Goal for the day: To consider what’s required for lawmakers to take action on urgent issues
Welcome to the issue jam for Model Senate. Over the next week and a half we’ll be engaging in some intense study of two critical and controversial issues in preparation for the Model Senate. After break we’ll be studying and practicing for how we’ll run the actual Senate, which means we’re getting us all up to speed on the issues that you’ll be writing bills for and making speeches. The speeches and bills will be the primary evaluative tools for Model Senate and so it’s essential that you feel knowledgeable about these two issues.
To ensure that our study doesn’t repeat what you studied last year, we’ve consulted with the 11th grade teachers and adjusted our schedule and committee assignments keep our prep dynamic and on point.
For climate change, we’ll be watching several sections of Years of Living Dangerously, a seven-part documentary shown on Showtime earlier this year. This award-winning documentary is excellent at showing the human impacts of all aspects of the issue. I’ll start class with the following clip about fracking in Colorado just to get us started…
I’ll then pass out the first part of a packet to follow the fast-paced content we’re going to cover the next two days. I’ll give you additional pages to add to this packet. This will comprise a place to keep all your notes. You should draw upon these notes when writing your bills and speeches.
We’ll then go over your Model Senate assignments and discuss the calendar for the next two weeks before break.
With this out of the way, we’ll discuss the political dynamics that keep the lawmakers from taking actions on urgent issues. We’ll compare what is blocking action on issues like climate change with what led to the unanimous passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act. This act is important because it is the law under which gave our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This is THE major political fight on climate right now and so understanding this law is critical to our political debate. We'll watch one video giving a summary of the Act and then hear from an interview to Senator Edmund Muskie who authored the bill.
After the break, we’ll watch Episode 3 of Years of Living Dangerously about the links between climate change and extreme weather events with a focus on Superstorm Sandy and the political fallout from this catastrophic event.
Homework due on Wednesday, November 12th
On Wednesday, we’re going to construct a timeline of climate change policy and politics. Look at the following table. It lists four different timelines of climate-related events (PBS, BBC, NYTimes, Global Warning) and a period of time for you to investigate. Use your assigned timeline to identify the three most important events during your time period. Write these on the timeline in your notebook.
Welcome to the issue jam for Model Senate. Over the next week and a half we’ll be engaging in some intense study of two critical and controversial issues in preparation for the Model Senate. After break we’ll be studying and practicing for how we’ll run the actual Senate, which means we’re getting us all up to speed on the issues that you’ll be writing bills for and making speeches. The speeches and bills will be the primary evaluative tools for Model Senate and so it’s essential that you feel knowledgeable about these two issues.
To ensure that our study doesn’t repeat what you studied last year, we’ve consulted with the 11th grade teachers and adjusted our schedule and committee assignments keep our prep dynamic and on point.
For climate change, we’ll be watching several sections of Years of Living Dangerously, a seven-part documentary shown on Showtime earlier this year. This award-winning documentary is excellent at showing the human impacts of all aspects of the issue. I’ll start class with the following clip about fracking in Colorado just to get us started…
I’ll then pass out the first part of a packet to follow the fast-paced content we’re going to cover the next two days. I’ll give you additional pages to add to this packet. This will comprise a place to keep all your notes. You should draw upon these notes when writing your bills and speeches.
We’ll then go over your Model Senate assignments and discuss the calendar for the next two weeks before break.
With this out of the way, we’ll discuss the political dynamics that keep the lawmakers from taking actions on urgent issues. We’ll compare what is blocking action on issues like climate change with what led to the unanimous passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act. This act is important because it is the law under which gave our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This is THE major political fight on climate right now and so understanding this law is critical to our political debate. We'll watch one video giving a summary of the Act and then hear from an interview to Senator Edmund Muskie who authored the bill.
After the break, we’ll watch Episode 3 of Years of Living Dangerously about the links between climate change and extreme weather events with a focus on Superstorm Sandy and the political fallout from this catastrophic event.
Homework due on Wednesday, November 12th
On Wednesday, we’re going to construct a timeline of climate change policy and politics. Look at the following table. It lists four different timelines of climate-related events (PBS, BBC, NYTimes, Global Warning) and a period of time for you to investigate. Use your assigned timeline to identify the three most important events during your time period. Write these on the timeline in your notebook.