Driving Question
How can we, as 8th graders of C. School District, develop a product inspired by our learning objective theme, "Abolition Then & Now," fostering civic responsibility and protecting human rights?
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Introduction
At O. Middle School, we were given a theme and a driving question. We had to create a product that fosters civic responsibility and protects human rights that are related to that. The theme was “Abolition Then & Now” and we decided to create a public website for people to learn and donate to organizations. The topic we chose to further research and help spread awareness on was about slavery then and now highlighting discrimination, racism, poverty, and abolitionists. We decided in looking deeper into the Underground Railroad because it was a great example of all of these actions. So, we wrote and published a short realistic fiction story surrounding the topic from the abolitionist’s point of view. We have many parts included in the story, adding how abolition and slavery was back then compared to how it is now. The criteria we considered in deciding our project was finding a way to create something public where people can learn about our theme “Abolition Then & Now,” and organizations that are already contributing and helping. When we were researching organizations, we realized that most of them were for forced labor, violence, and agricultural abuses. So, we decided to have different organizations for each topic. We also wanted a way for people to access it easily. We thought about creating a physical book but we realized that not everyone would have access to it. We came to the conclusion of creating a physical book to be passed around and also a digital one for anyone on the web to access it. It was the best way possible to share our project with many people. We decided on using the webpage Weebly to create a website because it was free and everyone on the web was going to be able to access it. On the website there are different pages to look at and explore. Some of the constraints with our product was time. Since this was a project we were going to do in school, we were given a due date. We needed to carefully plan and map out a timeline so we could finish in time. Something else was the cost. We didn’t want our project to cost anything. But one of our products was to create a physical book. We needed a way to buy a blank book to start writing in it. Lastly, we needed a way for our work to be the best we could make it, quality. Since we were given a certain due date, it was hard to plan out what we would have in the end. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t rushed and that we would have all the time we wanted while working efficiently. Our product is important to us because it will help fund and further spread awareness about racism. Racism is a worldwide problem, not a minor one. It is something that has been going on for centuries. Many people believe that different groups of humans possess different rights. They believe that people from different races are not as intelligent or good compared to people of their own race. Racism is a belief, it’s not true. It’s something that should be recognized and something that should be taken care of. Back then, racism was the thing that led to slavery. People thought that they were better than others so they took people in as slaves and forced them to work for them. The impact we want our product to have is for people to realize that slavery is still happening today and to educate the people who read our story about “Abolition Then & Now”. It shows how slavery is still happening and the effects it has on people today. We wish to inspire people to donate and help support organizations abolishing racism and poverty, which we will include at the end of our website and book. We want people to realize that racism is not something that we should be talking about. It should be known as something we need to change or help. We also want people to know that everyone should be treated equally no matter their race. We want to educate people on what’s right, not wrong. Our product is connected to the theme “Abolition Then & Now” because the Underground Railroad was an act of abolitionists stopping slavery. The Underground Railroad was “Abolition Then”. “Abolition Now” are the people or organizations that are helping to abolish slavery. Our product is also connected to the theme because we want to help others around the world and not just our community. We want this to be something that people don’t just look at. We want to make a difference in our community and others. Our product fosters civic responsibility and protects human rights by educating civilians on our past and present about slavery, ways to help, and sources if they’d like to do further research. It lets them acknowledge what happened in the past and figure out ways it’s still happening now. It’ll broaden their knowledge and nurture their civic responsibility. We also want people to be able to learn from what we researched and found and educate others as well. It’ll also help them notice the lack of human rights in the past and hopefully inspire them to protect it in the future. Our product answers the driving question by creating a short story highlighting discrimination and slavery, a public website containing that story and explanations about organizations to donate their time or fund, the resources we used to research, and more. We intend to have a physical and digital copy of our short story both including more information at the end, the digital copy being accessible to the public and physical either being displayed in the media center or stored in a safe place. In conclusion, the product we decided to create based on the theme and driving question is a book and a website about the Underground Railroad spreading awareness on racism and discrimination. It also has a place to learn more about organizations. We hope to encourage others to donate, or help in any way they can, using funding or their time to volunteer. We want our product to educate others on how slavery was then and now and ways it was abolished, the people who assisted, and those who funded it. We aim to inspire people to learn more about human rights and grow the responsibilities that civilians feel, to encourage them to lend a hand to people in need of it. We also wish to aspire people to contribute in various ways and support them helping others. Please enjoy our book and take your time to read our website pages. We hope this inspires you and others to raise awareness on racism. |