Introduction
How Can We Decrease Youth Violence
The challenge is for individuals age middle and high school to research and create a bill that could become law that will assist the local community in combating youth violence.
Propose to students the following scenario:
We live in a world now where more young people are dying by the hands of other young people. Since 1997, there have been 179 school shootings in the United States; more and more young people are affiliated with gangs and less with after school programs and activities. Why is this so? Why is this generation of youth so violent? Why are our youth more likely commit an act of violence than graduate high school. If you were elected to congress and the senate, how would you deal with the problem of youth violence in your congressional area? You need to research information that would assist you in creating this initiative and develop a project that each community can develop in their particular area. In your research and project make sure that any culture or ethnicity would be able to replicate this project in their community.
Ask students what comes to mind when you think about youth violence? As the students respond ask them to write down their thoughts and the thoughts of their peers. Try to come up with at least 10 ideas about what comes to mind when you think about youth violence
Task
Students will be assigned groups. One group will be Democrat and the other group will be Republican. Each group is to create a bill to read on the senate floor that will decrease or eliminate youth violence. Each side will argue their bill before the senate floor and a vote will be taken as to whose bill will be passed to the governor to be signed into law. Each group will develop their bill from start to finish citing real case law to support their standing. Each group must be able to show and argue why their bill deserves to be law and how if implemented, it would bring about change in youth violence.
Each student will be able to contribute in some way to the project. A group secretary, treasurer and senators will be selected. The group secretary is responsible for keeping track of each person’s position and what they contribute to the project. The secretary should be someone with good leadership skills, penmanship and is fair with the overall group. The treasurer will help with arguing the information within the debate and assisting the senators with the research for the materials. The senators will make sure that they brain storm ideas, concepts, and task together and will work collaboratively on developing their bill. The senators will work make sure the secretary has their portion of the project and will assist with putting the project together for the treasurer to debate on the senate floor.
Process
Students should research the web to find information on what it takes to create a bill into a law.www.loc.gov/law
Students should research the web to find information about debate and how the senate determines whether a bill should be presented to the floor to be enacted into a law.www.actdu.org.au/archives/actein_site/basicskills.html
Students should research the congressional library or other law libraries to find case law to back their facts, opinions and information related to bills and laws www.leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Bill2Law.aspx
Students should develop a bill proposal to give to their secretary
Students should rehearse and watch video on what a debate is, how to debate, and what a debate should look like www.coons.senate.gov ›
Students should research youth violence in their area and determine what if anything is being done to combat violence in their community www.cdc.gov/VIO.,www.cdc.gov/viol
Students should use this information to create a proposal to go along with their bill pmc.princeton.edu/writeabill.php
Students should work together to develop a initiative that would incorporate making changes or improving what is available now in their community to assist with better managing youth violence create.ucsd.edu/stem-initiative/, ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of.../group...initiative/main
Students should work contact and work with their local political leaders and police departments to gather more information about violence in general
Students should collaborate with the police department and other local organizations to form continuous projects to keep youth violence at a minimum
Evaluation
Students will be able to gain a understanding of the nature of violence in their community
Students will be able to gain a better understanding of how they as youth can assist the community in decresing youth violence
Students will be able to gain a better understanding of how to assist other youth who may be struggling with violence within their community
Students will be able to learn conflict resolution skills, and team building strategies
Students will be evaluated on their presentation and will be able to hold a actual debate to present their bill
Students will be evaluated on the content of their bill, facts and their argument
Students bill will be voted on by their peers
Students whose bill wins the most votes will be enacted into the class law
Students will be able to present their actual initiative and bill to the local police department and local political leaders
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Conclusion
Students will reflect on the process of the project.
What did you learn from working in a group. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about your group members? What did you learn about the process of a bill becoming a law?
What are some things that you learned about debating? What would you change if anything about the process?
What did you learn about the prevalence of youth violence?