Street Law & The 4th Amendment Mini Project
> RapYourRights.Weebly.Com <
The landing page of my Street Law Mini Project RapYourRights, an online interactive guide that examines rap lyrics and their relation to the 4th Amendment rights of U.S. Citizens. Visit the site here: rapyourrights.weebly.com
Street Law Mini Project: Reflection
The Street Law Mini Project gave a brief glimpse into 4th Amendments rights in the U.S., and how these rights can be altered when applied to different situations. The essential question of this project is "How do we balance the need for personal privacy (liberty) with the need to keep a safe, orderly, and just society?" The answer to this question is very important, and it applies to almost every U.S. citizen in a very major way. To answer this question, we looked at primary and secondary sources that explained the technicalities of the 4th (and part of the 5th) Amendment in a very understandable and applicable way. We then took these somewhat vague ideas and applied them to our own school and social environments via real life scenario analyses and a visit from two Durango Police Officers. By combining all of these sources, students came away with a solid understanding of Street Law and their 4th Amendment rights. This knowledge was then used to craft an informative and refined mini project. These projects ranged anywhere from flow charts to videos to online rap quizzes (see above) and everywhere in between. The flexibility of the project guidelines allowed students to be very creative with the execution of their mini project, and each student came away with a result that they could take pride in and felt like was informational as well.
Connecting to my project was fairly easy since I've always had a deep appreciation for hip-hop culture and the influence its lyrics have on societal norms. When I first came up with the idea for RapYourRights, I was uncertain how easily I would be able to execute an idea that was uncharted territory. I'm thankful for the simplicity and aesthetic ease that I was awarded by designing this site with Weebly. I know that if I had tried to create my own site from scratch, it could have been much harder. Although it was taxing work at first, I soon found that populating my online guide with information (lyrics) and analysis was entertaining and fairly simple. I hope that my audience experiences this site in the same way, and can be informed about their 4th Amendment rights within a unique and engaging platform. Hopefully, if the viewers of the site are anything like I am, they'll want to dig deeper and research more into how lyrics and musical media can influence and portray civic rights. Ultimately, I feel that I've only scraped the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lyrics pertaining to the 4th Amendment. Hopefully, as we study government more this year, I will be able to continue to research the influence of rap and hip-hop on social and political change.
Connecting to my project was fairly easy since I've always had a deep appreciation for hip-hop culture and the influence its lyrics have on societal norms. When I first came up with the idea for RapYourRights, I was uncertain how easily I would be able to execute an idea that was uncharted territory. I'm thankful for the simplicity and aesthetic ease that I was awarded by designing this site with Weebly. I know that if I had tried to create my own site from scratch, it could have been much harder. Although it was taxing work at first, I soon found that populating my online guide with information (lyrics) and analysis was entertaining and fairly simple. I hope that my audience experiences this site in the same way, and can be informed about their 4th Amendment rights within a unique and engaging platform. Hopefully, if the viewers of the site are anything like I am, they'll want to dig deeper and research more into how lyrics and musical media can influence and portray civic rights. Ultimately, I feel that I've only scraped the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lyrics pertaining to the 4th Amendment. Hopefully, as we study government more this year, I will be able to continue to research the influence of rap and hip-hop on social and political change.