History special topics

Aisling(",)

ok well basically weve to submit 3 proposals for our special topic by halloween and have our 3 sources identified because were to have it done by the end of 5th year.anyone got an interesting ideas?

i wouldnt really wanna do anything to do with irish history because i find it un nessicarilly(sp) tedious.so maybe something to do with ww2....any ideas?
or what did you do for your special topic?

Coco88

Aisling(",) wrote:

ok well basically weve to submit 3 proposals for our special topic by halloween and have our 3 sources identified because were to have it done by the end of 5th year.anyone got an interesting ideas?

i wouldnt really wanna do anything to do with irish history because i find it un nessicarilly(sp) tedious.so maybe something to do with ww2....any ideas?
or what did you do for your special topic?

what about Land acts in ireland from 1870 and the Conservative Policy towards Irelands construtive unionism

im...LOST

Albert Einstein?

That's what I did.

Mars Bar

im...LOST wrote:

Albert Einstein?

That's what I did.

How did you do in it?

dan719

J.M Keynes and his contribution to the Paris peace conference, just read his autobiography. Told my mate to do it and he got a hundred marks.

JC 2K3

Coco88 wrote:

what about Land acts in ireland from 1870 and the Conservative Policy towards Irelands construtive unionism

I did "The Actions of the US Government during the Cuban Missile Crisis".

Specific case studies on WW1/2, the Cold War etc. are the way to go IMO. It'd be nice to do something different or obscure, but it's a bitch getting decent and reliable sources.

Aisling(",)

thanks for the suggestions i keep on getting people telling me to do a specific battle and why peopel lost etc but it just dosent apppeal to me.

Ive been thinking about doing somehting on concentration camps...fairly bog standard but easy enough to find resources on.

heard some mad ideas a girl did coco channel last year,also think some one did something on the beatles....i wish i had ideas but my heads gone blank!

JC 2K3

A project on one specific concentration camp or a specific event that happened in a concentration camp would be good.

randylonghorn

Would you be interested in doing something with a focus on women's history? In recent years there has been a big rise in interest in this area, and a lot more published.

If you were prepared to look at Ireland, women and the vote is a straightforward one, or how about women and higher education? Did you know, for example, that Trinity awarded degrees to women well before Oxford or Cambridge, and that at one stage women graduates from the Oxbridge colleges would come over to Trinity to receive their degrees?

If you wanted to stick with WW2, maybe something on the WRENs, or the Land Girls, or women in the resistance? Not quite as easy to get your hands on material, but given that you're in Dublin, shouldn't be much of a problem.

Mars Bar

I'd love to do a music personality...
The Beatles would be cool...

Or maybe James Dean...

Any other ideas?

Aisling(",)

mars bar wrote:

I'd love to do a music personality...
The Beatles would be cool...
Any other ideas?

Elvis!:D

randylonghorn wrote:

nghorn Would you be interested in doing something with a focus on women's history? In recent years there has been a big rise in interest in this area, and a lot more published.

its not something ive considered but its a good idea.....:)

TelePaul

Aisling(",) wrote:

i wouldnt really wanna do anything to do with irish history because i find it un nessicarilly(sp) tedious.so maybe something to do with ww2....any ideas?
or what did you do for your special topic?

Role of the 82nd/101st airborne in WW2 (specifically Normandy for the latter), role of 101st Airborne in the battle of the bulge (defense of bastogne), Battle of Arnhem bridge, 1st Airborne Army in holland, the SAS Ops in ww2 (cool book coming out about Paddy Mane), the Winter War (this is a very interesting subject that gets glossed over a good bit), evacuation of Dunkirk, Battle of Stalingrad, Bombing of Pearl Harbour, Battle of Midway, Battle for Iwo Jima, The Blitzkrieg, The Blitz....

Steve01

'Carol Vordeman at the BRIT Awards - WHAT was she wearing?'

That was my topic last year and I got 99/100. I found it surprising since its well outside the date margins, but the SEC must have been in the mood for tack-filled fun when they were marking mine

Mars Bar

Aisling(",) wrote:

Elvis!:D

Already gone in our class

Fenny

Is doing something on The Beatles a bit too mainstream or pop culturey? I always thought the examiners wouldn't like it, otherwise I'd love to do it!

My special topic is on Edith Cavell and the role she played in WWI leading up to her execution.

Mars Bar

I'm doing The Beatles!!

mise19

i did Harry Boland.

Got an A1:)

lilmissprincess

Um...I'm doing History on my own...like with guidance of a teacher...haven't heard anything about this....so...what do i have to do exactly?

Coco88

dan719 wrote:

J.M Keynes and his contribution to the Paris peace conference, just read his autobiography. Told my mate to do it and he got a hundred marks.

Really is this true

dan719

No it's a lie.:rolleyes:

Of course it is true.

Steez

Last year i did weapon development during WW2, picked a few of each side and just went into their development, use and so on.
Word of warning though if you do something, don't fill it with tech info and specs. Calibre is enough. Too many figures cause marks to drop off (didnt see my script so im not sure myself).

Repeating this year and doing Joseph Mengele.

Lizzykins

My niece did the bombing of the North Strand in 1941 which nicely tied in Irish and WW2 history. There is a huge amount of info out there in newspapers and in Dail records. The reason she chose that was because her great great great grandfather had lived in one of the houses that was destroyed although he was long dead by the 1940s. Another plus was that there are people still alive that remembered it happening so she got some first hand memories. Got up in the nineties as far as marks went.

ally_mull

I was advised to do something local by a friend! Ive yet to delve into my research also! q, do most people have the research study done by 5th year? because Im in 6th, and my teacher didnt mention it at all this year

Aisling(",)

well our techer wants it done this year so we have more time to study next time!

thinking of doing the sinking o the mail ship the lenster as mi gret grandad dies on it and its specific enough so it wont be hard enough to break down!

Killaqueen!!!

I'm only in 5th year at the mo, but I want to be thinking about my special topic because I know it'll take me forever to decide when it comes to 6th year.

For people who've done it, do you think you'd get less marks for something predictable like WW2 (even though it has a huge range of facinating topics IMO) in comparison to something completely off course that the exam corrector may not have heard of? I think it's a bit unfair if it's as so. I would be hugely interested in doing something on music, even just on a favourite band of mine but I was wondering if my interest would compromise good marks on the special topic, even if I did it well.

Ya get me?

JC 2K3

It has to be historically important, not artistically. I don't think that the general history of any one band would be a good enough topic to do. You want something very specific, not too broad and not over too long a period of time that you can analyse from a number of viewpoints.

My advice would be to stay away from doing something in relation to popular culture such as music or sport.

There'd be many marks docked for doing a broad study on WW2, but it would definately be a good idea to pick some specific battle or event(or some aspect of a specific battle or event) and analyse it thoroughly.

mise19

Killaqueen!!! wrote:

I'm only in 5th year at the mo, but I want to be thinking about my special topic because I know it'll take me forever to decide when it comes to 6th year.

For people who've done it, do you think you'd get less marks for something predictable like WW2 (even though it has a huge range of facinating topics IMO) in comparison to something completely off course that the exam corrector may not have heard of? I think it's a bit unfair if it's as so. I would be hugely interested in doing something on music, even just on a favourite band of mine but I was wondering if my interest would compromise good marks on the special topic, even if I did it well.

Ya get me?

I know someone who got an A1 in history and he chose michael collins for his research topic - even though many teachers advise against topics like that.

Bottom line is, choose an aspect of the topic that appeals to you and is interesting.
It will come across very well

wireless101

Do you guys think teh battle of Stalingrad is too broad a topic? It was a massive battle after all

spurious

It's a bit broad, but there are many fascinating sub-topics within it.

The role of snipers, the role of non-German forces on the Nazi side, the Kessel, the effective use of slash and burn by the retreating Russians, the attempts by high-ranking German officers to change Hitler's ridiculous strategy, the prospect of imprisonment in a Soviet prisoner of war camp and how it influenced morale, the role of propaganda at home, in particular with relation to the eastern front, etc.

Did you see the two part documentary on it over the last two weekends on RTE2? Horrific stuff - such unnecessary loss of life.

wireless101

I like the sound of:

'the role of non-german forces on the Nazi side'

'the attempts by high-ranking German officers to change Hitler's ridiculous strategy'

Do you think I could easily access information on these topics?

Unfortuantely i missed that documentary. incidentally, can you use a doumentary as a source?

spurious

It's a pity you missed that documentary - it was very good.
Amazon have it.

There is plenty of material available on both the topics you mentioned.

Non-German armies involved would have been mainly the Hungarian Second army and the Romanians, with some involvement of Italian units.

My interest in historical research projects is through the Junior Cert. subject Environmental and Social Studies and certainly if a candidate submitted an E.S.S. project on some aspect of Stalingrad using a documentary as one of the listed sources, there would be no problem. I have not taught the new Leaving Cert. course yet so I cannot speak on that, sorry.