TIPS Web Quest

Mr. Minzloff – Grace Dodge High School

Gangs and Young Adults

INTRODUCTION

This year we’ve had more fights in school than the past several years. There have also been incidents where students from other high schools in the area are coming to our school and causing trouble. This year seems to be much worse than in recent years.

Now imagine you just finished a great day at school. In your 8^th period class your teacher handed back the test you took on Monday and you got a 91. Before you catch the bus and head home, you decide to head up to the mini-mart for a snack. You turn the corner and there they are. A gang of at least ten kids from the high school down the block appear as if out of nowhere. It looks like trouble and they start taunting you. What are you going to do? You don’t want to run, but these kids don’t look friendly. You stop, and before you know it they have you surrounded.

You’re tired of being hassled by the gangs that hang around school. You talk to your counselor at school to see what you can do about it. You have a long talk with him and you both decide you need to do some research. You agree to put together a presentation. Your job will be to give the presentation to the principal. You want to make him aware of the problem, but you also want to offer some solutions to the problem. If your presentation is good, he wants you to give it to some people in the regional office so the problems can also be addressed in other high schools in the area. Read on for some suggestions.

This is a big job but you’ll be doing a great service to your fellow students and the people in the neighborhood around our school. Here is your chance to be a real hero!

TASK

As you do the research for your project you will follow the steps of the Public Policy Analysis (PPA) on the TIPS website. After completing your research you will put together a PowerPoint presentation which you will present to the class and then to the principal. The PowerPoint presentation should be approximately 10 minutes long and demonstrate the skills you learned about the PPA and PowerPoint. The presentation should be at least 10 slides and each step of the PPA must have at least 1 slide.

PROCESS

STEP 1: You will be placed into groups of 2 or 3 to work on the project.

STEP 2: As a group, you will discuss the problem of gangs in your school and neighborhood. This should include a definition of the problem, evidence of the problem (statistics, information about specific gangs and their activity within your area), and causes of the problem. This should also include an evaluation of the public policy solutions already in place and your own public policy solutions to the problem. Use the Internet sites provided in the Resources section to conduct your research, and remember to list where you obtained your information. Summarize your research and original ideas on the provided PPA worksheets:

1) Defining the Social Problem

2) Gathering Evidence of the Problems

3) Identifying Causes of the Problems

4) Identify and Evaluate Existing Pubic Policy

5) Develop Public Policy Solutions

6) Selecting the Best Policy

STEP 4: After you complete the worksheets that are part of the PPA you will create a PowerPoint presentation that you will present to the class. Your project should be thoroughly explained to your audience during this presentation. Make sure you include information from all of the worksheets you filled out.

Resources

Listed below are a number of links that will help you find the information you need to complete your presentation.

Safe Youth Organization

National Youth Gang Center

Gang War

Safe Horizon

Luis Brown Peace Institute

US Department of Justice

Youth Gangs & Gang Violence

National Center for Education Statistics

Safe Schools & Community Coalition

Youth Violence Prevention

Also, feel free to use one of the following search engines to find websites related to gangs and youth violence. You might try the following words in your search: “gangs New York City,” “Youth Violence,” “Youth Violence New York City.”

https://www.google.com/

http://www.northernlight.com/

http://www.askjeeves.com/

http://www.altavista.com/

Evaluation

Your grade will be based on how well you do on the worksheets and the quality of your PowerPoint presentation. The presentation will be worth 70% of the grade and the worksheets will be worth 30%. They will be graded on the following rubrics.

PowerPoint Presentation

	UNSATISFACTORY Less than 65	SATISFACTORY 65-79	GOOD 80-90	EXCELLENT 90-100
Organization	Audience cannot understand presentation because there is no sequence of information.	Audience has difficulty following presentation because student jumps around.	Student presents information in logical sequence which audience can follow.	Student presents information in logical, interesting sequence which audience can follow.	____
Content Knowledge	Student does not have grasp of information; student cannot answer questions about subject.	Student is uncomfortable with information and is able to answer only rudimentary questions.	Student is at ease with content, but fails to elaborate.	Student demonstrates full knowledge (more than required)with explanations and elaboration.	____
Visuals	Student did not have any pictures or visuals.	Student occasional used visuals that rarely support text and presentation.	Visuals related to text and presentation.	Student used visuals to reinforce screen text and presentation.	____
Mechanics	Student's presentation had four or more spelling errors and/or grammatical errors.	Presentation had three misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	Presentation has no more than two misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	Presentation has no misspellings or grammatical errors.	____
Delivery	Student mumbles, incorrectly pronounces terms, and speaks too quietly for students in the back of class to hear.	Student incorrectly pronounces terms. Audience members have difficulty hearing presentation.	Student's voice is clear. Student pronounces most words correctly.	Student used a clear voice and correct, precise pronunciation of terms.	____
				Total---->	____

Worksheets

	UNSATISFACTORY Less than 65	SATISFACTORY 65-79	GOOD 80-90	EXCELLENT 90-100
Worksheets	More than half of the worksheets are incomplete.	Most of the worksheets are complete.	All of the worksheets are complete but there is unrelated or missing information.	All of the worksheets are complete and the information is comprehensive and related to the topic.	____
				Total---->	____

STANDARDS:

TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

Standard 1 – Basic operations and concepts

w Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.

w Students are proficient in the use of technology.

Standard 3 – Technology productivity tools

w Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.

w Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

Standard 4 – Technology research tools

w Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.

w Students use technology tools to process data and report results.

w Students evaluate and select new information resources and technological innovations based on the appropriateness for specific tasks.

ENLISH LANGUAGE ARTS STANDRDS

Standard 1:Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 3:Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

CONCLUSION:

Having conducted all of your research you are now an expert in the PPA format! You have used this information to become an expert in the problem of teen violence in the Bronx. You have also used your research to help you come up with solutions to the problem of teen violence. You also have seen the problems of gang violence and how destructive it can be. Schools all over the country are faced with similar situations. Solutions to the problem of gang violence are critical to allow public education to function and to allow our democratic values to continue.

Thanks for you diligent participation. You now see, that a Public Policy Analyst can make a difference and improve our society.

CONGRATUALTIONS!