Yeah, brief summaries really tend to reduce archaeology to the boring 'names and dates' stereotype, as opposed to the fun 'human sacrifice!!! 2012 Apocalypse!!!' type stuff.
I never would have guessed that you didn't like writing papers! You're such a good writer. But I'm actually leaning more towards oral presentations in front of the rest of the class, maybe with notes also handed in to make sure they don't make it up as they go along. Oral presentations are the big thing in universities these days, at least in my experience; all of my classes with less than 20 people required them.
Organizing by area, no matter how many I cover, really seems to be the best way to go about it. If just because it makes it easier: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus share a lot of similarities, as do the Maya and the Aztecs. Whereas even if there are advantages to comparing, say, the Indus and the Maya, it tends to be advantages that are not obvious at a 101-level context.
no subject
I never would have guessed that you didn't like writing papers! You're such a good writer. But I'm actually leaning more towards oral presentations in front of the rest of the class, maybe with notes also handed in to make sure they don't make it up as they go along. Oral presentations are the big thing in universities these days, at least in my experience; all of my classes with less than 20 people required them.
Organizing by area, no matter how many I cover, really seems to be the best way to go about it. If just because it makes it easier: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus share a lot of similarities, as do the Maya and the Aztecs. Whereas even if there are advantages to comparing, say, the Indus and the Maya, it tends to be advantages that are not obvious at a 101-level context.