About This Project: 

During this project we studied what it means to be patriotic and what it means to be an educated active voter. Over the course of this project we used websites like isidewith.com, politifact.com, and politico.com. 

To figure out what patriotic truly means we looked at multiple images of Americans being "patriotic" and shared our opinions on why we thought they were or were not being patriotic. After this we each created our own definition of the word patriotic. 

This project taught me what it means to stand on my own and create my own opinion no matter what the people around me think. It is so important, especially in this election, to make decisions based on what you believe in.

 

Project Process:  

     Personal Letter to the President: 

       We took part in the writing competition that PBS hosted alongside Letters to the President 2.0. This assignment gave us

       the opportunity to share our ideas or concerns with the United States Government. We studied the preamble of

       the Declaration of Independence and followed the format in our letters. Click on any of the following assignments to see

       my work. 

          Commentary Analysis Worksheet

          Letter to the President Outline

          Draft 1     Draft 2     Draft 3     Final Draft

     

     Campaign Team Debate Preparation: 

       During this project, I was the campaign manager for the Gary Johnson team. We conducted research on his plans for

       the economy, foreign policy, and social issues. After finding plans and quotes about relevant issues, we used credible

       sources to fact check this information. It was very eye opening to see how much of what the candidates say is actually

       true. 

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     Truth Campaign Ads: 

       Using the information that we fact checked, we created truth campaign ads. This was done in an attempt to change the

       rhetoric of the typical campaign ads that we have all seen over the course of this election. 

          Debate #1 Fact Checking

          Gary Johnson Fact Checking

          Storyboard

          Final Video 

          Fact Checking Infographic

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Self Reflection:

What does being an educated voter mean to you?

     To me, being an educated voter means that you are able to make a decision based on the facts. I think that it is very important for young voters to make their own opinions and not just go off of what their parents or people around them believe. This election was very monumental for our country and knowing your facts was crucial. After seeing the results of this election, I truly believe that voters did not know their information. It was based off of personality more so than actual plans, which is the exact opposite of an educated voter. 

What was the most challenging part of the work around the Election project for you and how did you overcome it?

     In my opinion, the hardest part of this project was having to have an open mind and let go of all of our biases and previous thoughts about the presidential candidates. I overcame this by doing a lot of research on my candidate to try to rationalize what I had already learned. I also tried to find as many direct quotes as I could so that what I knew about the candidates was true and not something that was blown out of proportion by the media.  
What have you learned and gained so far in our study of politics not only on a personal level but also academic understanding?

     I thought it was very interesting to learn more about the different parties and how our country has run as a two party system for over 100 years. This information helped me grasp what was actually going on during this years election. I really enjoyed learning the history of "Democrats" and "Republicans" and how the views of these two parties have changed and intertwined in the past. I had previously learned about the electoral college, but until this year I didn't fully understand it. This project helped solidify my understanding of what the electoral college does and how this can be a positive or negative system, depending on how you look at it.  

Where are you at with the state of the American presidential election right now - what is your current thinking of it and what are your hopes for it? 

     As a woman I am terrified of what the next four years hold. It scares me that we elected a racist and misogynistic person to the highest office in the United States. Personally, I do not feel that someone that carries himself with such hatred is equipped to do a job that requires him to respect all American people. I am worried that everything that our country has worked so hard to accomplish will be completely disregarded.  I found it very upsetting that the majority of voters were uneducated and that they voted out of fear. My hope is that over the next four years, next generation voters are taught more about the election process and what it really takes to be the President of the United States. Hopefully, they will pass along the information that they learn and as citizens we can all make an educated decision for the future and fate of our country. I also hope that over the next four years, our President realizes that holding the highest office in the nation is not an easy job and that it humbles him.  

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Exhibition: 

     We held our exhibition at the High Tech High forum one week before the election hoping that the work we did would help

educate the voters in our community. During this exhibition, we all presented the Truth Campaign Ads that we created and the candidates statements that we had fact checked. We also held a mock debate between the four presidential candidates and then another between their vice presidential candidates. 

     The next Monday (the day before election day) we held a longer mock debate between presidential candidates, vice presidential candidates, and all of the field teams. This was a two hour mock debate that we did in front of our school to try to educate next generation voters.