Orchard's Future Voters in Action for the Eighth Grade Election Project
PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT ARE BELOW THE ARTICLE
With election season in full swing, Orchard's eighth graders have been experiencing the excitement of campaigning firsthand! In Social Studies, they’ve built their own political parties from scratch, developing everything from core values to campaign strategies. This project was all about learning how democracy works by doing it themselves.
Here’s a note from Eighth Grade Social Studies teacher Scott Meyer on this project:
With election season in full swing, Orchard's eighth graders have been experiencing the excitement of campaigning firsthand! In Social Studies, they’ve built their own political parties from scratch, developing everything from core values to campaign strategies. This project was all about learning how democracy works by doing it themselves.
Here’s a note from Eighth Grade Social Studies teacher Scott Meyer on this project:
As we have moved deeper into this election season and its important races ranging all the way from the local to the federal level, eighth-grade students have been hard at work on elections of their own!
Students have worked in groups to create political parties from the ground up, complete with their own names, logos, and slogans. The goal of the project was to get students to think critically and collaboratively while engaging with some of the major topics of modern politics.
Key Components of the Project:
- Party Values: Students identified their party’s five core values, which then guided positions and action plans.
- Party Planks: Groups determined their positions on various issues, forming the foundation of their party’s platform.
- Party Policies: Policy Teams for each party created detailed plans to achieve their platforms.
- Policy Spin: Public Relations Teams added flair to their policies, emphasizing the importance of their approach to voters in a bid to gain support.
- Campaigning: Groups creatively engaged voters through various methods. Each group had to use at least two different campaigning strategies to deliver their platform to the electorate (middle school faculty and their fellow eighth-grade students).
Just as with any election or campaign, students found that some methods were more effective than others. Strategies included posters and flyers, buttons with party logos, and letters placed in faculty mailboxes. Some really stepped into the modern era and included scannable QR codes on campaign materials.
We are proud to celebrate the enthusiasm and creativity our students have shown during this Election Project. Many groups chose values, positions, and policies that reflect the ideals we hold dear at Orchard.
Since groups were sorted randomly for the project, students were faced with the challenge of finding common ground and compromising with one another to work toward a shared goal. The collaboration and teamwork displayed during this project have been one of the most exciting and impressive pieces to see in action.
-Scott Meyer
-Scott Meyer
Today, the results are in, and the Poplar Party clinched both the popular vote and the Electoral College, running on a platform of Equity, Freedom, Integrity, Stability, Growth, and Improvement. Each student proudly wore an "I Voted" sticker to mark the day. This hands-on experience engaged our Owls and taught them how democracy works through active participation, preparing many of them to vote in the 2028 election!
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