Name _____________________________________ #: ____________ Date: _______________________

Project REACH
Researching Events and Characters in History

Component 1: “Techno-Research” & Outline

1. Thesis Statement: Form a thesis statement about your subject based on how your research proves
that your person had/has the greatest impact on society.
Example: Mrs. King is an influential leader who, through her innovative thinking, changed
the course of ESES history.
2. Appropriate Sources: Use at least three sources to research biographical information that is
interesting, factual and supports your thesis statement. Create source cards for citation
information. For your three sources you must have:
I. Encyclopedia (online or hardback)
II. Informational Book (found in classroom or school library)
III. Article from Biography in Context (found on www.sc.discus.org)
3. Research Cards: Using index cards, develop questions and take notes to organize the information
into the following subtopics for your person of interest:
I. Early life- Were there experiences in your person’s childhood that you believe
influenced the eventual impact he/she had on society, history or culture?
II. Role in changing America- How did your person change American history, society and
or culture? How is your life different today because of these changes? Why do you
believe this person had the most impact on societal issues of the time? Why do we
remember this person rather than someone else in the same field?
III. Your Own Personal Questions- Generate a minimum of two of your own questions to
research. These need to be FAT questions that require higher level thinking!
4. Outline for Other Components: Use the index cards to fill in an outline that will help develop the
other components of the project. Your teacher will provide you with an outline and a rubric to
follow in creating this outline.

Component 2: Body Biography

Description of Task: You will complete the following body biography and it will be completed
independently in class, and present it in school. Examples will be provided in class. Your body
biography must have the following components addressed:
 Visual symbols
 Three important quotes from your historical figure
 All categories addressed in your body biography
 Creativity
Categories Addressed:
 Name: The historical figure’s name should be on the body.
 Quotations: Near the historical figure's head, students two or three direct quotations
from their life that sum up the historical figure and add to an understanding of the
historical figure.
 Colors: What colors are associated with your historical figure? Why?
 Symbolic representation of :
 Heart Representation of what they loved the most
Backbone Representation of what motivated them the most/goal of the historical
figure
Hands Holding something in his/her hands that represents an important
component/item in their life
Feet Representation of something which was the historical figure’s most
fundamental belief about life/ what value or principles of ideals do they
stand for
Legs Representation of the historical figure’s virtues (best qualities)
Eyes Representation of what they “see” about the world and what others see
about them (one eye for each)
Gut Representation of the historical figure’s inner self.
Head Representation of something that the historical figures has
learned/thought about through their life.

Component 3: Oral Presentation “Living Wax Museum”

Description of Task: You will become a living, talking statue of your historical person at the Fifth
Grade Wax Museum. During this time, you will be in character of this person and will provide a
short informational presentation to your Eugene Sires museum visitors. Follow the guidelines
below to direct your characters performance:
 Use your research index cards and outline to create a 1 minute oral presentation
monologue that describes the impact that your character had on our society through
their innovative thoughts and reasoning.
 Provide a snapshot of information about the key contribution your character made to
our historical society. Bring in any necessary prop or use your body biography as a tool
in your presentation.
 Rehearse your 1/1.5 minute monologue using note cards as a reference source only.
 Dress in costume and present the biographical information from a first person account
of your character during the “living wax museum”.

People Within REACH

1890-1910
Key Issues: Big Business, Child Labor, Urban Problems, Racism, Women’s Rights, Worker’s Problems

Presidents: William McKinley – 25th President; Assassinated, Theodore Roosevelt – President after
McKinley was shot; progressive era, Howard Taft – Successor of Roosevelt
Political Figures: W. E. B. DuBois - First president of NAACP, Susan B. Anthony – Women’s rights activist
Inventors: Orville and Wilbur Wright; first in flight, Henry Ford – Invented the Model T
Authors: Mark Twain – Author of Tom Sawyer, William R. Hearst – Newspaper journalist who employed
yellow journalism, Joseph Pulitzer – Newspaper journalist
Musicians and Artists: Frank Lloyd Wright – Architect

1910-1920
Key Issues: Women’s Rights, WWI, Labor Disputes, Panama Canal
Presidents: Woodrow Wilson – President during WWI; developed 14 Points for peace
Entertainers: Cecil B. DeMille – formed United Artists to produce films, Mary Pickford – actress, Scott,
Joplin – African-American composer, Buffalo Bill Cody – western figure immortalized in Wild West
show, Annie Oakley – Sharp shooter
Scientists: Marie Curie – Discovered Radium
Athletes: Jim Thorpe – Native American who amazed at the 1912 Olympics
Tyrus Raymond Cobb – Baseball Player

1920-1930
Key Issues: Prohibition, Women’s Rights, The Red Scare, Teapot Dome Scandal, Scopes Trial,
Immigration, Stock Market Crash
Presidents: Warren Harding – 29th President, Calvin Coolidge – 30th President
Athletes: Satchel Paige – African-American baseball player, Lou Gehrig – Baseball player
Explorers and Pioneers: Charles Lindberg – Aviator, Margaret Mead – Educator
Authors: Langston Hughes – Poet, F. Scott Fitzgerald – Author
Artists: Bessie Smith – Singer, Louis Armstrong – Trumpeter, George Gershwin – Composer

1930s
Key issues: The Great Depression, The New Deal, Labor Unions, The Dust Bowl
Artists and Entertainers- Shirley Temple – child movie star
Athletes Jesse Owens – Olympic track runner
Educators Mary McLeod Bethune – famous influential African American educator
Explorers and Pioneers Amelia Earhart – famous female pilot
Inventors George Washington Carver – developed more than 100 products from peanuts
U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover – 31st president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) – 32nd president

1940s
Key issues: World War II
Artists Jackson Pollock – abstract painter, Norman Rockwell – Painted glimpses into everyday
American life., Orson Wells – famous U.S. actor
Athletes Jackie Robinson - famous African American baseball player
Entertainers, and Musicians Duke Ellington – African American jazz musician
Ella Fitzgerald – African American jazz singer, Dizzy Gillespie – African American jazz musician
Frank Sinatra - entertainer
Influential Americans Eleanor Roosevelt- human right’s activist; wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(FDR)
Scientists Albert Einstein
U.S. Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 32nd president, Harry S. Truman – 33rd president
U.S. and World Military Figures General Dwight D. Eisenhower – WWII U.S. General (later became
President), General Douglas MacArthur – WII U.S. General, General George S. Patton – WWII US
General

1950s
Key issues: The Cold War
Athletes Althea Gibson – famous African American tennis star from South Carolina
U.S. Presidents General Dwight D. Eisenhower – 34th president

1960-1970
Key Issues: Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Poverty, Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation
Presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower – 34th President, John F. Kennedy – 35th President; Assassinated in
1963, Lyndon B. Johnson – 36th President, Richard Nixon – 37th President
Political Leaders: Martin Luther King, Jr. – Civil Rights leader, Malcolm X – Civil Rights leader
Thurgood Marshall – Supreme Court Justice, Cesar Chavez – United migrant farm workers
Pioneers: Neil Armstrong – Astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, Rachel Carson – Environmentalist
Entertainers: Sidney Poitier – Actor, Jim Henson – Creator of the Muppets
Athletes: Wilma Rudolph – Track star
Authors: Robert Frost – Poet
Artists: Andy Warhol – Abstract artist, John Lennon – Musician

1970-1980
Key Issues: Watergate, Vietnam Troop Withdrawal, Voting Age Changed to 18
Presidents: Gerald Ford – 38th President; first President who had not been elected President or VP
Jimmy Carter – 39th President
Pioneers: Gloria Steinem – Feminist
Entertainers: Alex Haley – Television writer
1980-1990
Key Issues: Cold War, Iran Hostages, Nuclear Power, Insider Trading
Presidents: Ronald Reagan – 40th President, George H.W. Bush – 41st President
Pioneers: Sandra Day O’Connor – First female Supreme Court Justice, Elizabeth Dole – Head of Dept
of Transportation, Ronald McNair – Space shuttle Challenger crewmember, South Carolinian, Christa
McCaulfie – First teacher in space, Geraldine Ferraro – First female Vice Presidential candidate
Political Figures: Oliver North – Member of the US National, Jesse Jackson – Civil Rights activist

1990s Key issues: Gulf War

Pioneers: Mae Jemison - first African American female astronaut
Entrepreneurs Bill Gates: Microsoft Computers
Political Figures Madelene Albright – first woman to head the state department , Hillary Clinton, Colin
Powell - first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, general during Gulf War, Norman
Schwarzkopf: Gulf War Commander
U.S. Presidents William Clinton, George H. W. Bush

Issues Within REACH

Aligned with the Fifth Grade Social Studies Standards

SS STANDARD 5-1 The student will demonstrate an understanding of Reconstruction and its impact on
racial relations in the United States.
 The impact of Lincoln’s assassination on Reconstruction
 The impact of slavery
 The impact of discrimination in reference to people’s rights and opportunities
 The impact of the 13th , 14th, and 15th amendments on political, social, and economic
opportunities
 The impact of economic and social effects from farms to factories and plantation systems to
sharecropping.

SS STANDARD 5-2 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the continued westward
expansion of the United States.
 The impact of the natural environment affecting travel and settlement of the region
 The impact of railroads
 The impact of conflict and cooperation between occupational and ethnic groups during
Westward Expansion
 The impact of social and economic effects of Westward Expansion

SS STANDARD 5-3 The student will demonstrate an understanding of major domestic and foreign
developments that contributed to the United States becoming a world power.
 The impact of the Industrial Revolution
  The impact of inventors and scientists
 The impact of immigration and urbanization
 The impact of an industrial economy with the work force
 The impact of big business
 The impact of building of cities (labor, Prohibition, and labor reforms)
 The impact of the events leading up to the United States becoming a world power

SS STANDARD 5-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the economic boom-and- bust in
America in the 1920’s and 1930’s, its resultant political instability, and the subsequent worldwide
response.
 The impact of the Jazz Age and the 1920’s on the United States
 The impact of the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression
 The impact of the New Deal
 The impact of World War II including Pearl Harbor, Japanese Internment, Atomic Bomb,
Normandy
 The impact of the social and political effects of WWII including women’s roles
 The impacts of technology and the effect on WWII (aviation, weaponry, and communication)
 The impact of worldwide interdependence among nations following WWII

SS STANDARD 5-5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic, and
political events that influence the United States during the Cold War era.
 The impact of cultural development including pop culture and mass media
 The impact of WWII on the United States’ economy
 The impact of the Civil Rights movement
 The impact of the Cold War
 The impact of political alliances and policies on the United States (NATO, OPEC, The United
Nations)

SS STANDARD 5-6 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the developments in the United
States since the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in 1992.
 The impact of transportation and the use of natural resources on the physical environment
 The impact of technological innovations on daily life
 The impact of cultural exchange on fashion, food, movies, and music
 The impact of globalization and the war on terrorism
 The impact of WWI, WWII and the collapse of the communist states on the United States