Now You’re President – What
do you do?
What Should the President Do?
- The purpose of this project is to determine what the American
people want the new President to do upon taking office
- Your group will start by developing a series of survey questions
related to Foreign Policy (including the Wars), Economic Issues, and
all other issues
- research, and what you learn about the Executive Branch, will be
critical to the development of good questions
- you will build a survey from your questions, your survey will
also include age group, place of residence, education level, and
political party
- You have 2+ weeks to compile your survey and collect your data,
after which time your group will put your findings together in a PPT
- Your final presentation will include both a PPT summarizing your
findings and a 2-3 minute inaugural address by “your president
Building Your Survey
- Divide each of the major topics into sub topics – each group
member gets one sub topic
- Each group member researches their subtopics and develops 2
possible survey questions for their subtopic (6 questions per person)
- The group reviews the proposed questions and builds and refines
the final survey (18-20 questions – not counting demographic questions)
Writing Good Questions
- Questions need to be carefully designed so that you get the most
valuable information from the people you survey
- Good research will help you understand what you need to ask about
each issue
- Your questions must be multiple choice, give your respondents a
list of specific actions to choose from OR provide them with a specific
action and ask them if they agree with it (SD – D – N – A – SA)
You will then collect your survey
data, and compile it using Microsoft Excel. Once you've compiled
it you will start creating yopur presentation.
Your PPT Presentation:
- 1-2 slides covering each of the major topics (no more than 8
slides total)
- slides should detail the specific
actions the President is going to take, make sure you double
check these actions against your notes to make sure they are within the
President's powers
- use charts from Excel to show particularly significant public
opinion (where the p[ublic overwhelmingly supports a position or action)
Your Inaugural Address:
- This is where you put the President's plan for action to the
people,
you declare it to the world. This is where you sell the
highlights of your plan to the public
- Use the samples below as a model for putting together a good
1.5-2 minute inaugural address. The speech can be delivered by
one person, two people, or the entire group
- Be sure to refine and rehearse your speech so that its
presentation is the highlight of your project
Sample Inaugural Addresses:
Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (1933) - Just as he was about to launch the New Deal
John Kennedy (1961) -
Introducing his vision for the New Frontier
Ronald Reagan (1981)
- Right at the start of the "Reagan Revolution"
A full list of all the inaugural addresses can be found here
What you will turn in:
- The research you did to help you write good survey questions
- The specific questions you wrote
- The surveys you conducted
- Your Excel spreadsheet (saved on school computers)
- Your PPT presentation (saved on school computers)
- A typed final draft of your inaugural address