My 20% Project!

Rogate 20% Project:

Another unit in Rogate has ended, and I am very excited to start our next project, our Passion Projects - also known as our 20% project.  These projects our called "20%" projects because we take 20% of our week out each Friday to work on these presentations.  We must choose a topic we are very interested in, and then thoroughly research this idea.  Then with all of the information that we have collected, we will turn all of that research into anything that we want that we can present and teach to the class, and that we learn from ourselves.  It can be anything from a PowerPoint Presentation, to a hand-made model, to even a song.  That is my definition of our 20% project and now that you know a bit more about what they are, I will now teach you about mine.

For my Passion Project I plan on researching the topic of Horses.  Now, this may seem like too broad of a topic, but I will be researching deeper into this idea.  From Horses, I will be branching off into more specific topics.  I would like to research all about the different breeds of horses and types of horses, then I would like to research the jobs and occupations that horses are used for,and then how they participate in the Olympics.  After that, I will be researching something a little different.   I would like to research how horses help people and society.  I know that horses do help autistic children and there are horses that spend their whole lives working with these children.  I am not really sure how that works, but I definitely will be looking deeper into it. Finally, I plan on interviewing a few close people that I know that have very good experiences with horses and would love to share a bit about them.  I am not really sure what questions I will ask them, but I know it will be definitely be about their experiences with horses of their own and what they learned from it.  After I have collected all my research I plan on putting it all into a PowerPoint presentation.

Now, this may seem rather simple, but it is not.  I know for a fact that I will be running into a few roadblocks. For example, I am not exactly sure how I am going to transfer the video of the interviews

onto the computer onto PowerPoint to present it to the class.   I am also not sure when I am going to interview the people that I was planning too.  Another obstacle that I am sure I will come across is,

researching all this information and creating the PowerPoint, in time.  I am going to be researching alot of information and I like to go really deep into research and then write alot, so I am probably going to have to narrow my topics down a little more...but not too much:)

As I mentioned before I am going to run in to a few barriers as I am completing this project.  I am going to need some help or "consultants" for this project.  A few people that I am most likely going to need is:

1. My horse trainer, Elise.

2. One of my best friends Taylor Suto who has been riding nearly all her life and was the one who introduced me to horses. 

3. My sister's friend's mom who grew up on a farm with horses and rode all of the way up to college on the equestrian team. 

4. My piano teacher who also rode a huge part of her life and only stopped a few years ago because of how busy she grew.

5. Finally, my parents that I can always ask for help from too, for any simple question.

Finally, some materials that I will need is:

• Obviously a computer
• An access to the library for any books on horses that would help me
• My consultants and the people I am planning to interview (even though they are not materials,  I certainly could not do this project without them)
• A Video Camera for interviewing
• And of course, the traditional piece of paper and pencil couldn't hurt too.

Well I suppose that is about it.  I am so excited to begin working on this project and I just can't wait to get started!