SLS 1101 College Success

Cooperative Learning Research Assignment

Information Profile of a Foreign Country

Preparation:

• Form class into groups of three students (groups formed in week 1)
• Each group is assigned a country other than the United States
• The group develops a profile of their assigned country

Assignment:

You and your colleagues work as analysts for the U.S. State Department. Your team is reassigned to work in __________ (assign a foreign country to each team). Before your departure date (due date for the assignment), your team needs to obtain information on the assigned country to complete a country profile.The team must include information on the following in its profile.

• Historical overview of the assigned country
• Social conditions (disease and health, health care system, educational system, welfare, crime, transportation, major social problems, etc.)
• Currency and its valuation compared to the U.S. Dollar
• Geography (location, ecosystems, key geographic features, climate, population, major cities, etc.)
• Cultural composition (language, religion, ethnic groups, etc.)
• Political structure (type system, parties, head of state, key officials, etc.)
• Economy (type system, major industries, agriculture, chief exports/imports, etc.)
• Current issues (significant events presently or recently occurring the country)

Time is short, so the team needs to divide up topical areas for research with each team member contributing to the final product - a country profile.

Group members should work together to:

• Divide up the topical areas among the team's members
• Formulate an information need statement
• Develop a research strategy that includes possible relevant resources or types of resources for filling the information need, as well as keywords and/ or concepts to use as search terms
• Access appropriate resources to gather the information needed
• Organize the information for use in the final product
• Write a profile of their assigned country (history, geography, culture, politics, and current events) for inclusion in their individual scrapbooks. [If time permits, groups could make an oral presentation to the class].