Project #2: Crimes Against Humanity (Individual or Partners)

Task: You will be creating a presentation describing a particular crime against humanity in the twentieth
century. You will need to research the crime, the leader or country responsible, and the effect that the
crimes had on society. You will need to decide – did the nation go too far in promoting their national
interest?

Be sure to include (but do not be limited to):

• What are crimes against humanity?
• Information regarding the leader / country that was responsible – how did nationalism
play a role?
• What were the events leading up to the crime against humanity?
• Describe the specific events that occurred
• Why did citizens of the country let the crime continue? Did citizens know what was
going on?
• What was the outcome?
• How did the world react while the crime was occurring?
• How well known is the crime today? Why?
• Where is the line, of what is acceptable, between nationalism (pride in one’s nation) and
ultranationalism (extreme nationalism)?

Possible topics for you to cover:

• The Nanjing Massacre
• Apartheid
• Ukrainian Famine
• The Holocaust
• Genocide in Rwanda
• Ethnic Cleansing
• The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Darfur Crisis
• Saddam Hussein's attack on the Kurds
• The Armenian genocide

Requirements:

✓ You need to take a position on the issue.

✓ Be sure that you show the relationship between nationalism, ultranationalism, and crimes
against humanity.
✓ You need to provide evidence (statistics, news articles, quotations, etc.) to back up your
position. There isn’t a wrong position but you need to have evidence to back up your case to
make it strong.
✓ Be original! Try new ideas and think of creative ways to present the information.
✓ Use a variety of fonts, color, graphics, and other tools to enhance the presentation.
✓ Be sure that all of your writing is easy to read.
 ✓ Make sure that your presentation clearly shows your understanding of ultranationalism and how
it can lead to crimes against humanity.
✓ Be sure to include a bibliography as the last slide in your presentation. Citing GOOGLE as your
source is insufficient!

Remember:

It is imperative that you understand what you are talking about! Therefore, you should not be cutting
and pasting or using words that you do not understand. Paraphrase the information into understandable
text. As always, you must include a bibliography. It is not enough to cite Google. You must record the
specific websites that you took information from.

Also, ensure that your work is eye-catching and interesting. Pretend that you are presenting this
timeline to people who have never heard of your topic. DO NOT make your work too text-heavy.
Summarize information where needed. Integrate as many images as you need to get your point across.

Handing it in: Submit both your work and your bibliography to the assignment on Schoology. You will
not be required to present your work to the class.

Due date: The day of your Unit 2 Exam

UNIT PROJECT OVERALL RUBRIC

Excellent 5 Proficient 4 Satisfactory 3 Limited 2 Poor 1

Content is specific and Content is specific and Content reflected is Content reflects a vague Content is irrelevant or
Content (X2) deliberately chosen. purposeful. Content general rather than understanding of the inaccurate. Content
Content presented presented reveals a solid specific. The content topic. Content may be presented represents a
demonstrates a thorough understanding of the presented may contain relevant but is unfocused minimal understanding
and comprehensive topic. minor errors and/or a and/or incompletely of the topic.
understanding of the mixture of relevant and developed.
topic. extraneous information.

Images have been Images have been The images chosen The images chosen The images chosen do
Visual chosen judiciously to chosen purposefully to generally relate to the reflect a confused or not relate to the topic
Presentation represent content and represent the content topic under discussion. superficial understanding under discussion and/or
the position taken. and position taken. The relationship of the topic. The to the position taken.
Images serve to increase Images generally serve to between the images and relationship between the The number of images
the viewer’s interest and support the position the position taken are images chosen and the provided is too limited to
understanding. taken and to increase the generally discernible. position taken is often develop the topic or the
viewer’s interest and difficult to determine. position.
understanding.

The arguments are The arguments are The arguments chosen The arguments are The arguments are
Development consistent and purposefully chosen and are adequately confusing and/or largely irrelevant and or
of Thesis compelling. persuasively support the developed and generally unrelated to the position inaccurate. Evidence is
position taken. The support the position taken. The evidence is either irrelevant and/or
The evidence is evidence is specific and taken. The evidence is potentially relevant but inaccurate. The project
sophisticated and purposeful. conventional and is unfocused or reveals a lack of
judiciously chosen. straight-forward. incompletely developed. understanding of social
Evidence is general studies and its
rather than specific.
 application to the
assignment.

Crimes Against Humanity Presentation Checklist

Be sure to include (but do not be limited to):

❑ What are crimes against humanity?

❑ Information regarding the leader / country that was responsible – how did nationalism play a

role?

❑ What were the events leading up to the crime against humanity?

❑ Describe the specific events that occurred

❑ Why did citizens of the country let the crime continue? Did citizens know what was going on?

❑ What was the outcome?

❑ How did the world react while the crime was occurring?

❑ How well known is the crime today? Why?

❑ Where is the line, of what is acceptable, between nationalism (pride in one’s nation) and

ultranationalism (extreme nationalism)?