Upward Bound American History Test

I recently finished working as a History teacher for the Upward Bound Pre-college program at Weber State University. Part of my job was to test the students' knowledge on American history and government institutions. My partner and I created a test which we thought would be fairly challenging, but not too difficult to pass. Most of the questions make up what should be general knowledge of American history and institutions and are not overly detailed.

The pre-test results weren't particularly great. Granted, these students are 9th-12th grade and have had very different experiences with history at their respective schools, so overall they did fine.

Pre-test average: 15/35 or about 42%

After the 5 week program, the students did a lot better overall and there were a few significant score increases among the students. In the last few days of the class we had discussions about the Supreme Court and a review day, and their comments were well thought out and insightful, and it appeared that they had learned a lot during the few weeks they were there. And they did: the results were quite a difference:

Post-test average: 23/35 or about 66%

This still isn't spectacular or anything, but considering the short time we spent and that many of these kids haven't had a government-focused course yet, I feel we built a solid foundation for them to expand on when they get back to school in the fall.

In the meantime, however, I would like to know what YOU would get if you took the same test I gave these students. There are 30 open-ended questions and a short 5 point essay at the end, so the test should take you a maximum of 10-15 minutes and probably less. Think you're up for the challenge?

Remember, don't cheat! These students didn't use notes, so you certainly can't use google. Simply answer to the best of your ability and show me what you know!

***UPDATE***  In the original test I failed to have a name/e-mail field so I can get in touch with you.  Sorry about that!  The new test now has a name and e-mail field.  Enjoy!  Also, here are the results for the first 6 nameless forms I received:

1.  27/35, an excellent score!
2.  17/35, pretty close to the average of my students on their pre-tests.
3.  22/35, a decent score, but nothing to write Jefferson about.
4.  20/35, see above.
5.  28/35, another excellent score!
6.  Belinda: 29/35, the high score so far, but not better than my top bounders.
7.  Nick: 29/35, which is especially good considering he didn't do the 5-point essay.
8.  Chad: 32/35, awesome!
9.  Sarah: 31/35, excellente!
10.  Lorrie:  24/35, pretty close to the post-test average for my bounders.
11.  Sarah (another one):  28/35, a solid score.
12.  Wendy:  29/35, well played!
13.  Alexa:  28/35, these averages are quite good!
14.  Zach (but not me):  29/35, very well done good sir!

Keep em' coming!

American Civic Knowledge Survey

Special thanks to my Mum who provided the link to today's blog!  This quick quiz (only 10 questions) is a Civic-literacy exam created by the intercollegiate studies institute.  I'm not sure if what was written in the e-mail is accurate, but according to the e-mail the average American will score somewhere around 50% on this exam, and college professors typically don't get much higher.

The first time I took it I got a 90%, but I won't tell you which one I missed.  No cheating!  Take the quiz and see how you measure up!

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Bill of Rights Rap

  Behold world!  I wrote this song during my work as a History teacher/counselor for Weber State University's Upward Bound summer program.  We were learning about the Bill of Rights in History class, and I just wanted to try and make it fun for the kids.  I apologize that the sound quality isn't the best, but hopefully you'll enjoy it regardless!  Please see the youtube page for the full lyrics if you're interested.

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The Political Compass

Being a political science major has made me realize a rather interesting fact:

People typically have no idea where they stand politically.

If you ask them their feelings on a handful of key issues, they can usually answer with something fairly straightforward.  They may even be able to talk at length on a few of them.  But by and large, when it comes to defining a specific and consistent ideology they don't really seem to know what they're talking about.

Well now, THEY CAN!

Introducing "The Political Compass."

The political compass is a quick and free test which asks a few questions regarding typical political issues, both social and economic.  When finished, the test then gives you a visual representation of your political beliefs, placed on a quadrant according to your answers.  You can even compare your own answers to where famous political figures ended up, from more modern political figures like Barack Obama and Angela Merkel to people like Adolf Hitler and Gandhi.

So where did you land?  Were you surprised by what you found?

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North Korea: Apparently a Great Place to Live

This week, North Korea's state run Chosun Central Television organization released a "global happiness index" that reported some not-so-surprising results.  The report allegedly polled citizens worldwide in a survey to measure their feelings toward their nation and standard of living.  This in spite of the fact that anyone who knows anything about the regime in Pyongyang knows that it is easily one of the most isolationist and repressive regimes in the history of the world.

But hey, why not humor the Dear Leader?  Here's some of the results from the survey:

1.  China (100 happiness points)
2.  North Korea (98 happiness points)
3.  Cuba  (93 happiness points)
4.  Iran  (88 happiness points)
5.  Venezuela  (85 happiness points)
203.  The American Empire  (2 happiness points)

That's right, "The American Empire."

Frankly I've enjoyed living in this awful place, being able to freely post blogs without fear of being arrested, being able to vote for my leaders, and being able to protest or advocate the causes I please without being arrested, beaten or killed.

So friends, what's your favorite part of living in the dreadful American Empire?  Do you wish you could move to North Korea?

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Washington D.C. Day 4: Successful Lobbying, Unsuccessful Air-Lining

Our final day in D.C. went very quickly- minus the flight at the end of course.  We started the day by walking to one of the Senate office buildings with over 800 other activists.  We took a quick picture together, and then it was time to go our separate ways.  Hundreds of students lobbying virtually every Senator in the United States- and at the same time too!  We did our share by going to a meeting with Senator Bennett's aid Kami Capner.  Our meeting was pretty quick- about 20 minutes in all, but during that time we showed Kami a short film made by STAND's national organization, pressed the importance of pending legislation, including the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery act as well as the Congo Conflict Minerals act.  In addition, we expressed our concern for future legislation not yet brought to congress, encouraging the Senator to spearhead a project to create genocide-prevention legislation.  After we spoke, we gave Kami the video, some summary sheets, and a full report by the Genocide Prevention Task Force to pass on to the Senator.  Overall, the meeting went very smoothly and was definitely another success for STAND.

Our trip back home, however, has been very difficult!  We were supposed to be back in Salt Lake City at about 11:30 Monday night, but as I write this it is about 8:45 am on Tuesday and we are waiting for a plane in Phoenix! 

In order to get to Phoenix in the first place, we had to get to the Baltimore Airport.  Don't ask me why we couldn't just take a plane from D.C's Reagan airport- Baltimore was for some reason much cheaper.  But anyway, in order to get to Baltimore we had to ride the Metro subway for about 30 minutes and then catch a bus to Baltimore.  This travel was for the most part uneventful, though at one point Jo Anne tried to throw away some paper from a distance and missed the trash can.  Some guy then said "NBA Star, you aren't."  He was right, but I'm fairly certain he wasn't an NBA star either.  If he was, I would have asked him to come with us to Utah so he could remind my Utah Jazz that they still have to play in the 4th quarter.

Anyway, we got to the airport and boarded the plane.  The plane then taxied out near the runway, but they then found out that the cockpit door wouldn't close.  So we idled there for about 30 minutes until they discovered a mechanism for door-closery.  But by then we had idled for so long that the plane didn't have the fuel to get to Phoenix, so we taxied back to the terminal, refueled, and headed back out- delaying us about an hour.  We then flew what seemed like the longest flight in the history of man.  During the flight I finished reading two books, Memoirs of a Geisha and The Stranger.  I also started reading Gandhi's Autobiography, but I decided I didn't want to read any more.  So instead I looked out my window.  It was too dark to see anything; except when the lights of the plane flashed and I could see the wingtips like some really lame mid-air strobe-light rave-party.  In truth I wasn't watching the wingtips though, I was staring at the inside of the window which was frosting over from the cold.  I've never watched frost appear on anything before, but I can say that it takes a long time.  Long time, luckily, was something I had, so I watched frost appear on the window.  In a way it was kind of beautiful, how slowly it accumulated there, but before long I realized that I was watching frost appear on a window, so I took out my journal and started writing.

Jo Anne was asleep this whole time, and the woman sitting next to her was reading a Nicholas Sparks novel, though either she wasn't very interested or wasn't a very fast reader because throughout the course of the flight she only read about 20 pages.  I never asked her about the book though. 

Anyway, after all that junk we finally arrived in Phoenix and, of course, we missed the flight to Salt Lake City.  They gave us a hotel voucher and told us to wait for a van to come from the hotel they had assigned us.  The van didn't come for about 45 minutes.  While we waited for it we were surrounded by a bunch of old people and army veterans smoking cigarettes and we were often talked to by the guy that sat next to Rollin, who was kind of crazy. 

We made it to the hotel though, and they actually had a good breakfast for us this morning.  In good spirits now, I am very much ready to come home.  I need to get caught up in school and sleep in a comfortable bed.  I don't know why I said those things in that order- those are just the things on my mind right now.  That and going on facebook, which I think I'll do right now.  Thanks for reading eh, and um...  Don't fly US Airways?

This Title Does a Poor Job of Summing Up the Content of This Blog

Today is day two of the 5 days off of work I've recently acquired and, since I'm running out of things to do with my life, I've decided to begin work on what will undoubtedly become yet another addition to the ever-expanding archives of my obscurity.  Oooh!  I'm self-aware!

But the beauty of creating something you doubt will ever truly be seen, read, or even cared about is that you can write virtually whatever you want about anything you want and pretend that it is reaching a wide audience of individuals just waiting to pounce on your next word and suckle it dry of its thick, syrupy knowledge-juice.  Coincidentally, a free supply of syrupy knowledge juice is exactly what I intend to impart of with this blog.  

But what knowledge can an 18 year old Junior in College have, you ask?  Well the answer is simple- I know everything.  I wouldn't know everything if you came up and asked me a question in real life, but the fact that this blog is hosted on the internet should suffice to say that I want you to ask me a question through the internet so I can hide behind a veil of wikipedia references and google searches that will make me seem all knowing and omnipotent.  I just have to hope that the general public hasn't yet learned how to perform a google search.  

So to sum up my poorly organized and vaguely defined introduction I'd like to say this: read my blog on a regular basis or the terrorists are winning.  If you hate America and endorse Somali pirates, please disregard my work entirely.