• How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
  It was not very difficult because we just chose what we collectively felt the strongest about which was the effectiveness of the Electoral College. There was also some discussion about concentrating on how voting is always on Tuesday, but in the end we decided the Electoral College is a more pressing issue. 
  
  
• 11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
  An individual must be committed to a change to sustain it. Say one person decided not to support a change, they could influence others do the same, then no one would be trying to change anything. An individual can quickly expand into a majority, thats how changes begin. People must stay committed to an idea to make it a reality. 
  
  
• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
  Before this unit I had almost no idea of how elections worked in the US. All I knew was that people went to polling places, stood in a booth, pressed some buttons and then they were done. I did not know about any of the regulations or processes of voting. Since then though, my knowledge on the subject has grown exponentially. Learning about the processes, like the Electoral College, and other things, has truly sparked an interest in me. All the laws surrounding voting in the US are interesting and some of them are still useful, but certainly not all of them. It makes me wonder why people havent tried to change them yet but then I remember that many people are as clueless about these things as I was before this unit. If everyone is to have a fair say, they must first be educated on the subject and this isn't happening. Things like that make this nation seem less free then it did before I knew these things. 
  
  
• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
  In our marketing campaign we tried to emphasize that not many people even know what the Electoral College is. Showing that the people it is apparently trying to serve don't even know about it. By doing this we not only educated people on it but showed how dated it is. If more people knew about it, it may not as much of a problem because when voting, people would know what they're getting into and where their vote is going. I believe this was a very effective way to relay our group's message. 

• How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
  
  Each person basically pitched the idea they had. Then discussed the pros and cons of each idea. We originally decided to focus on voting online. But after talking to Ms. Laufenburg we had to come up with another idea. Our theme of convenience stayed the same but our new idea was voting on the weekends.
  
  
• 11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
  
  The role of the individual is to take action, expressing their concerns and what they think can be done to solve them. Giving up on getting things done is not an option.
  
  
• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
  
  Learning the ends and outs of how a voters ballot counts help me to understand why some people think that in essence they still get no say. There are a lot of factors that go into the final decision. Not to mention a lot of different representatives and things. Before I didn't have view a view of the  electoral process. Now I see how complicated it really is.
  
  
• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
  We had a central theme of convenience. With our campaigning we tried to keep things simple and to the point.

• How did your group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
  - Our group wanted to do voting my mail for a couple reasons. We wanted to find a system that has been introduced already somewhere in the nation so we can base our information on true events. We chose voting by mail also because it covers most of the difficulties people encounter with voting. Voting by mail eliminates the excuses for not voting. 
• 11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
  - The role an individual has in change is the ability to assemble and create protest. if one individual works up the courage to decide to make a change in the system of which people fallow, then they have that ability with proper assembly and protest. 
• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
  - My understanding of the electoral process has changed completely. i had no idea that the voter turnout was so low that barley a fourth of the nation as a whole votes. this leads me to believe that the decisions made are not balanced and this makes it less viewed as a democracy. 
• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
  - Marketing techniques require the message to connect straight to the viewer. The marketing campaign should include simple and broad issues that are adressed that many people can relate to. then at the end of the campaign you offer to help fix the dilemmas which most of the time leads the viewer to agree. 

US History – Y

November 10, 11

Reflection:

Process:
For this project, my group and I completed the necessary requirements on time and used the class-work periods effectively. Our full project was uploaded when needed and we asked questions if things were unclear.

Group Dynamics:
In the beginning of our project, my group brainstormed everything we would include in our project some possible ideas to elaborate on. After that was done, we started our individual parts. Once we knew the general topic to talk about and finished our portions of the project, we asked each other to revise and provide constructive feedback. Overall, I would say my group worked very well together and helped each other throughout the process. This made it easier to collaborate and create a decent project.

How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?

First my group and I brainstormed what we thought would make a difference in voter turnout within the United States. We had three general ideas, which were voting on the weekends, eliminating the Electoral College, and finally give rewards to people that vote. After discussing these ideas with Ms. Laufenberg she helped us determine what idea makes the most sense and could possibly change society for the better.

11th grade Essential Question - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change?

In my opinion change starts with one person and is influence into a whole community of modified civilians. It takes a determined person to create this sort of change, as well as someone who is involved with their environment.

How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?

Honestly, at first I didn’t know much about how the voting system worked but after researching and collaborating with my group I have a stronger understanding of it. It’s ridiculous how America has one of the worst voter turnout percentages. Being more knowledgeable about this topic makes me want to make a change.

How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?

We incorporated the social media networks since that’s the best way to communicate with the citizens of America, and create a site where information on why the Electoral College should be banned is portrayed. Hopefully we did a fine way of relaying this message because it’s a problem that needs to be addressed.

 I was Cheyenne's back-up for our video, which I was that star of. Cheyenne was the back-up for Alshya's portion of the project, which was our advertising, which Ronald was the back-up for. I was Ronald's back-up for his rebuttal paper. 

I handled group dynamics well. I was helping my group stay atop of their individual parts, by checking in and making sure their work was completed. 

Once my paper was done, I had all three member's of my group look over the paper, adding, removing or changing anything that they saw as needed. I went to them for feedback on my writing, asking what I could expand on when I couldn't think of more arguing points. 

The best way to relay a message to a national audience is through media, whether it's on tv, the web or other, it's the best way to reach a mass of people, encouraging and promoting citizens to vote. 

Before this project I only knew that we used electoral voting. I did not know why we voted on Tuesday, nor why we do the things we do. After doing this project, I now know why we do these things. It really showed to me that the United States has some trouble as a democratic society, and we could improve on our voting process, such as removing electoral voting and counting individual votes. 

• How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
• We took our ideas and thought about what could be changed in the constitution.
  
• 11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
• I think that for our idea it would be important for people to want to change and then keep the change going because otherwise we will go right back to having a electoral college.

• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
• I think that I learned a lot but I knew some things from debate and other classes.

• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
• We thought about the people we needed to target and how they would be targeted. We wanted to target people of color so we used a song the was generally of their genre.