Performance Task 1 Overview

Time to put to work everything that we've been preparing for! The Performance Tasks are your chance to show all of the stuff from the Big Ideas.

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Each of the PTs are complex, but we are going to work to breakdown each of them in an easy to understand format.

Performance Task 1 is considered to be the group project. 👩‍💻 Here you will be picking a real world problem that you are trying to solve with your group. As an individual you will be analyzing evidence from a specific lens. Then, your group will be using your evidence to try to answer your question.

Seems simple, right? In a lot of ways, it is! There are just some important things to remember... and we're going to cover them now.

Picking a Topic

Picking your topic is a lot like picking a thesis for a research paper. If your topic is weak then you will have a hard time formulating a good report and presentation. ✍️

So, how do you go about picking a topic? In order to answer this let's take a look at the course and exam description.

AP Seminar Course and Exam Description

On page 47 we can see a good overview of what you need to be doing in PT 1, specifically what type of problem you should be looking for as a group.

Most problems that a lot of students go for are 'real world' in nature. This means that the problems have to do with things outside of academia

academia: the environment or community concerned with the pursuit of research, education, and scholarship.

Some examples of real world questions are:

• Should the United States reform their prison system?
• Is stem cell research ethical and viable in today's society?
• How can the United States address homelessness? As we can see, these questions tend to do with the world 🌍 and people as a whole. In general I would say that you should pick a problem having to do with the real world.

However, you can pick a problem that is academic in nature. Typically these will be ideas that challenge established academic thought. For example, if your team argues that Martin Luther actually didn't start the Protestant Reformation you would be going against preconceived academic thought.

This is VERY tough to do successfully and I would suggest only going this route if you feel very confident in your topic. 👍

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So, how should you decide a topic with your group? The best thing to do is to bounce ideas off of your group. Each person should come up with several broad ideas and then present them to the group. There are no bad ideas so don't be shy here! 🙋‍♀️

As you start to settle on your problem, remember that you don't want to go too broad or too narrow. You only have a ten minute presentation to talk about your solution, so don't get crazy. If your group is finding that your solutions are way too complex and lengthy, your question is probably too broad.

Individual Research Report

As the name suggests, this is the individual portion of PT 1. BUT this does not mean that you need to do this alone. I want to mention this first and foremost. Your team is a resource, so use them!

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Okay now that that's out of the way, let's talk about what the IRR actually is.

In short, your IRR is a report of all the best evidence you have gathered for your particular lens. Easy enough!

As a team you will need figure out how to break your topic into specific lenses that each team member will cover. Then, you will conduct research within that lens. For example: if your lens is 'political and historical' your research will focus on the politics and history of your topic.

If you need a refresher of lenses and perspectives, make sure to check out the unit guide for Big Idea 3.

As you gather your evidence, remember, you don't need to include all of it in your IRR. You only have 1200 words to describe each piece of evidence and compare the multiple perspectives. It's better to have a wide variety of sources to choose from than not enough. 🌍

As you write your IRR you need to do the following:

• Describe how your specific lens relates to the overall topic your team chose 🙌
• Summarize the main ideas of each of the sources and explain why the sources are valuable to your particular lens ✍️
• Evaluate the perspectives of the sources and explain how they interact with each other 🤔
• Evaluate the multiple perspectives of your particular lens 👀
• (Optional) Give a solution to your team's topic 🗣️ Another thing to keep in mind as you write is that you won't be using all of your sources in the final presentation. Don't be afraid to include sources that you know go against the team's argument.

Last thing to say about the IRR: this is not an argumentative paper. Instead, you are just focusing on the evidence! You do not need to convince the reader of anything, just analyze the evidence.

Check out examples of IRRs here!

Team Multimedia Presentation

Now the teamwork really starts! Your TMP is all about proposing a solution to your presented problem.

The presentation should NOT just talk about the existence of a problem, but should focus on the solution

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Before you get started I would highly recommend revisiting the Big Idea 5 unit guide. The communication that you have with your team will make or break your presentation.

After completing your IRR you should come together with your group to start thinking 🤔 about a solution.

Do not come into the presentation with a solution already made up in your mind. You can for sure have ideas, but be willing to work with your group towards a solution.

Quick Tip: The solution should not be too broad. You should be able to securely back it up with evidence.

Work with your team to selective evidence ✍️ that supports your solution. If you need to find more evidence outside of your IRR, you can do that.

Now that you have your solution and your evidence, you should start working on developing your claims and figuring out which team member will present what. You aren't required to write a script but it's certainly encouraged! 🗣️

As you start putting together your multimedia presentation, remember, it should accompany your spoken presentation. It should include minimal text and shouldn't distract the audience. A presentation with only image and no words is better than a presentation with too many words.

Each image should also be purposeful and shouldn't just be filler.

Most of the tips for giving a presentation are talked about in the Big Idea 5 Guide. Check it out!

In Conclusion...

As we wrap things up I keep hitting on what I've said: make sure to work with your team! 👩‍💻 Keep them in the loop! This process will be so much easier if you work together. Don't be afraid to ask questions and change things up if it works for the group.

Last, but not least: read the rubrics! This is a must and will really help to make sure you get all of the points you possibly can. They can be found here.