You can put honors into action with creative project ideas. Excellent projects ideas allow students to learn more about the Honors Study Topic and/or share information about the topic with others. Below are several ideas for projects related to the national and international focuses explored throughout the e-newsletter.
National Focus:
Lead a local high school to create a team to compete in the Fed Challenge (see http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/teachers/FedChallenge/fedChallenge_intro.htm). Work with the team members as they develop a presentation in which they analyze the current state of the economy and make a monetary policy recommendation to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). You can also help prepare the team to defend their presentation and answer questions about macroeconomic theory.
Read the article, "How to Think About the November 2006 Congressional Elections," by Thomas Mann, cited above. Conduct a campus or community survey to determine which factors (gold, gods, or glory) will have the greatest impact on congressional seat changes in the 2006 midterm election for your district and the nation. Compare your findings with the factors Mann presents in his article and predict the outcome of the upcoming election. After the election, determine if your findings were consistent with the election results and discuss them.
During a chapter meeting discuss the problems of a congress dominated by extreme party ideologies, and explore how moderates impact the balance of American politics. Research the congressmen and women from your state and determine where they lie on the ideology spectrum.
International Focus:
Be a good neighbor! Adopt an active-duty soldier's family and help out by mowing lawns, cleaning a garage, babysitting, or buying needed gifts. As you get to know the family, find out where the soldier is stationed, learn the responsibilities of the soldier's division; and research the conflict the soldier is involved in.
Using a professor knowledgeable in the Middle East and international students from that region, have a panel discussion on the varying views of America in the Iraq War. Charge admission of a phone card or other needed item to send to soldiers stationed abroad; you could also request donations be made to the USA Scholarship Program that gives scholarships to children or spouses of active-duty U.S. military service personnel.
Assign each chapter in your region (or district) a country, militant group, or religious sect that has been in the news lately (Iran, Hamas, Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah, Shiite, Sunni, Israel, Lebanon, North Korea, US, Iraq, etc.) Each chapter should research the current conflict and the role played by their assigned body. At the next regional or district meeting, chapters must use what they have learned to form "alliances" by negotiating peace agreements with other chapters in order to sit with them.