The final project is a collaborative research project. In addition to your writing, you will demonstrate your research and teaming skills as well. Although you will be working together in groups, you will not receive a "group grade" for the project. Everyone will receive an individual grade based on their own contribution to the final project.
There will be three components to this project: the initial proposal, the classroom presentation, and the final web page.
The proposal should be less than one page long, and it should be posted to the "Proposals" folder of Web-X before Friday March 30th. The proposal should contain a description of your topic, a list of the people in your group, and a proposed break-down of the tasks.
The classroom presentations will be scheduled for the last week or so of classes. Your group will present the material of your project to the class, then answer questions. Presentation length will vary, based on the size of your group.
The Web page is the final printed version of your project. I will hold a workshop on web-page design if there are people who need to learn how to do that. Projects will be graded on the thoughtfulness and usability of your design and layout as well as on the text that you write.
Research topics fall under two categories: Scientific/technological advances and science fiction futures.
People doing a science or technology topic should research how their topic has been spun out into culture--how it has been understood and popularized, praised and demonized, and what effect it has had (or is having) on culture. Try to research the actual science or technology as well as how it has been popularized.
People doing a science fiction future should consider how that future is designed to be descriptive of the culture it came out of, and how it attempts to change its culture by changing the way we understand the future. Remember that this is a research topic too. You should identify the important technologies and political/cultural issues that are at play in your SF future, and you should research those. In other words, you are writing about how your SF future interacts with its culture--you are not simply writing about that future itself.
Regardless of your topic, you should probably have at least 4 good outside sources per person.