Standards-Aligned Activities @ ProQuest

Our Spring activities address the following Georgia Standards:

ELA: The student uses research and technology to support writing. TECH INTEGRATION: Uses technology and telecommunications tools to locate, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, apply, and communicate information. SOCIAL STUDIES: Evaluates the economic role government plays in the economy--defining and protecting property rights, approving public goods, ensuring competition, and redistributing income. SCIENCE: 7.1 Evaluates possibilities for replacing fossil fuels with alternative sources of energy; Proposes solutions to problems resulting from obtaining and using natural resources.

SIRS Knowledge Source & SIRS Researcher
Challenges: President Obama's First 100 Days

On November 4, 2008, Barack H. Obama made history when he became the first African-American President of the United States. He was sworn as the 44th U.S. President on January 20, 2009, with his running mate Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

During his inaugural address, President Obama pledged to restore America's standing in the world: "Starting today," he said, "we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America."

With the economy, healthcare system, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the forefront, the world is now watching how President Obama will lead during his first 100 days in the White House and beyond.

The current debate over the need for, the amount, and the strategies to be integrated into the federal economic stimulus plan is an example of Republican vs. Democratic preferences in solving what is now being called the Great Recession. Republicans continue to favor tax cuts as a solution for creating jobs by increasing demand and letting the market decide which market to stimulate.

President Obama and the Democrats favor direct government investments and subsidies to economic sectors that are vital to future economic growth: alternative energy, conservation, education, infrastructure, and health care.

The current stimulus program appears to be a compromise between both strategies. Will the compromise work, or would a solution more heavily weighted toward government spending make more sense in both the short term and the long term? We're about to find out as the first 100 days play out.

Researcher has created a special Leading Issue to help teachers and students better understand the challenges being presented to President Obama and the solutions he and his administration are proposing--Election 2008--Obama's First 100 Days.

Assign students to select a Pro or Con position for this Leading Issue. Just as in all Leading Issues, students are given three phases to support their understanding and develop their critical thinking: Overview, Issues, and My Analysis.

My Analysis includes the unique Researcher five-step process that ensures that students integrate critical thinking and problem solving in their conclusions. Step five provides the student with a choice of four unique report and presentation models that you can assign based on student preferences.

These models provide an excellent way for you to differentiate instruction by providing a variety of alternatives to the term paper model used in traditional inquiry-based learning activities:

• Writing a Research Paper (student model)
• Writing a Mini-Research Paper (student and teacher management models)
• Creating a PowerPoint Presentation (student model)
• Creating a Mini-Debate (student and teacher management models)
• NEW Option: Analyzing Election 2008 Editorial Cartoons

Click the Election 2008 Issue in the Pro vs. Con section > Select the My Analysis tab and follow the 5-step process!

SIRS Discoverer Activity
Green Energy and the Economic Stimulus Act

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over 10 years that includes: extending tax credits for energy produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; grants to build renewable energy facilities; tax credits for purchases of energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation; tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The Biotechnology Industry Association attested to the viability of a new green-led economic stimulus and recovery--Renewable energy production can provide long-term economic growth and thousands of new green jobs for the United States, while helping to reduce reliance on oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Using this additional funding to create new sources of green energy should provide both good paying jobs and energy independence in the future. Assign students to select at least three resources from the pathfinder search listed below.

The report should be at least 150 words; the presentation should be at least two minutes and/or seven slides.

Students should address at least three of the following essential questions for critical thinking (or others that you may add or substitute):

• What are the three most promising types of green energy sources and why?
• How will the stimulus funding create new and good paying jobs?
• What types of jobs will be needed to develop green energy sources?
• How does conservation of energy play a major role in energy independence?
• What are the types of conservation projects you would favor and why?
• What part can you play in the green energy revolution?

Select Subject Headings search > Type Renewable Energy > Click Renewable Energy Sources (accesses +/- 38 articles)

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

SIRS Interactive Citizenship
Public Sector Bailouts of the Private Sector?

The economic role of the federal government has been to regulate business activity to ensure competition and protect consumers and workers from fraud and business excess.

This role has grown over time in response to economic crises such as the Great Depression, the Savings & Loans scandal, and currently the crisis in the financial markets that has led to a deepening recession.

What is the proper role of government in intervening in a market economy?

Students need to view the current economic crisis in terms of the successes and/or failures of the government to deal with past economic crises.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources and address the essential questions for critical thinking listed below (you can add, delete, or substitute others if appropriate). These questions will motivate and guide students to develop 21st-century skills in problem solving and issues resolution.

Click the Interactive Citizenship tab @ SIRS Knowledge Source > Click What Citizens Need to Know About Government > Chapter 24 BUSINESS > 24.5 Public sector bailouts of the private sector

• Why is government involvement in the Market System necessary during a crisis?
• What powers does government have that could be employed in a crisis?
• What are some examples of government intervention in the past that have been successful?
• What are some examples of government reform laws that been created in the past?
• How does the current financial crisis resemble any past crisis most?

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

SIRS Decades Activity
Renewable Green Energy: Gets a Boost

The American people have been debating about policies that would reduce oil and gasoline consumption and dependence on foreign oil imports since the 1970s. Investing in green and renewable energy would bring many economic, foreign policy, and environmental benefits--but who will do the investing?

The oil companies were reluctant to do this because it could mean reduced profits or put them out of business in the long term. Government was reluctant to subsidize renewable energy because oil industry special interest groups put pressure on them not to do this. So, more than three decades later, global warming and $4 for a gallon gasoline create another shock similar to the 1970s--but this time with a different outcome.

The election of President Obama and his resolve to create jobs by subsidizing renewable energy producers finally gives a significant boost to ending our dependence on oil.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over 10 years that includes: extending tax credits for energy produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; grants to build renewable energy facilities; tax credits for purchases of energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation; tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Students need to learn more about the oil and gasoline crisis of the 1970s. Why did we miss the opportunity then and later to take corrective actions that would reduce our reliance on foreign imports of oil by developing alternative energy sources?

Assign students to address the essential questions for critical thinking listed below (you can add, delete, or substitute others if appropriate). These questions will motivate and guide students to create reports or presentations that integrate 21st-century skills in problem solving and issues resolution.

Students should use and cite at least three resources from SIRS Decade topics in written reports of at least 150 words or presentations of at least seven slides or at least two minutes.

• What were some of the strategies used to cope with the gasoline shortage?
• Why was there an oil and gasoline shortage?
• How was alternative and renewable energy viewed then as a solution to the crisis?
• Why didn't an initiative to develop alternative energy succeed then?

Click the icon 1970s > Energy, Economy and the Environment

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.