What are the essential questions guiding my inquiry?

When I began thinking about my Senior Project, I considered several ideas that involved sharing my knowledge with others in a collaborative way, especially in ways that help them make sense of the world around them. In the past, this interest has led me in several directions, including tutoring an LREI 8th grader, taking a constitutional law course outside of school, and creating music with my friends to stabilize my thoughts and emotions in the craziness of the world.

I have been pondering these essential questions:

• How can one make complex topics (eg. constitutional law, math, music) more accessible to everyone?
  • More specifically, how can I use my knowledge of government/politics/law to inspire others (and myself) to further engage with current events?
• In what ways can teaching challenge the teacher as much as the student?

 

Why do these essential questions matter to me?

My thinking around my essential questions is united by two concepts that inspire me: the power of digging deep into a topic and the potential for individuals to affect change by sharing their knowledge with others. For example, a drummer may be super talented at playing a standard swing groove, but so many more opportunities present themselves when that drummer learns more challenging techniques. When that drummer shares their knowledge with a student, then music as a whole becomes more lively and diverse. I have experienced this in my Constitutional Law and Diplomacy classes, as the knowledge that I gained helped me form educated opinions on current events. 

That knowledge is not something I want to keep to myself, especially in a time so hyper-polarized as our own. The very nature of facts is questioned by many in this country, and I want to use my Senior Project to help people make sense of facts and current events, just as teachers at LREI have done for me.

 

What do I see myself doing during the experiential portion of the project to address these questions?

I envision myself designing a course to teach middle school and/or younger high school students about government, politics, and the law to get them to understand current events more comprehensively. I will approach this through a variety of methods, from live (Zoom) teaching sessions to booklets/online guides that I can use as teaching resources. Some topics of interest include:

• Limits on the three branches: what can they actually do? I think many Americans (myself included) are not fully aware of the boundaries for each branch and how members of each (especially in recent history) have pushed the limits.
• The Supreme Court and civil liberties: how have Supreme Court decisions affected the rights of marginalized groups throughout history?
• American foreign policy in 2020: where do we stand now, especially in the wake of Trump’s presidency? What are our relationships with our allies and adversaries? What work does the US have to do to address global crises, both immediate and long-term?

 

Feasibility Analysis and Further Questions

I am positive that this project (on a big-picture level) is feasible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless, many details remain for me to sculpt.

As I’m sure anyone can tell, the three example topics that I listed above are very complicated, even for an introductory course. Perhaps it would be useful to narrow them a bit and provide a center. The first two are pretty closely connected, but I want to find a way to include a study of American government from a global/international relations perspective, as it is something that I am fascinated by and that I am not so sure many others are aware of. Furthermore, I want to refine them to differentiate them enough from the classes that I have taken, as I do not just want to reuse material that I have learned from myself. 

Beyond content, I have been thinking a lot about presentation. As I said, I think I want to integrate elements of live teaching and creating teaching booklets. How will these things come to fruition? What school (and what specific age group/s) should I target my curriculum towards, and who do I need to connect with to make that happen (Allison mentioned a possible contact: a public school that one of her sons attends)? What are ways that I can make my teaching fun and interactive? Perhaps I can reach out to teachers in the LREI history department to answer this question.

I am also thinking about what I need to learn to be able to teach. I already have at least intermediate knowledge of the issues that I want to discuss, but I should dig in more, perhaps connecting with experts to lend my work more credibility. If so, who?

Overall, I have a solid idea of how I want to pursue my essential questions, but there is (of course) much more for me to refine.