Melkers Personalizes U.S. Government Course with Creative Projects

Posted December 11, 2015

Julia Melkers, an associate professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, taught her “Government of the U.S.” course this fall with an ambitious goal in mind: making an intro class of 150 students feel smaller.

Melkers designed a more personalized learning experience for her students by assigning creative group projects that helped them understand U.S. policy issues and communicate their knowledge to their peers.

“My hope is that students learn more about American government by actively working on projects meaningful to their generation, and to society overall,” Melkers said.

Students were divided into 15 teams called Policy Caucus Groups and assigned policy topics related to privacy and security, federal and state rights, contentious moral debates, civil rights and liberties, and millennial-based issues. Throughout the semester they learned to think critically about these topics and shared their research through an Ignite presentation, a poster, and a short film.

The course culminated in a “Millennial Summit” week where the teams presented their films and held a poster session while fielding questions about their research. Melkers invited 35 high school students from The New School to attend the poster session, and she thought both groups of students benefited from the event.

“My students really enjoyed the opportunity to be challenged by their younger peers, and the New School kids had a great experience at Tech,” she said.

Freshman chemistry major Aliyah Hill felt the poster session and the course as a whole provided her with valuable research and presentation experiences.

“I learned how to effectively work in a large group and most importantly, gained a very in-depth understanding of policy issues facing our government. In addition, I learned the importance of engaging millennials since being informed is the first step in seeing the changes we desire in our government,” Hill said. 

“Overall, I truly enjoyed the poster session. It was a lot of fun being able to explain to my classmates, peers, and high school students about my topic while simultaneously learning from them,” she continued. “I definitely recommend taking this course for opportunities like these.”