For the Political Action group project, Sarah A, Ani A, Allie A, and Caitlin H wanted to somehow get people in the high school of Parish Episcopal School involved and informed about the political process. They put their heads together and created a way to achieve their original goal of making an impact. The group’s political action project has been meaningful because they have created a cultural touchstone within the school and had a large turnout with the cultural touchstone.
The group decided to make a bracelet that they would hand out during lunch. But to get a bracelet they had to fill out a survey about voting. The questions included, “When you turn 18 will you register to vote and vote in the next election?” and “Who is one person running for governor in the upcoming election?” Once a participant fill out the survey with their prior knowledge on the election process, they receive a bracelet. In the first day of handing out the bracelets and doing the survey, the group handed out 206 bracelets. By the end of the project the group handed out 231 bracelets and had 231 surveys. Giving out all those bracelets in a fairly small high school created a cultural touchstone. Now when someone sees that white bracelet they can show how they have one as well and that they have visited the website and have gotten informed about the political process. Everyone who has a bracelet can talk about how they saw this really cool video about what a senator does and now they know what role a senator has to play in the political process. If someone doesn’t know about the bracelet and website, they can just ask someone with a bracelet and that person will tell them about how they should get informed about the political process by conveniently visiting the website. This then becomes a cycle of people wanting to know more about the bracelets and what they mean and then them visiting the website. The bracelet will become something really cool to wear because it means that you have been to the website and that you are becoming educated on the political process, which in turn creates a large turnout for the number of people who want to get informed and them making an impact by spreading the word about how to get involved and informed.
Caitlin’s, Allie’s, Analisa’s, and Sarah’s turnout for bracelets and surveys showed an impact on getting young people involved. For the first question of the survey, “When you turn 18 will you register to vote and vote in the upcoming election,” 201 people said yes, 14 said no, and 16 said maybe or they are unable to register. An overwhelming 87% of people want to register to vote. That shows they young people really do want to get involved in the political process. For the second question, “who is one person running for governor,” more people did not know someone running than people knowing someone running. This showed that people, at first, were not informed about the political process and the upcoming election, but the group encouraged people to visit their website and get informed and learn how to get involved. Many people visited the website and got informed. Out of the three videos posted on the website, there was a total of 62 views. That is a fair amount for such a small high school. For our survey, faculty and students could participate which was a total of 431 people. The group only had 300 bracelets, and out of those 300, 231 people participated in the survey. The sample size of the group’s calculations was 300 because there were only three hundred bracelets. Out of the sample size 71% of people participated in the survey. That is a very good turnout and if those 71% of people get informed, they can pass that information along and then many people will start getting involved. Overall, the group made an impact by created a cultural touchstone so the information about getting informed can keep spreading and they made an impact because 231 people filled out a survey and wanted to get involved and informed about the political process.
Political Action Project 
Wow, that’s impressive. You guys had a really creative idea that obviously worked (I was definatly curious about those white bracelets)! I wish you had maybe taken it outside of the school though…after all you got such wonderful results, I’m curious how you guys would be recieved by a community that isn’t Parish.
Very nice work!
We definitely agree with your idea of taking the bracelets outside of school into the community, especially because it would be easier to measure impact and spread awareness. The reason we did not take it outside of Parish was because we had a short time limit. Thanks so much for your comment Henri!
I feel like this was a very creative and powerful idea. But i think that you should not make the percentage the number of people who participated over the number of braclets you had. i think you should have made the percentege the number of people who participated over the total number of people , being 231/431. Which would show how many people participated out of the the total amount of people that had the option to do so. I feel that this was still i very good idea and a very good way to get people involed . GOOD JOB!
Austin, we discussed this idea in depth with Ms. Lyon, and we came to the conclusion that the sample size would be best expressed by using the number of bracelets we had instead of the total number of students and faculty in the highschool, as it would have been misleading due to the fact that we had a limited amount of bracelets. We appreciate your comment and thank you for paying close attention to the semantics of our project. 🙂
Caitlin, Ani, Allie, and Sarah-
We think that your short but impactful survey was given when recieving the bracelets. The survey showed in a very real way if the person knew anything about the upcoming election and it’s candidates. We think that the way you displayed all of your information on the website was great. What did students do when they went to the website?
Thank you so much for your response to our post. When students go to the website, they have the option to watch the videos enriching them in the political process. They also have the option to visit rockthevote.com to learn more about how young people can get involved with the process.
I believe that the bracelets were a great idea! It seems as though life moves so quickly and without reminders we tend to focus on the “now” rather than thinking about the past and working to use those ideas to better ourselves in the future. It seems as though these bracelets will serve as a daily reminder to all about the importance of the political process and how we should all be involved. I myself see the bracelets on a daily basis and each time I remember this project and what it stands for. This is a great project and will continue to influence people long after it’s due date.
Kate, thank you so much for your response! We were hoping that by distributing the bracelets it would be a little reminder to everyone to get involved, so it’s great to know that other people think so as well!
I think that this was a really good idea! Instead of trying to change the opinions of those you speak to in a matter of minutes, the bracelets serve as a daily reminder of the importance of participation in government to those who wear them. The short message on the bracelets makes it known to all that their participation makes an impact on their life in the long run. This project was influential and really creative! good job!
Thanks so much for your support! We are glad that you like our bracelets and we are happy to know that people use them as a reminder, and not just a bracelet.
Love the data! I hope that when you read data in future articles that you read the fine print and understand how the data was manipulated. Great job.
Mrs. Lyon, thank you so much for your feedback and your help on our project! Your knowledge truly helped us to incorporate a more wholesome view about the number of people we actually surveyed!