Hollie Keesee

CI 350

Harold Blanco

Webquest

10-22-2013

WebQuest Assignment

Title: Which Cult Interests You?

Description: Students will, as a group, find the cult that is most interesting to them. They will then create a digital storytelling video of the cult to show to the other classmates. (Students may not use the same Cult)

Grade level: 9-12

Curriculum: Psychology

Introduction: Learning about Cult’s is important because it can help prevent us from falling victim to their charms and provides you with a better understanding of just how powerful persuasion can be. They are also just interesting in general to learn about! Each cult has a unique leader and quality surrounding their group. They each have different persuasion techniques and different methods of keeping their followers around. This assignment will enable you to learn about how the cult of your choice indoctrinated and kept their members around. It will also help strengthen your understanding of the methods of persuasion. Warning: Some cults are pretty disturbing.

Task: For this task your group will decide what cult you want to present on. You will then make a digital storytelling video. Find information about your cult, what were they all about? What persuasion techniques did the leader use to indoctrinate their members? What was the leader like in general? How did the followers react to the leader? And so on.

Process:

Step 1: Research different cults from the list provided, once you decide as a group what Cult you want to do, let me know so I can mark the Cult off the list so other groups will not do them. It’s first come, first serve. If your group wishes to report on a Cult that does not occur on the list provided, please consult me.

Step 2: Find all the information you can about your cult. You may do this by utilizing YouTube, Google, Books, Newspaper Articles, or whatever resource you find useful. Just make sure it is reliable. Be sure to include the background and origins of the cult, information about their leader and members, how the leader indoctrinated their members, and where the cult is today, if it still exists, and if not what happened?

Step 3: Create your story. As a group recreate the story of your cult and tell their story using Windows Movie Maker or something of that nature. Make sure your video is engaging and accurate! Have fun and be creative!

Step 4: Save your video and upload it to the class YouTube channel

Evaluation:

4 points 3 Points 2 Points 1 Point Total Score

Cooperative Learning

Student actively participated in their group as well as worked well with others.

Student slightly participated in group and somewhat worked well with others.

Student participated to the minimum extent and did not work well with others

Student did not participate.

Information on Cult

The information presented was accurate and well organized in the video.

The information presented contained minor errors and was well organized in the video.

The information presented contained serious defaults and was not organized in an appropriate manner.

The majority of the information was inaccurate and/or was unorganized.

Aesthetics of Video

The video was pleasing to look at. Writing was clearly visible, music was appropriate, imaged were visible/appropriate. The video was well organized and contained viable information. Met time requirements.

The Video was overall pleasing to look at but contained minor errors such as text that was not visible or misaligned imaged or music. Information was well organized and contained accurate and viable information. Met time requirements.

The Video was not pleasing to look at it. Text was difficult to read. Music was inappropriate. Information was jumbled and not organized.Did not meet time requirement.

The video lacked quality in all areas. Or the video was not completed.

Conclusion: Hopefully you all enjoyed this assignment! Examining cults is not only beneficial towards learning about persuasion, but also pretty neat to learn about. It can also help prevent us from getting into some major trouble down the road.

Link to Cults to choose from: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-cults.php

How to Form a Cult: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBK5aKOr2Fw

Some links to help you get you started on your research!

Scientology:

http://www.scientology.org/

Hare Krishana:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B7va6PqEns

The Unification Church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOY3Sxe4TeE

Children of God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4Z9xkre6g

The KKK http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan

The Manson Family http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/manson/murder_1.html

Heaven’s Gate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSZhwu1Rwo

The Solar Temple http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1418448/Order-of-the-Solar-Temple

Branch Davidians http://www.npr.org/2013/04/20/178063471/two-decades-later-some-branch-davidians-still-believe

The People’s Templehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/jonestown-guyana/

Link to my other Webquest: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=215891