Today’s post comes from Reagan Library Education Department staffer Brett Robert.
Launching a big project like the Situation Room Experience requires not only a team of devoted professional staff, but community support as well. We have been incredibly fortunate to have several local schools help us dial-in the simulation during our final testing this spring for the fall 2016 launch of the Situation Room Experience. Last Tuesday, May 24, 2016, we were joined by an incredible group of students and future leaders from Palisades Charter High School. Huge thanks go out to our Education Advisory Board Member and Palisades Charter High School Teacher John Rauschuber for bringing his AP students to the Situation Room Experience!
Carina Morgan, the Reagan Presidential Library and Museum’s Educations Specialist, noted that these students collaborated and strategized with each other at a very high level. Before the simulation begins students are given a few minutes to read preparatory material and get ready to meet the challenges of addressing a national crisis in their roles as members of the press or the President’s cabinet. Mrs. Morgan noted that Mr. Rauschuber’s students were actively making lists, sharing information, and preparing themselves during this period in ways that betray their intelligence and capability.
Trey Alsup, the Situation Room Experience Writer/Game Designer, was also on-hand to watch this group take on this simulated crisis. He was impressed with how competitive and accurate the students acting as media teams were during the simulation. In the Situation Room Experience there are up to four teams of students working for major news networks. They must write and publish news reports and tweets and each network has a live on-air report that broadcasts over the Situation Room Experience’s closed-circuit TV network. Mr. Alsup was impressed with how insightful the students from Palisades Charter were in uncovering information he’d written into the scenario.
Thanks again to John Rauschuber, his AP students, and Palisades Charter High School for such an excellent day in the Situation Room Experience!
If you are a high school teacher and would like to sign up for one of our Summer Open Houses, click here to register and you’ll have a chance to partake in a Situation Room Experience simulation yourself!