You have spent five weeks studying some of the most complex and important stories in golf history. You have examined racial exclusion and the people who fought it. You have analyzed how television transformed a sport into a cultural institution. You have evaluated competing philosophies of course design. You have traced the forces that turned a British and American game into a global one. You have wrestled with the persistent inequalities in women’s professional golf and the extraordinary people who built the sport despite them.

Now it is time to do something with what you know.

A research symposium is a formal gathering in which scholars — people who have studied a subject seriously — present their findings to an audience, defend their arguments under questioning, and engage with each other’s work. It is one of the oldest forms of intellectual exchange in human history, and it is the format through which most of the world’s serious knowledge has been tested, refined, and transmitted.

You are going to hold one.

Your symposium will be smaller and more informal than an academic conference. But it will be real. You will present original research to a real audience. You will be asked genuine questions and expected to answer them thoughtfully. You will evaluate someone else’s work and offer feedback that is honest, specific, and constructive.

This is not a performance. It is a demonstration of what you actually know and how you actually think.

What the Week 6 Symposium Involves

Over the course of this week you will complete four distinct tasks:

1. Your original research presentation. You will choose a research question from the options provided, investigate it using the skills and knowledge you have developed across Stages 1-3, and present your findings in a structured 10-minute presentation to your audience.
2. Your exhibition board. You will create a single visual display that captures the central argument of your research in a format that can be read and understood by someone who has not heard your presentation.
3. Peer review. If you are completing this curriculum with other students, you will evaluate a fellow student’s presentation and exhibition board using the provided rubric. If you are a solo homeschool student, your parent-teacher will take this role, and you will conduct a self-evaluation using the same rubric.
4. The Q&A defense. Following your presentation, your audience will ask you questions about your research. You are expected to engage with those questions seriously — to defend your argument, acknowledge its limitations, and demonstrate that your thinking goes beyond what you prepared in advance.

Why this format matters

Academic knowledge that cannot be communicated is incomplete. The ability to organize complex information into a clear argument, present it to an audience with confidence, and defend it under questioning is not a separate skill from historical thinking — it is historical thinking in its most complete form.

The symposium format also asks something of you that written assessment cannot: it requires you to be present. You cannot edit your answers. You cannot look up a fact you forgot. You have to know what you know, be honest about what you do not, and think on your feet.

This is uncomfortable. It is supposed to be. The discomfort is where growth happens.

Choosing your Research Question

Lesson 2 provides the full list of research question options with guidance for each. Before moving on, read through the entire list and identify the question that genuinely interests you most — not the one that seems easiest, but the one you actually want to spend a week investigating.

The quality of your research will reflect the authenticity of your interest. A student who chose a question because it seemed manageable will produce a different presentation than a student who chose a question because they genuinely wanted to know the answer. Choose the question that makes you want to find out.

The Timeline for Week 6

• Day 1-2: Choose your research question, begin research, complete Lesson 1 and Lesson 2
• Day 3-4: Deepen research, develop your argument, build your exhibition board, complete Lesson 3
• Day 5-6: Write your presentation outline, practice delivering it, complete Lesson 4
• Day 7: Deliver your presentation, conduct peer review or self-evaluation, celebrate

This timeline is a guide, not a rigid schedule. Some students will need more time for research; others will move quickly through the preparation phase. Work at the pace that produces the best thinking, not the pace that finishes fastest.

A Note on What Counts As Research

For this symposium, research means finding and evaluating sources that go beyond this curriculum. You should use at least three sources that were not provided as part of this course. Those sources should be:

• Credible — produced by people with genuine knowledge of the subject
• Varied — not all from the same type of source or the same perspective
• Engaged with critically — not just cited, but evaluated for what they argue, what evidence they use, and what their limitations might be

Wikipedia is a starting point, not a source. It can help you identify topics and find directions for further research. It should not appear in your presentation as a primary source.

Good sources for golf history research include: The USGA Museum archives, Golf Digest historical archives, Sports Illustrated’s historical coverage, academic journals covering sports history, biographies and autobiographies of the figures you are studying, and newspaper archives from the periods you are examining.