Genica Sprosty and Britany Smith

History 2710

Service Learning Project

November 25, 2001

Title of Project: Educating the youth about the changes in our nations history and current history that our government now creates.

Introduction:

Current teachers in many school districts around the nation are instigating programs of learning where the student takes an active role in the learning process. Educators do this by creating simulations. We wanted to use this theory because many high school students see history, as well as government in a negative light. We decided to go into the two high schools in Cedar City, and teach the history classes using a lecture, discussion, and a simulation to help illustrate to the students the positive views of history as well as American government. At Uintah High School in Vernal, Utah, the history teachers teach their students about the Philadelphia Convention through parliamentary procedures. Students learn how the founding fathers established order in their meetings and how it applies to congress today. Of course the students also learned other details of the Philadelphia Convention. After this the history teachers follow the historical timeline showing how our nation was established. While doing this the educators also teach the students how to write a bill, and how a bill becomes a law. Then they begin explaining the living part of history of our government after the founding fathers, and what is currently happening.

For the next step, the history teachers start a simulation where the students become senators for the United States. Students pick a state to be from. They must research the state and find one historical fact about that state. The simulation includes the students writing a bill, discussing it in committee, and then debating it on the floor.

We decided to do this because we enjoyed it as high school students, we learned a lot, and received a greater appreciation for our country’s history as well as our unique government. After discussing it with the history teachers at Cedar High and Canyon View, we learned that this simulation wasn’t available to them. So we decided this would be a worthy service learning project.

Timetable

Preparation:

Preparation was completed from September 3^rd up until October 30^th. During this time we contacted the Head of the history department at Uintah high school, Mary Moulton to receive added details and sources. These included a sample of her lesson plan as well as many handouts that she uses while doing this simulation. We also made arrangements with two of the history teachers in Cedar to come in and teach for three days of their class. Mr. Kottraba and Mr. Anderson suggested making the simulation worth one test grade. This would help bring it to life for the students. We then started making lesson plans, getting the material copied for each student, and making overheads to help keep students attention.

Pre-Teaching Day:

We went into the classes one class day early to introduce ourselves and what we were going to teach. We then let them choose a state (excluding Utah since we wanted them to learn about a different state and its history) and we also informed them that they would need to bring a sign the next class period that would have what state they were from, and a historical fact about that state. We did this so that right from the beginning the student would gain a greater appreciation for our nation through learning about other states. The signs also helped us learn the students’ names more quickly. We then gave the new senators their first paycheck, a 100 grand candy bar. This helped get the students excited about learning history as well as the government.

Day 1 Lecture:

We started this day by discussing the students’ signs and what they learned about their state. We then taught about the Philadelphia Convention and how a bill becomes a law. After which we proceeded to talk about laws that have been made throughout history. Next we taught about how our congress runs today in comparison with how it was during the Philadelphia Convention. We then explained in detail the simulation they would soon be participating in. After which we discussed more about laws and how they are written. Next we asked the students if their was anything they would like to change about our government or nation and stressed to them that we have the freedoms to change our government unlike the early settlers who had to travel to America and then fight for that right. The students then decided what bill they would write for this simulation and began working on it. We ended class with electing a Vice president as well as a Secretary to help run the class for the next few days. We made the student the Vice President instead of the President because we were acting as the President. The election process during class showed the students a little about our government and how the election process works. We also told them that when our constitution was first established, the election process was very different. The person who received the most votes won the Presidential election and became the President, and the person who received second became the Vice President. We also explained the Electoral College and how it has been a controversy throughout history.

Day 2 Committees:

We explained to the students how the Declaration of Independence was actually written by Thomas Jefferson who then submitted it to a group of his peers for signing. It was then presented to the nation as a whole. This is representative of how our government works today. One person writes a bill then it is taken to a committee after which it is brought to the house or senate.

We separated them into their own committees giving each committee bills to look at, discuss, and finally vote to pass on or strike each bill down. Then we went into the committees and lobbied to get certain bills passed or struck down forcing many of the committees to compromise. After they were finished with committees we explained to them that the reason we were advocating certain bills was to illustrate how compromise is needed to get certain things passed. We then discuss The Great Compromise and the three-fifths compromise. How important it is for us to understand how hard it is for congressional representatives to do their job. In order to help the simulation run more smoothly, we taught them how to write and give a speech.

Day 3 On the floor Debate:

The Vice-President and Secretary were required to keep order and run the last part of the simulation. We made sure that it ran smoothly and that it ran in the same manor that our country’s senate runs. The Vice-President was in charge of calling on the other students to give speeches and to making sure that the class followed parliamentary procedures.

During the floor debate each of the students were required to give at least two speeches as well as try to get their bill to become a law. Points were heavily placed on this portion of the simulation to help the students feel the same pressure that the senators feel while they are debating. After this part of the simulation we explained to them that this is how the senators feel and react and that the bills that the senator’s suggest don’t’ always make it all the way through the process.

Post-Day:

This was the day were we went into class and told them what their final grade was. We also understood how successful this simulation was by hearing what the students learned about history as well as government.

Timetable at a glance:

This project was designed to teach students about the history of our government. However, both the teachers informed us that they also learned a lot about history and our government as a whole. They also stressed that they would be using this simulation in future years, and enacting similar simulations into their classes in the future.

This project took a lot of preparation in order to be ready to teach the students.

For each day we had a separate lesson plan along with handouts as well as overheads to make it easier for the students to keep notes. We did this so that they would be able to keep up with the rest of the class. They would also have a better understanding for the whole simulation.

In order to help students create their bills, we needed to understand what the current laws were, as well as what laws they might be able to use as bills. We also needed to learn which laws were federal laws and which laws were state laws. Another thing we needed to know was how laws had changed throughout history based on what the majority of the people thought for that certain amount of time.

We needed to have a good understanding of parliamentary procedure and where our forefathers got it from, as well as why they decided to use it. We learned a lot while researching this, it was interesting to find out that they had carried it over from Great Britain and that they thought it was the most efficient way to run a meeting.

We needed to better understand history so that we could explain the simulation to the students. We specifically research a lot of the Philadelphia Convention as well as the Great Compromise and the three-fourths compromise.

Then there was time spent discussing with the teachers, on what the best ways would be to handle the project and how we would be able to get the best interaction with the students.

The class periods are an hour and a half. We taught five classes; four at Cedar High School and one at Canyon View. We spent time after class discussing with students on how to do thing and how they have been done throughout history.

Technology-related resources or applications

Since this project was done in a school setting all of the technology was provided for us. Such as the copier we needed to copy the handouts. As well as the overhead projector to display notes so the students could easily read them.

Connections to other service-learning projects

While we are unaware of any other projects happening in our colligate class or any other relating classes, we do know that these two high school teachers are committed to using this style of teaching in their own future classes and plan to share it with other teachers. Theses teachers have also invited us to come back and participate in similar simulations for their future classes.

How the project turned out

The project was a definite success. We taught five classes each having thirty students in it. May students were able to demonstrate knowledge of how our government works as well as gain a better understanding of our history. A lot of the students made comments to us and to the teachers about how much they learned. One student commented that she didn’t realize how much research senators had to do. Another was amazed at how much history is involved in our current government.

Not only did these students and teachers learn, but we learned a lot as well. We learned more in depth what happened in our government’s history. Because we had to teach the students, we had to have a solid knowledge of what we were teaching. The biggest thing we learned is that when you are doing service, you are most likely learning the most.