Death In The Name Of Religion

Mirna Aguilar

Public Policy Analyst

Jane Addams Vocational High School

Introduction:

Human sacrifices have been part of much of ancient civilization’s way of life. The civilizations that emerged in Mesoamerica practiced human sacrifices for religious purposes. Many of the ancient civilizations believed in appeasing their gods by offering them human blood. In today’s society we have witnessed many acts of human sacrifices done in the name of religion. Such acts include September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the suicide bombers in Israel and Palestine, and recently the attacks in Saudi Arabia. All of these attacks were committed by religious fundamentalist. Although the international community argues their motives and consider them terrorist acts, others view these crimes necessary and just.

Task:

Now that your agency has accepted the job of Research Specialists for the United Nations, your task is as follow:

Locate areas where human sacrifices are still practice in any type of form (from suciede bombers to anti-abortionists).
Find evidence if such acts have been committed for religious purposes or political ones.
Study the actions taken by local governments against the individual(s) to reprimand them for their actions.
Evaluate the actions taken by local governments and establish if these actions are successful or not.
Create a Public Policy by using the TIPS model in order for you to form new ways local governments can prevent future crimes.

Process

Read the articles found in the Resources. Remember you are not limited to these articles.
Each member of your group is responsible for reading as many sources as possible.
As a group, you need to come up with a Public Policy suitable for the topic.
Use the PPA model and refer to http://www.maxwell.syr/edu/plegal/tips.html

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/worksheet1.doc Define the Problem
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/worksheet2.doc Gather Evidence of the Problem
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/worksheet3.doc Identifying the Causes
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/worksheet4.doc Evaluate the Policy
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/worksheet5.doc Develop the Policy
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/tips/worksheet6.doc Select the Best Solution

5. Each group will be required to present their findings and their new policy to the class.

Resources

Aztec Human Sacrifice

Aztec Human Sacrifice 2

Aztec Human Sacrifice 3

Aztec Human Sacrifice 4

Evaluation

Your peers will be evaluating your research and presentation. There are five categories in which your classmates will be evaluating your group. The highest point for each category is 5, the lowest is 0. The points will be added from each category and the highest score will equal to 100 points.

Cooperative Learning Project Rubric B: Outcome or Product

Name: ______________________________
Date: _______________
Class: ________________________________________

	Exceptional	Admirable	Acceptable	Amateur
Organization	Extremely well organized; logical format that was easy to follow; flowed smoothly from one idea to another and cleverly conveyed; the organization enhanced the effectiveness of the project	Presented in a thoughtful manner; there were signs of organization and most transitions were easy to follow, but at times ideas were unclear	Somewhat organized; ideas were not presented coherently and transitions were not always smooth, which at times distracted the audience	Choppy and confusing; format was difficult to follow; transitions of ideas were abrupt and seriously distracted the audience
Content Accuracy	Completely accurate; all facts were precise and explicit	Mostly accurate; a few inconsistencies or errors in information	Somewhat accurate; more than a few inconsistencies or errors in information	Completely inaccurate; the facts in this project were misleading to the audience
Research	Went above and beyond to research information; solicited material in addition to what was provided; brought in personal ideas and information to enhance project; and utilized more than eight types of resources to make project effective	Did a very good job of researching; utilized materials provided to their full potential; solicited more than six types of research to enhance project; at times took the initiative to find information outside of school	Used the material provided in an acceptable manner, but did not consult any additional resources	Did not utilize resources effectively; did little or no fact gathering on the topic
Creativity	Was extremely clever and presented with originality; a unique approach that truly enhanced the project	Was clever at times; thoughtfully and uniquely presented	Added a few original touches to enhance the project but did not incorporate it throughout	Little creative energy used during this project; was bland, predictable, and lacked "zip"
Presentation Mechanics	Was engaging, provocative, and captured the interest of the audience and maintained this throughout the entire presentation; great variety of visual aids and multimedia; visual aids were colorful and clear	Was well done and interesting to the audience; was presented in a unique manner and was very well organized; some use of visual aids	Was at times interesting and was presented clearly and precisely; was clever at times and was organized in a logical manner; limited variety of visual aids and visual aids were not colorful or clear	Was not organized effectively; was not easy to follow and did not keep the audience interested; no use of visual aids

Cooperative Learning Project Evaluation Form B: Product

Name: ______________________________
Date: _______________
Class: ________________________________________

	Exceptional	Admirable	Acceptable	Amateur
Organization
Content Accuracy
Research
Creativity
Presentation Mechanics

COMMENTS:

Standards

Social Studies

Standard 2

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the in world history from a variety of perspectives.

Standard 3

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live-local, national, and global- including the distribution of people, places, and environment over earth’s surface.

New York City English Language Arts Standards

E1C Reads and comprehends information materials

E2A Produces a report of information

E3B Participates in Group meetings.

Conclusion

As students complete this assignment, they will be able to analyze problems faced by religionist fundamentalist in the United States and other parts of the world. In addition, students will be able to come up with policies that might improve human relations in those nations that have similar problems.