Sharon Denise Spencer

Truman High School

“Mayor Bloomberg has passed a bill that will affect all the people in New York. As of March 2003, smoking in public restaurants and bars will not be allowed.”

“Thank goodness” said the waitress as she heard this announcement on the news. “ I am so tired of coming home smelling like smoke and breathing in all that second hand smoke. Not to mention the bad breath of the smoking customers that I have to take care of.”

“Just great. First I couldn’t smoke in public places and know I can’t even enjoy an evening out. I have to stand outside in the cold just to take a smoke. I hate this new policy!”

You have been hired by the mayor’s office to educate the public of this new policy. You are to take the viewpoint of either the waitress or the smoker. Do you agree or disagree with this policy? (Remember all that you learned about the human respiratory system.) You will work separately according to the 6 steps of the Public Policy Analyst

www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/welcome.html

1. Define and describe the problem:

2. Gather evidence related to this problem

3. Identify the causes for the problem.

4. Describe the current policies for this problem

5. Develop your own solutions or policies for this problem (Find convincing information that could educate and motivate the public to recycle.)

6. Decide on the best policy for this problem

Make sure you understand how to accomplish each step. The PPA program will give you a step-by-step guide as to how to accomplish this task.

Students will work separately. The class will work on this project for 2 weeks.

The groups will:

1. Complete the Public Policy worksheets from the TIPS website.

2. Use some of the websites provided in resources and are greatly encouraged to find their own websites that will be helpful in their decision making process.

3. Gather information that will help to complete the assignment.

4. Organize and prepare a poster no larger than a sheet of oak tag showing whether or not you agree or disagree with this policy. You will be trying to inform high school students about this policy.

Google (a great search engine)

https://www.google.com

Encyclopedia Britannica

http://www.britannica.com/

Internet Public Library

http://www.ipl.org/youth/

Health and Human Services

http://www.hhs.gov/

Substance abuse

http://www.samhsa.gov/

After you have completed the six-step public policy program you are to construct a poster advertisement showing your view point (either pro or con) and give a 5-7 minute oral presentation describing your poster. The Advertisement should be interesting and understandable by your classmates. The students should be able to figure out exactly where you stand… whether you are in favor of or if you are against the new smoking policy.

A--Excellent	B--Good	C--Satisfactory	D--unsatisfactory	F—completely unsatisfactory
· Presentation is well organized · Logical sequence to ideas and presentation · No grammatical or spelling errors · Presentation clearly and definitively defends issues	· Presentation organized and clear · Presentation demonstrates knowledge of subject · Logical sequence to ideas · Few spelling or grammatical errors · Presentation defends issues	· Presentation is organized and somewhat clear · Presentation demonstrates some knowledge of subject · Grammatical and/or spelling errors · Presentation is vague on support of issues	· Presentation is not well thought out or presented · Presentation does not demonstrate knowledge of subject · Many grammatical and/or spelling errors · Presentation is unclear as to support on issues	Absolutely nothing done!

Performance Standards in this Web Quest:

E1c Reads, understands and produces written and oral work.

E3c The student prepares and delivers an individual presentation.

E4b The student analyzes and revises the work to make it suitable for the audience.

S3e The student practices natural resource management.

S5f Students work individually and in teams to collect and share information and ideas.

S7b The student argues from evidence.

S7e Students communicates in a form suited for the audience.

A2a Student makes an oral presentation of project plan.

By completing this activity, students will learn how to use the Internet to gather information and do research. They will use critical thinking skills to make decisions on what policies would be most effective.