Welcome to the Drummer Café.  What kind of school project are you working on and approximately where are you located?  Is this for a music class or an English composition class for example?  I am sure you will find a lot of answers here but then again no one will want to do all of your home work for you.  I will be more than glad to give some examples if I knew the type of assignment you were working on.

It really depends on what the drummer's pursuit is. There are techniques so specific to styles that there's more than a lifetime worth of learning out there. I would say if your goal is to the best rock drummer on the planet, mastering the tabla -- a lifetime of learning by itself -- is not at the top of the list of things a drummer needs to be concerned about. It would certainly be helpful, but not essential.

Basic techniques that apply in general to all modern drum set styles:

- Basic rudiments: At least the old 26, if not the additional 24 that have been added by Percussive Arts Society.

- Basic independence: Independence is a big word for drummers that can mean a lot of things. You need to have at least a rudimentary facility towards limb independence to function on a basic, stable level of playing. I'm going to take a leap here and define "rudimentary facility" as being able to break the right foot from the right hand and the right hand from the left hand out to sixteenth notes. Everyone's mileage will, in fact, vary on that definition.

- Internal grasp of the quarter-note pulse: This essential for modern "First World" music. You can't play and subdivide what you hear if you are not first able to locate the pulse of the music. Most modern music is based on a quarter-note pulse in 4/4 time. This is dance music. Sometimes the pulse is in eighths, but it's not as common. You don't necessarily need to understand time signatures to understand this.

Advanced concepts:

There are so many to list we'd need to write several books on the subject, but I'll take a shot ...

- Time signature vs. pulse: When you have an intimate understanding of the time signature math, you understand the rhythmic passage does not have to resolve every bar, every two bars, or possibly at all. You can force your own time signature over another creating rhythmic dissonance if you understand how to play "over the bar." You can modulate between meter without changing signatures.

- Four-limb independence: Again, independence is a sketchy word that we use to define freedom from limbs being tied together in rhythmic thought. It's a natural function of the brain to unify limbs, and drummers spend the rest of their lives retraining the brain to untie them ... but in a way that the drummer is still in total control of the complex polyrhythms each limb is playing. No one is every completely "free," but many have advanced to the point to create that very illusion. Can I play triplets with the right hand while playing eighth notes with the right foot or vice versa? Yes, but only because I've worked out the mathematical distinctions in my head and trained my brain to hear where the notes should be place.

Many instructors neglect the very basics of drum set knowledge.  When you first started playing the guitar I am sure one of the first lessons was on basic tuning.  Drum tuning is seldom mentioned to a beginning drum student.  It is my opinion that the basics should include tuning, posture, the proper way to hold the drumsticks and strike the drums and cymbals.  Drum kit set-up and the proper way to mount the cymbals are very important but seldom taught.  Learning to read music should be on the list with all the other things listed above and should be incorporated into each lesson. 

I was referring to the very basic drum tuning.  The how and why you tune a drumhead to be in tune with itself.  Sure, tuning a drum is more personal and subjective than tuning a pitched instrument but I would speculate that 9 out 10 new students have never been taught the basics of how to tune a drum.

I like what I've just read. It's such a complex subject that it's hard to get it into simple word that everybody can understand.

I might quote you on my blog if you don't mind