Project -Understanding Economic Downturns- Students will compare the actions and responses of FDR and Obama during economic crisis. (Objectives 10 and 11)
Project Summary
Summarize the main ideas of the New Deal programs and the programs proposed by the Obama administration
Compare and contrast the two historic policies.
Judge the possible successes or failures of the new policy based on the lessons learned from the old policy.
Create an original product to communicate the ideas generated during the summarization, compare/contrast and judgment pieces of the analysis.
The form the project takes is student choice. Project needs to address the content pieces and can't be boring. This means that as a group you will propose what it will look like in the end.
Essential Questions:
Does America learn from past lessons of history?
What national conditions bring about similar historical events?
How does the economic success or failure of America change the lives of American systems and individuals?
Inquiry: Working with your group:
identify the main points of FDR's economic policies and those of Obama's plan for his new administration
Differentiate the successes and failures of FDR's plan.
Compare and contrast current economic conditions and those during the Great Depression
Research: Working with your group, become fluent with the conditions present in the US during the Great Depression.
Collaboration: Use your research to judge the current economic plan:
using the historic record, predict the potential success or failure of Obama's economic plan
create an original project that illustrates the prediction
brainstorm creative ways of presenting historic information
Reflection: Each member of your team will journal about (on your blog) : · The Process · The way you handled group dynamics · The choices made during the evaluation process · The evolving understanding of the interaction between business and the American government
REMEMBER: These are very political issues, so some of the writing on BOTH of these events can be very biased! Make sure that you are utilizing credible material.
Great Recession You guys are going to have to dig on your own too. Below are some great sources of information on the causes of the Great Recession.