As a way to study the historical significance of our country’s presidents and follow this year’s election, a class project was created. Our project is entitled, “The Great Debate.” Each student chose a president to research and study. Each student completed many hours of research and reading, a six-paragraph historical essay ,a thirty-second recorded commercial (STEAM), and a slide presentation that was used during the debate, participated in a debate with another student, along with a hand-drawn portrait.
As a class, we conducted a four-round debate. Two presidents would debate each other using facts gathered by the students. The winners of each round would advance. On February 10th, we held our FINAL ROUND.
Our judges were Mr. James Stephens, from Historic Cold Spring Village, Julie Factor, our Librarian and Santa Shark Tank Judge, and Tommy Barber, a 2016 Young Historian of Cape May County. A rather prestigious group of judges were selected for this event.
The final round’s contestants were: President Richard Nixon, (Brynlee Pelham) and President Woodrow Wilson (Maddelyn McCarraher) the final score was very close, but Woodrow Wilson pulled out the victory with a score of 11-10.
Our Master of Ceremonies for this event was Cassady Garrison and Ryan Gass.
Before the Great Debate was held, our fourth graders were involved in another great presentation by Mr. Stephens, entitled, “The Story of Old Glory.”