By Randy Sweeney

Incorporating Project ISSUES into our formal instruction will result in growth in our students which ranges through a number of the Learning Standards. Measuring that growth is never easy, particularly through an assessment that is reflective of the complex learning which occurs a class involved with such a variety of learning activities. Involving debate as one of the tools you use to assess your students will take some classroom time, but will not only allow the teacher to assess the student's growth, but will also teach the students still more skills which they will find of great value to their future success.

Karen Reynosa has developed an excellent set of activities that structure a debate in a classroom environment. Here you will find a description of Karen's activities, along with some extensions of what Karen has already developed.

You will find descriptions for the teams involved in debates on the following ISSUES, along with help in organizing the classroom debate, by following the links below:

Butterfly Dreams
The ISSUE: The habitat on which many natural communities depend is being seriously impacted by human development. These disturbances in the organisms habitat result in the extinction of, or threat to the continue existence of, many plant and animal species. Many species have very restricted habitats on which they depend, and can not simply be moved to another area. Continued development of human communities will depend on our protection of the genetic diversity on the planet; we can not continue to survive on a planet which we have made devoid of other species with which we do not yet appreciate and understand our relationship.