio.org/orphanage/

HONORS CIVICS AND ECONOMICS - Possible Video Topics (Remember that your video topic does not have to be argumentative; it can be only informative.)

1. Make a video about NC Eugenics program of the 1930s and our state's recent payoff to the victims of this program.

2. Make a video about privitization of cleaning staff in Durham Public Schools and DTCC. Has it worked? Describe the pros and cons of privitization.

3. Make a video about steps one must take in order to become a NC House representative or a representative in the NC Senate.

4. Make a video describing NC's Council of State. What are the pros and cons of this system?

5. Make a video showing the differences and similarities of fascism and communism.

6. Make a video about the current president election of 2012.  

7. Make a video about the XYZ affair and how it relates to North Carolina. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/116/entry 

8. Make a video about the life of William B. Umstead of North Carolina. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/196/entry 

9. William Dudley Pelley, America's "Hitler," and the "silvershirts." Notice the North Carolina connection. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/417/entry 

10.  Principles of an American Whig, by James Iredell. http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/232/entry

11. The Oxford Orphanage, in Oxford, NC. I really wish I had grown up here. A great video topic. http://www.ibiblio.org/orphanage/