Introduction
In the beginning of the 1800s, Napoleon Bonepart was fighting a war for France and quickly depleting the treasury of the French government. Furthermore, the United States was experiencing the struggle for true claims to the territory known as Louisiana.
Imagine that you are an advisor and friend to the President of the United States, President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson knows about Napoleons desire for money and greed and will soon be sending James Monroe and Robert Livingston to France. It is your job to find all of the information you can about this territory and create a guestimate for how much Napoleon will want to get for this huge plot of land.
Task
The President told you that he wants to have a meeting with in two days. He wants to know your opinion about the Louisiana Territory and whether he should go ahead with his plans to buy it. As this will be a private meeting with the President, you may be able to influence his opinion.
It is your task to create a presentation for the President using a media of your choice (PPT, Prezi, Inspiration, or SmartBoard). Remember that this will be a private meeting, so you may want to find out what the president is interested in, what his views on expansion are, and how much the land may be worth to present it to him. In your presentation, you will need to address the advantages and disadvantages about purchasing this piece of property. Furthermore, feel free to touch on aspects about the presidents individual interests or information about Napoleon that may help the Presidents decisions.
Process/Resources
Manifest Destiny:
Louisiana Territory:
Thomas Jefferson:
Napoleon:
Evaluation/Rubric
Evaluation of Recommendation Categories | Exceeds Expectations | Meets Expectations | Towards Expectations | Not Yet Towards Expectations | Score |
Recommendation and Support | Includes evidence that support the recommendation. The writer anticipates the Jefferson’s concerns, biases or arguments and has provided two or more counter-argument. | Includes evidence that supports the recommendation and provides at least one counter-argument. | Includes some evidence to support the recommendation but does provide counter-arguments. | Does not include any evidence to support the recommendation. | |
Accuracy | All supportive facts and statistics are reported accurately. | Almost all supportive facts and statistics are reported accurately. | Most supportive facts and statistics are reported accurately. | Most supportive facts and statistics were inaccurately reported. | |
Cooperation | The group worked well together with all members contributing significant amounts of quality work. | The group generally worked well together with all members contributing some quality work. | The group worked fairly well together with all members contributing some work. | The group often did not work well together and the game appeared to be the work of only 1-2 students in the group | |
Audience | Demonstrates a clear understanding of the material and uses appropriate vocabulary and arguments. Anticipates reader's questions and provides thorough answers appropriate for that audience. | Demonstrates a general understanding of the material and uses vocabulary and arguments appropriate for that audience. | Demonstrates some understanding of the material and uses arguments appropriate for that audience. | It is not clear who the audience is. | |
Generic Scoring Rubric
SCORE 5 | SCORE 4 | SCORE 3 | SCORE 2 | SCORE 1 |
The finished WebQuest Exceeds Expectations in all categories. | The finished WebQuest mostly Exceeded Expectations | The finished WebQuest mostly Meets Expectations | The finished WebQuest is Mostly Towards Expectations | The finished WebQuest is Not Yet Towards Expectations |
Conclusion/Discussion/Reflection
What have we learned from this activity?
Why was the Louisiana Purchase important for the United States?
Who was Napoleon?
Thomas Jefferson considered the purchase of Louisiana to be his greatest achievement. He considered this to be his legacy. Furthermore, with the money given to Napoleon, he was able to fund his war for a longer time, which in all reality stimulated American economy because America was exporting goods to both sides of the war, so a longer war meant more money for America.
