FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: May 12, 2003
Contact: Peggy Dunn, 206-7399
Note:
Banquet is 6:45 – 9 p.m. TONIGHT, May 12.
SPRINGFIELD – A banquet
recognizing participants in the first Public Policy High School Initiative, a
program of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Center for Governmental Studies at
the University of Illinois at Springfield, will be held from 6:45 to 9 p.m.
Monday, May 12, in the Public Affairs Center Restaurant at UIS.
Under the initiative launched
this past year, grants of $5,500 were awarded to high schools across the state
to identify and then research a public policy issue that affected their own
communities.
With grant support, students and
five-teacher teams explored the relationship between a current, real-world
problem and its historical framework, and alternative options for its
resolution. During the course of their projects, students and teachers gained
hands-on experience in a number of areas including civics, government,
technology, and lobbying skills.
The schools worked with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Center for Governmental Studies staff to design projects that were shared electronically via the Internet. By creating homepages linked through the center’s homepage, teachers and students were able to transmit
their work as it progressed and share it with teachers and students at other participating schools. Students served as researchers, analyzers, evaluators, developers of knowledge, and communicators during the entire process.
The banquet on Monday is part of
a two-day conference on the UIS campus allowing the
-more-
teams to meet face-to-face to share
experiences and present results. The banquet will feature remarks from Rich
Brauer, state representative from the 100th district, and Mel
Allison, grant facilitator from Riverton High School, as well as demonstrations
of the various projects.
Participating high schools, their
team leaders, and topics are: Anna-Jonesboro (John Murray), “The Vanishing Great
Generation: Captured for the Future”; Benton (Larry Hancock),
“Would a Railroad Over/Underpass Save Our Lives?”; Decatur Eisenhower (Mike
Rusk), “Lincoln’s Macon County”; Heyworth (Donna Knapp), “Tiff: Helping or Hurting
Small Communities?”; Morris (Greg Eaton), “Voting: Where We Are and
Where We are Going – The Chad vs. the Scranton”; Ottawa Township (Craig
Mueller), “Schools Facing Extinction: The Empty Pocket Project”; Pleasant Plains (Mike Ward), “School Funding: An Exercise in Reform”; Riverton (Kevin Robbins), “Riverton Park Project”; Salem (Diane Eller),
“Link-On Education: A Look at Lincoln’s Education Funding and the Relation to
21st Century Educational Challenges”; Springfield Southeast
(Andrea Usinger), “A Voter Query”; Vienna (Jonathan Green), “Consolidation for Better
Education”; and Webber Township (Sandy Wilson), “Creating the Bluford
Community Center.”
All secondary schools in Illinois are
eligible to apply for a Public Policy Initiative Research Grant for 2003-2004.
Information can be found online at http://alpcgs.uis.edu/pphsp/lincinstitute,
or by contacting project coordinator Peggy Dunn at (217) 206-7399.
Summaries of current projects are available online at http://pphsp.uis.edu/pphsp.projects.htm.
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