Derrick P. Abromeit

Through Abromeit's "Creating the Perfect Candidate; Political Parties and Elections" program, twelfth-grade students at Gardner Edgerton High School will work together in groups of five to create their own unique and original political party, party platform and fictional presidential candidate. Students with similar beliefs will form new political parties, conduct opinion polls within the community, determine important issues to be included in their platform and then construct their "perfect candidate" Wiki site, including background information on their presidential and vice presidential candidates. Selected members from the community and school faculty will join parents in viewing the completed student Web pages. Then, they'll vote for their preferred presidential candidate using an online survey program. This program will improve student learning by requiring them to apply knowledge of the U.S. political process. Students will gather information from a variety of sources, synthesize the information and develop an original product. Abromeit resides in Lawrence.