The Station Eleven Project
This assignment is worth up to 220 points per student. It is the major assignment of the semester. You cannot pass the class if you do not complete this project. Start early; work smartly and steadily.
Read the directions carefully. There are several steps; be sure you don't miss anything.
The Project will be done in steps, and all of its steps will take time. This is not something to procrastinate about.
Welcome to Concourse C
In Station Eleven, Clark began The Museum of Civilization because he wanted to preserve the memory of what came Before. His goal with The Museum of Civilization was to preserve civilization, and he put the artifacts in context--that is, he explained their role in life Before.
A museum is an institution that cares for (conserves) a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary.
Museums are different from collections. A museum displays its items to the public. A collection may be kept private.
An artifact is an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.
A curator is a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection. A curator is more than someone who dusts off the objects and artifacts, however. A curator's job is to assemble, catalogue, and decide how to display the items to the public. The curator researches the field to see what is important and what is available, chooses what to buy, arranges for funding, applies for loans and grants, negotiates sales, arranges for any necessary restoration of the artifacts or objects, chooses how to exhibit the items, arranges for security, hires employees, promotes the exhibit, and anything else that needs to be done. In other words, a curator is the person who is ultimately responsible for the success of the museum.
Once you start looking for them, museums are everywhere. Some are the ones we usually think of: the L.A. County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the Art Institute in Chicago; the Louvre in Paris; and more.
Others are smaller or less traditional, and some are downright strange:
- the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho.
- the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico.
- the Condom Museum in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
- the Bunny Museum in Pasadena, California.
- the Salabh International Toilet Mueum in New Delhi, India.
- the Museum of Clean in Pocatello, Idaho.
- the National Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.
- the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia just outside of San Francisco.
- Leila's Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri.
- The Thing Museum in Dragoon, Arizona.
And there are hundreds more. People of all types create and maintain museums which express and exhibit their interests. I have been to many, but my one of my favorites is The Museum of Jurassic Technology on Venice Blvd. in Culver City, CA (I will mention it again, and possibly again).
The Museum Project: An Overview
Create your own museum.
You don't actually have to lease a property, collect items and display them; this will be a virtual museum. But you need to plan the museum which will preserve and display some set of artifacts that represent some aspect of civilization.
Choose the topic for your museum. Do you love old cars? Musical instruments? Rocks and minerals? Gems? Dolls? Stuffed animals? Tractors? Noodles? Nail polish? It can be anything.
To make this project interesting, you should choose something you have a genuine interest in, an interest you want to share.
Aside from that, you may find that the term "museum" has a lot of latitude. Is a collection of wax replicas of famous human beings a "museum"? Is the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland a museum? Is a library a museum? Is Graceland a museum? These may be questions you need to consider, depending on what you choose to exhibit.
A few specifics:
- Your topic cannot be too big. A museum of all fashion throughout history would have to cover 20 square miles of ground--and your paper would have to be 500 pages long! Remember, you are only writing 4-8 pages, so choose a topic you can cover in that amount of space. A museum of bridal fashions in the U.S. might be limited enough; so might a museum of high heeled shoes. Smaller is better!
- Your museum will have all of its exhibits, but it will also include a special exhibit: one small item or subset of your museum that you will spend a lot of time on. For example, if your museum is on bridal fashions in the U.S., your special exhibit might be the bridal gowns of a single American designer. Or the bridal fashions of a single decade. Your special exhibit will be the topic of your research paper.
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The Various Steps
Step 1: Look at Samples of Virtual Museums
Visit one of the following virtual museums, any time during Weeks 1-5. These all have exhibits that can serve as models for the kind of thing you are being asked to do. They are, of course, long-established and much more involved (and longer) than your project. Jot down a few notes about how the sites are organized (look at the different tabs/links). Does the museum state its point or purpose in a Mission or an About section? Where do you find things like visitor hours (you won't if this is a virtual museum, but some are web pages for actual, physical museums). Are there several exhibits? How are they organized/separated? Are there other things like a gift shop? An Events page? Contact/Directions information?
I've added some tips of things to look at that will help you with Step 2 (Brainstorming, sketching out, and discussing your own museum.- The Museum of Jurassic Technology
You will notice if you click on Exhibitions, and then click, for example, on the exhibit called "Tell the Bees," that there is a long explanation about bacteria, bees, and other things, along with pictures. This is a good example of the kind of thing you might want to do in your Project. It's about the right length, too. Since you will be doing a lot of research for Step 4 (the Research Paper), this could be a great model of the kind of detail and the length for your own paper (though you will also add direct quotations, parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page). - York Castle Museum
If you click on Exhibitions, and then on "Shaping the Body," you will see a brief history of body-shaping over the centuries--with pictures. This is another good example of the sort of thing you might want to do in for Step 3 (the Research Paper); again, you will use quotations/citations from the various sources on your Works Cited page as well. - Google Arts and Culture All of these exhibitions are great, but two in particular can serve as good models for your Project: "Discovering Two New Species of Dinosaurs" and "Faces of Frida."
- The Big Game Hunter
There are lots of good sections in this site, but there's a good example for you under "Classic Games" > "The Checkered Game of Life." Lots of good information and pictures. - Busy Beaver Button Museum Click on either "History of Buttons" or "Button Manufacturers" in the right menu, and you'll get great examples to inspire your own Project.This site even uses and acknowledges research sources. Of course it is not in MLA-8 format, and yours will be, but that is an easy change.
Step 2 Station Eleven Project Brainstorming
Do the Brainstorming activity to take your first steps in creating your museum. This is worth a maximum of 10 points. Due Week 6.
This assignment will be posted on the discussion board!
For this step, choose a topic for your museum. Make sure it's not a huge topic: a museum of cars that exhibits all the cars ever made is too big. But a museum of American muscle cars is manageable. Think about what your special exhibit will be. If your museum is American muscle cars, maybe your special exhibit would be the Mustang? Or the Charger? Or the Firebird?
After thinking it over, create a document with the following:
- Say what the general topic of your museum will be
- List some of the exhibits we will find in your museum and how they will be arranged. For example, will your museum be arranged by auto maker? By history? In other words, will there be a "Ford Room and a "Chevy Room," or will you arrange your cars chronologically: "Cars in the 1950s," "Cars in the 60s," "Cars in the 70s"?
- Say what your Special Exhibit will be and give a brief description of what it will cover.
- Create a rough floor plan for your museum.
See these examples for guidance:
Brainstorming Sample on Barbie Museum
Brainstorming Sample on Museum of Failed InventionsBe sure to follow the format of the sample: your document must use correct MLA format for the first page, must include some preliminary ideas about exhibits, an idea for a special exhibit, and a floor plan.
Save your document as a Word or RTF file.
Go to the Discussion Board; you'll see a forum for this assignment labeled "Station Eleven Project Brainstorming." Follow the directions on that Discussion (there's some extra credit there!) and attach your document to your answer. There is an "Attach" button at the bottom of the box where you write your post.
This time only, you must post your own answer before you can see the answers of other students.
This is worth a maximum of 10 points.
Step 3: Station Eleven Project Proposal
Create a Project Proposal and submit it for approval (all Projects require Proposal approval); a sample proposal can be found in the Files section on Canvas. You will need to turn this in BEFORE the final project. Due Week 8. This is worth a maximum of 10 points.
The Proposal is a more formal version of your Brainstorming step. By now, you will have had time to do some research, and the research paper and project should be starting to take a clear shape in your mind. The Proposal will include the following:
- The thesis: your topic and your approach to the topic. In other words, the purpose of your museum.
- A general overview of what the exhibits will be and how they will be organized.
- An explanation of what your special exhibit will be, and what its purpose is.
- A rough floor plan (it may be the same one you used in your Brainstorming step).
- A preliminary list of sources. You need a minimum of three sources. One source must be a book. Your list of sources must be presented in correct MLA format on a Works Cited page at the end of your proposal.
See these examples for guidance:
Proposal Sample on Museum of Failed Inventions
Proposal Sample on Barbie Museum
Step 4: Station Eleven Research Paper
Create a Research Paper with detailed information on the topic of your special exhibit. Due Week 11.
For example, if you are going to create a museum of Bobble-head Dolls, your special exhibit (and thus your research paper) might be on sports bobble-heads over the years. Or it might be on life-size bobble-heads. If you are doing a museum on Nostalgic Foods of the 1950s and 1960s in the U.S., you could do a special exhibit on Jello molds. If you are doing a museum on Tattoos, you might do a special exhibit on the Samoan tatau.
You will turn this in before the final project, so be sure to check the Schedule for the due date.
The research paper should be 4-8 pages (1000-2000 words)and use at least three secondary sources (nothing like Wikipedia, please). The last page of the research paper will be an MLA-format Works Cited page. This is worth a maximum of 100 points.
See this example for guidance:
Sample Research Paper for Barbie Museum
Step 5: Station Eleven Project
Create a Final Project. Due Week 15.
This will include contact information and the location of your museum, a floor plan, a tour of the various exhibits in the different sections of your museum, and a special exhibit. The special exhibit will be the topic you did your research paper on, so that part of your project will already be done. Just put the research paper in that section, word for word (with any changes or revisions you wish to make) and it's done. This is worth a maximum of 100 points.
You may present this project in several ways: you may write a traditional paper with the necessary illustrations; you may create a PowerPoint presentation with audio and video, as appropriate; you may create a website (pictures are required, and you may also include audio and video, if you like); you may create a video (with a written script which you'll turn in, along with a Works Cited list). If you have some other idea for the presentation, please check it with me first.
Your research and all sources must be documented, and you must include a Works Cited list. (This may be in the form of credits at the end of a video, but it has to be there in some form.)
The Station Eleven Project Proposal Is REQUIRED
Before you spend a great deal of time on the research, the invention, the writing, you will need to get a Project Proposal approved by me. Be sure you check the due date on the Class Schedule.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: I will not accept your final project if you have not had the Project Proposal approved. Then things roll down hill in a very unfortunate way--you will not get a score for this 200-point project; you will not pass the class.
The proposal itself is not hard, but it does require you to have given some serious thought to the subject of your museum, and to have done some research into the possibilites, so you know what is available. The proposal must include:
- The thesis: your topic and your approach to the topic. In other words, the purpose of your museum.
- A general overview of what the exhibits will be and how they will be organized.
- An explanation of what your special exhibit will be, and what its purpose is.
- A rough floor plan (it may be the same one you used in your Brainstorming step).
- A preliminary list of sources. You need a minimum of three sources. One source must be a book. Your list of sources must be presented in correct MLA format on a Works Cited page at the end of your proposal.
Sample Museum Proposals can be found in the Files section on Canvas. Be sure to look at these before you turn in your own proposal.
- The Museum of Jurassic Technology