Assignment: Federal Government Online - Expectations
While the Constitution has been amended only 33 times since it was drafted in 1787, there have been thousands of proposed amendments. For this assignment, you will be placed into groups and choose a proposed amendment between the years 2000-2013.
I. Essay
A. Each group will select and research a proposed Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and research an assigned ratified Amendment. The assigned amendment and the proposed amendment do not have to coordinate.
B. Group Assignment
1. Groups will be assigned at random by the instructor.
2. You will be notified of your group assignment on 10/9/20177am.
3. It is your responsibility to make contact with your fellow group members.
4. You will have the ability to use a discussion board exclusively for your group in the Response Topics area.
C. Research
1. Search the Library of Congress to find the 2000-2015 proposed amendment to be researched.
2. Library sources: Use Academic Search to find scholarly articles pertaining to your amendment/joint resolution (or other sources)
3. Each group will be responsible for turning in a 3-4 page typed essay (includingoneworks cited page) listing the pros and cons of the proposed Amendment and the ratified Amendment, including demographics of population for and against the proposed Amendment, explaining the challenges and/or biases that confronted amending the constitution.
4. For the ratified Amendment, you may need to look at those in the original process to acquire the demographics.
5. Your brief will require three sources, only one from internet. Please include the Library of Congress as an additional source.
6. The essay will be turned in through the SafeAssign tool.
II. Presentation
A. Each group creates and uploads a PowerPoint presentation
1. A PowerPoint presentation of the Amendment and the proposed Amendment, including pros, cons, party voting statistics, population demographics for or against amendment, challenges and/or bias confronting the amendment is required for each group.
2. The presentation should be posted to the "Video Presentations" area of the Discussion Board Video Presentation. There is a Video Presentation YouTube Instruction provided in the Response Topic Content area. You may include a 15-20 video clip in the Video Presentation. All members must participate. Be sure to introduce yourself in the video.
3. Only one member of the group submits the video.
4. I will be tracking the PowerPoint presentation to verify that all students have viewed all presentations.
III. Ballot
A. Each group will create and distribute a ballot to the class
1. Each group will create and distribute a ballot so that each member of the class can vote on the proposed Amendment and the ratified Amendment.
2. List both the proposed and ratified Amendment on one ballot.
3. Your ballots will be created and distributed to the class (including me) through SurveyMonkey.
4. You will need to set a deadline within one week of presentation upload in order to have time to utilize results in your analysis.
5. There is a tutorial in the Response Topic area that provides information on creating surveys in SurveyMonkey.
6. Only one ballot per group will be sent to the class.
7. The ballot should include the text of the amendment you are researching, along with demographic questions (age, sex, ethnicity, income level, party affiliation, etc.).
8. The results will be used in your election analysis.
IV. Election Analysis
A. Each group will prepare and submit an election analysis
1. The election results analysis will be submitted.
2. I would suggest a combination of charts and narrative.
3. The analysis should also compare class voting with congressional/state/committee voting and should be typed, 2-4 paragraphs.
4. Please convert your statistics into percentages.
Group Work Product:
1. 3-4 Page Typed Essayincluding 1 works cited page through SafeAssign
2. Submit proposed amendment ballot and the ratified Amendment (with demographic information) for voting through SurveyMonkey
3. Collect ballot through SurveyMonkey
4. PowerPoint presentation posted.
5. Analysis of class voting as compared to congressional/state/committee vote Submitted to instructor by 12/2/2017 10 pm
Federal Government
I. Title and Number of Course: Federal Government
II. Title of Assignment: Response Assignment Topic I: Amending the Constitution
III. Foundational Component Area: Critical Thinking, Communication, Personal Responsibility and Social Responsibility
IV. Core Objectives assessed in this assignment:
A. Critical Thinking: To include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information
B. Communication: To include the effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication.
C. Personal Responsibility: To include the ability to connect choice, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making
D. Social Responsibility: To include demonstration of intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility and to engage effectively in regional, national, and/or global communities.
V. Description of Assignment:
Response Assignment Topic I: Amending the Constitution
While the Constitution has been amended only 27 times since it was drafted in 1787, there have been thousands of proposed amendments. For this assignment, you will be placed into groups and assigned an Amendment plus one proposed amendment/joint resolution.
1. Select proposed Amendment/Joint Resolution/or Amendment:
a. Each group will select and research an Amendment and a proposed Amendment/orJoint Resolution to the U.S. Constitution
b. The group will write a brief on the Amendment ratification process and the proposed Amendment/Joint Resolution process. Brief should include the pros and cons of each, challenges, biases, demographics involved in the process.
2. Gather support materials:
a. Your brief will require three sources, only one from internet.
b. Each group will present a visual with presentation/Power Point and a ballot with demographicsso that each member of the class can vote on the Amendment and the proposed Amendment/Joint Resolution.
3. Analyze voting results.
VI. Assessment of Core Objectives:*
This Assignment will be assessed using the Core Objective Rubrics
Assignment Elements Core Objective Assessed
1 Topic choice, organization of information CT, COM, SR
2 Quality of research choices CT, PR,
3 Oral Presentation, written brief, visual aids COM, PR
4 Proposed Amendment vote COM, SR
5 Analyze voting results CT, COM
VII. Artifacts to be collected:
The brief with sources documented
Ballot for voting with the Amendment and the proposed Amendment/Joint Resolution
Voting results from the class/Congressional/State/Committee Voting Analysis.