Project by: Joshua Sapira (11th Grade), Cole Dorsey (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Ann Carroll
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Jess Prohias Gardiner, Preethi Thomas-McKnight

Description of the Project: In this project, we recorded 20-25 minutes political podcasts in order to spread political awareness and keep listeners informed.

Final Reflection on Learning:

Josh:

Cole and I have always been interested in politics. Talking about issues from a legal, political, or moral perspective is something we do often. By taking on this honors project, we added a new dimension to these discussions: talking about politics in a way that is interesting, informative, and easily comprehended. Since the project began, I feel I have created a habit of staying up to date with the state of the country, especially at a time when news cycles are focusing on a few major issues and the smaller things are going unnoticed. I hope that this podcast has informed any listeners and inspired people to participate in our democracy. I know doing this has helped me grow as a person and a member of the community, and I hope others can do the same. I am very much looking forward to continuing to grow as a person and a member of a democracy.

Cole:

In a country where the distinction between what is legal and what isn’t is often unknown to the average American Josh and I attempted to discuss the legality and politics of many things happening in our current world. While COVID-19 presented certain recording difficulties and more work for us, Josh and I continued on, determined to complete this project. We both have a deep passion for discussing politics and government, but more importantly, we love attempting to dissect and understand the difficult world we live in from a more legal perspective. Now more than ever it seems that having a sense of awareness is crucial to navigating the politicized world we live in.  This project taught me the importance of effective research and conversational skills. Josh and I both had to do extensive research on our topics for each episode and be comfortable enough to have an intellectual productive conversation. This project was truly special because Josh and I didn’t shy away from any topics and respected one another opinion greatly. Hopefully, this productive political dialogue can be a model for other Americans about the importance of discussing hard and deeply politicized issues. I am so happy with the outcome of this project and am looking forward to continuing it next year as well!

 

Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant): Reflection 4/18/20: We just finished recording our first podcast episode. We spent about an hour yesterday going over our topics, flushing out what we wanted to go over, and sharing articles with each other. Although we ran into some technical difficulties while setting up the recording software, we eventually found a workaround and spent about 45 minutes recording. We still need to edit the episode and create an intro to play at the beginning of episodes, but all in all, we would definitely consider our first episode a success!

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant): On top of staying up to date with current events, Cole and I are in the midst of prepping for a podcast that we are recording this weekend. We have met with Ann (our project advisor) and have gone over improvements, possible podcast topics, methods of sharing our podcasts, and other projects to look at and take inspiration from. We are both very happy with the way the project has been going and are very optimistic about our next podcasts.

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant): We just finished filming our final podcast. Given everything that has been going on, we put in a lot of research to try and create a well-informed and helpful podcast. We both consider ourselves to be very interested in politics and always like to keep up to date with politics and discuss them with each other. This project has provided us a medium to share our conversation, ideas, and perspectives with others. We hope that the information we share brings to light political issues and encourages participation in local, state, and national governments. We will definitely look into continuing our podcast in the future, and are glad to have had the opportunity to explore our interests in politics and government.