Current Events Brainstorming

News/Media

Listen to chosen news source

List of suggested news sources

Media Analysis

Biases

Noam Chomsky / Manufacturing Consent or other article

Geography

Need a big map

quizzes

History

Background for current situations

Worldviews

Islam

Conservative/Liberal

Factoids

Present an interesting event from the week

(Presenters should stand and present their topic without notes, otherwise too many will read directly from an article they printed out within the last hour.  If specific numbers need to be quoted as statistics, a hand-written 3x5 card may be allowed.)

Elections

Elections are coming up.  Research candidates and positions.

Vote every day

Blogging

Blogging as a form of media and reporting.

* Start a blog, and write at least one short opinion piece each week.

Writing assignments

• opinion
• fact checking
  • internet
  • phone
  • written source
  • statistics
• solution / suggestion
• ideal: what should happen in a perfect world
• pragmatic: what is the best one could realistically expect
• prediction: what probably will happen
• comparison
• analysis paper

Signs of the Times

Read and discuss Joseph Smith-Matthew from Pearl of Great Price

Themes

Research,
Biases,
Worldviews (identifying),
False Dichotomies,
Economics,
Signs of the Times,
How to Blog,
Fact checking
Good vs Expedient

Problem Solving

1. Identify problems (from all viewpoints)
2. Brainstorm solutions
3. Identify Principles (in an ideal world...)
4. Apply principles to real world: what solutions move us towards the ideal?
5. Refine solutions

e.g. Healthcare

Economics

Microeconomics: laws of supply and demand, etc.

Macroeconomics: schools of thought