As a part of the Civic Literacy course, I developed the Civic Action Project with my colleague Reilly Finnegan. Students identify a problem facing their local community, conduct research on the problem and solutions that have been tried, and develop & propose their own solution to fix it. Students present their work in an expo style format where we invite community leaders and elected officials, and the winning projects receive a cash prize. Projects have gone on to be developed into real ideas, the Spring 2023 winning project was used as a grant proposal and won $5000 from the Durham Public Schools Foundation.  

Benefits of the Project Include:

• Give students an authentic task and an authentic audience

• Inquiry driven projects lead to more relevance for each student

• Challenge students whatever their prior skill level

• Real practice core social studies skills like: research, argumentative writing, collaboration, presentation, and more.

• By the end, students are proud of themselves and eager to share their proposals with decision makers. Students feel heard and feel their agency in our society.