Generating Course/Disciplinary Connections to Real Policy Issues
Our students can practice civic skills and find motivation for civic participation through classroom activities and assignments that connect course topics to real policy debates and decisions on a ballot. Easy for me to say, right? I’m a political scientist—the connections are built right in! While it was designed to directly encourage students to vote, Your Major on the Ballot and its companion, the Science and Civics Guide, are generative for instructors too, particularly if you are in a field (Accounting? Agriculture? Architecture?) where those policy connections don’t feel quite as readily apparent.
Your Major on the Ballot is designed to help draw connections between democracy and the different fields students are studying in the classroom. Illustrating the connection between issues that students care about and their choices on the ballot can help motivate students to participate in the democratic process in ways that more conventional political messaging often falls short.
Some students aren’t aware of how the issues that impact them every day, such as the fields they study, are connected to voting. This is especially true for majors that are not traditionally considered “political” or majors with historically low rates of voter engagement like those within the STEM fields. This resource focuses on identifying laws, policies, regulations, and government funding sources that affect different fields, as well as opportunities for academic research to influence policy.