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May 30, 2006
Q4 - Lesson #34 - Guest Speakers: Katherine and Ben Murr
Welcome back. Ms. Murr and I are also the advisors to the Senior Seminar program. I'll run the meeting with the seniors today, so you will get the pleasure of her company. Please be cooperative.
We'll have you go over a couple parts of the exam from Friday and then set up a couple things we'll do in these next six days...
First, remember that your 20th Century Russia & China "Take-home" Essays are due today. If you can print them out, great. If not, email them to me as attachments by 3:30 PM Tuesday to avoid being counted late.
Next, I'll have Ms. Murr return the parts of the exam that are corrected. You can go over them and ask any questions. I'll have her collect them back from you.
Third, I'll have her remind you about the upcoming Regional Studies Final Exam. That will be held on Wednesday, June 7th at 8:45 AM. Here is another link to the Regional Studies Final Exam information.
Fourth, you'll get a copy of one chapter (Russia or China) from Harm de Blij's new book, Why Geogrpahy Matters. You need to have that read for Thursday's class. You'll get up to 10 points for your contributions, participation and/or cooperation that day. Be sure to sign the sheet indicating which chapter you have.
Finally, you'll chose a partner/group and sign-up for a topic for the Modern Russia and China Student Congress. You'll follow the directions below and be ready to speak on your topic Friday. (We'll use part of each of the last three days for the Congress and parts of each for final exam preparation.)
MODERN (and FUTURE) RUSSIA AND CHINA...
Tuesday - Introduction, set-up and work time
Wednesday - Overviews of Russia and China
Thursday - "Why Geography Matters" readings - Discussion (CHAPTER DUE HERE)
Friday - MPA Student Congress - (ALL GROUPS SHOULD BE READY HERE)
Monday - MPA Student Congress
Tuesday - MPA Student Congress
Wednesday - Final Exam
WHY GEOGRAPHY MATTERS - readings from the book by Harm de Blij
On Thursday, we'll be looking at the Why Geography Matters chapters on Russia - "Russia - Trouble on the Eastern Front" and China - "Red Star Rising - China's Geopolitical Gauntlet." Those of you who read each chapter will help lead the conversation and teaching. You will each earn up to ten points today. I'll give you all a handout that tracks some of the main points and ideas each chapter. (Of course, half of you haven't even each chapter.) You can add any notes to that that you'd like.
MODERN RUSSIA AND CHINA STUDENT CONGRESS: We'll use a simulated congress to "debate" some of the current issues facing Russia and China. Here are the eight resolutions we will debate.
RUSSIA:
Vladimir Putin has provided effective leadership for Russia.
The United States should place economic sanctions on Russia until it grants independence to Chechnya.
The United States should increase financial assistance to help secure Russia’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The United States is headed toward another Cold War with Russia.
CHINA:
China’s economic growth should be considered a threat to the United States.
The United States should place economic sanctions on China until it grants the people of Tibet more rights.
The people of Taiwan should declare themselves an independent nation-state.
China should not have been selected to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Student Congress Format:
Speaker #1: Provides a “background” speech of 2 to 3 minutes.
Speaker #2: Provides an “affirmative” speech of 2 to 3 minutes.
Speaker #3: Provides a “negative” speech of 2 to 3 minutes.
IF YOU ARE WORKING IN A GROUP OF TWO, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THE BACKGROUND SECTION.
After these scheduled speeches (and questioning), other students may speak. It is expected that each class member will deliver at least one additional speech during the 2+ days that we do our congress.
Since we never really got to it in 9th Grade Seminar, you do NOT need to write out a 'resolution' as we attempted to do in that class. Simply take the resolution as worded and speak in favor of or against that.
Posted by mvergin at May 30, 2006 07:28 AM