Social Studies
I am Nick McKeever, a student teacher from Truman, working with Mr. Moeller this semester. In our government courses, we worked on a project involving simulating party politics and the electoral system. Advertisements for parties were posted throughout the school, addressing the three issues:
1. Service Learning Requirement for graduation
2. The Honor Code that students take to participate in extracurricular activities
3. Missouri Texting while Driving Law
Our students worked on developing a political platform based on these issues, and held debates and presentations to fine-tune their efforts. Throughout the project, the students looked to gain school-wide support for their political party.
Despite spending a week working on advertisements for this project (including connecting with other students on Facebook, monitored through an impartial third party), there were many students unaware of what was going on in the school. The project and election that took place on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, was introduced to the students during academic lab.
Students narrowed it down to two candidates/parties (much like a primary election J) and those two candidates had a debate after school. This debate was videotaped and available for students to see on YouTube and Facebook outside of school, and the video of the debate was available for the students to see during academic lab.
The actual election took place during lunch periods monitored by Mr. Moeller.
Nick McKeever
Truman State University Graduate Student
ncm033@truman.edu