Study Game! (And Case Study Zero Summaries.)

In case you’re looking for more ways to review for your test tomorrow, you might try playing the game linked below:

Unit One Test Review: Introduction to Comparative Politics and US Government

Additionally, here are the one-page summaries I received digitally for each of the subject areas on your Case Study Zero projects. Remember, third period classes had fewer groups as a result of their class sizes, and I received some of the summaries in hard-copy rather than in a digital format.  Thus, the links below represent only a part of the one-page summaries received.

Government Structure:

• Gov’t Structure_2A
• Gov’t Struction_2B
• Gov’t Structure_3A
• Gov’t Structure_3B

Bureaucracy and the Judiciary:

• Bureaucracy and the Judiciary_2A
• Bureaucracy and Judiciary_2B
• Bureaucracy and the Judiciary_3A
• Bureaucracy and the Judiciary_3B

Social Cleavages and Social Movements:

• Social Cleavages_2A
• Social Cleavages_2Ba
• Social Cleavages_2Bb

Elections and Political Parties:

• Elections_2A
• Elections_2B
• Elections_3A
• Elections_3B

Media, Politics, and Participation:

• Media_2A
• Media_2B

Economics and Populations:

• Economics_2A
• Economy_2B
• Economy_3B

Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, and Freedoms:

• Civil Liberties_2A

Citizenship, Representation, and Civil Society:

• Citizenship_3A

Social Welfare and the Environment:

• Social Welfare and Environment_2B
• Social Welfare and Environment_3B

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Flexibility is good, yes?

Okay, guys: here’s the plan.

1. Assuming that we’re back in school on Wednesday (Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise), we’ll be acting as though Wednesday is your regularly scheduled Monday.
2. This means that if you were scheduled to present today, you will present Wednesday.  Be ready to go, okay? So if you still have power, get that project done NOW– don’t put it off and assume you’ll have power tonight or tomorrow.  You may be fine, but let’s not take the gamble.
3. Your test will be on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th.

Speaking of your test, here’s a few things you should know:

1. The study session is available for viewing on the YouTube video in the previous post.  Additionally, there are a TON of useful study resources on the Unit One page of this website.  Go up and look at the drop-down menu– there are even practice quizzes from the O’Neil textbook which I’ve linked to.  They’re EXTREMELY USEFUL.  Hint, hint.
2. The test will be comprised of two parts: (A) a multiple choice section with 55 questions, timed at 45 minutes, and (B) a short-answer section with four SAQs, timed at 24 minutes.  The SAQs are the same sort that we wrote earlier this unit– very short and to-the-point.
3. Here’s how I will grade the test: 80% of your grade will come from your multiple choice portion, and 20% will come from your SAQs.  I will put the test in as TWO grades: one (the multiple choice) weighted at .80, and one (the SAQ), weighted at .20.

You definitely need to study EVERYTHING we have covered this unit, including your U.S. government and politics presentations, as well as the content from your Harkness discussions– it’s all fair game!

Unit One Online Study Session! AND WEATHER UPDATE.

UPDATED AT 1:43 PM:

Ooookay, so there’s that.  Well, give me a bit to think about how I want to reschedule stuff, and I’ll let you know when we’ll be doing presentations and testing– I need to contact Dr. Roach and see what we can do for pacing.  But! Study session will continue as plan.  You’ll still have a test next week; just obviously not on Tuesday.

Check the blog, my Twitter, and Remind for updates over the next day or so.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST:

Okay, so first of all– you need to be paying attention to Cobb County School District weather alerts, because I anticipate they’ll be making a decision with regards to school one way or another this evening.  For right now, we’re going to act like tomorrow’s going to be a normal school day, which means (a) if you’re a “B” Day class, you need to be ready to present your projects tomorrow, and (b) make sure you get your one-page summary to me as soon as possible, and (c) we’re going to continue to prepare for the unit test on Tuesday.

If anything changes, I will do my best to get information to you as I can.  Obviously that could be difficult if we lose power, but I’ll do whatever I can.

Now, on to the study session!  The study session will be from 3 to 5 PM on YouTube, and if you plan to watch live you should CLICK ON THIS LINK RIGHT HERE and then just watch and participate in the live chat so I know what questions to answer for you.  If you can’t watch live, please consider tweeting your questions to me @GallowayTeaches, using the hashtag #AskMsGalloway.  Then, you can watch the video embedded below when you have time, and I will have answered your questions through the magic of the Internet.

Amazing, right?

And one last thing– although we’re definitely acting like we’ve got school tomorrow until we hear otherwise, please take some time today with your family to make sure you have plans for power outages and inclement weather.  Check that you have batteries, charge your devices, and move things that might blow away inside.

See you soon, guys!

Case Study Zero: “A” Day Groups and Schedule

Here’s the group break down for “A” Day classes.

Topic	Presentation Date	2A	3A
Government Structure	Wednesday, September 6th	Jarrod S. Carleigh F. Rebekah C.	Oscar P. Ronny H.
Bureaucracy and the Judiciary		Danyel C. Hawa S. Liam M.	N/A
Elections and Political Parties		Turner M. Sierra O. Chris J.	Jordan S. Gift C. Anthony G.
Social Cleavages and Social Movements		Kaylin A. Claudia C. Sydni L.	Liz R. Alli M.
Media Roles and Political Participation		Dan D. Cameron L. Caitlyn C. Zach R.	N/A
Civil Society, Citizenship, and Representation	Friday, September 8th	Gabi N. Kimberly P. Arielle S. Julissa U.	Jessica L. Hannah L.
Civil Liberties, Rights, and Freedoms		Gabby G. Kholeigh F. Skylar M.	Julianna I. Peyton H.
Economic Performance, Population, and Migration		Khemisha B. Jayden B. Malik B.	Brandon A. Javarius M.
Social Welfare Issues and the Environment		Mackenzie S. Kristen D. Stefanie G.	Henry H. Ricky Z.

Case Study Zero: Instructions and Rubrics

In case you were absent the day we went over the instructions for our project on the U.S. governmental and political system, you can find them here: Case Study Zero: US Government Project.

Additionally, the rubrics which we’ll be using to assess the final project are located here:

• Case Study Zero_Presentation Rubric
• Case Study Zero_Peer Evaluation

 

Case Study Zero Project Assignments: “B” Day Classes

Below, you will find your group and topic assignments for our Case Study Zero project on U.S. government and politics.  I have tried my best to put you into a topic which you indicated you prefered.  You should exchange contact information with the other members of your group, and work to determine your strategy and schedule for accomplishing the various components of the project.

Topic	Presentation Date	2B	3B
Government Structure	Thursday, September 7th	Jackson G. Madison H. Rylie G.	Ashleigh C. Andy H.
Bureaucracy and the Judiciary		Sam W. Onyi O. Kinsey D.	Max C. Rigo G.
Elections and Political Parties		Ian M. Anna M. Andrew B.	Seth R. Victoria G.
Social Cleavages and Social Movements		Baileigh K. Nick E. Azariah B.	Kaylee H. Alex L.
Media Roles and Political Participation		Ruthie S. Ian D. Josh D.	Sarah P. Marco M.
Civil Society, Citizenship, and Representation	Monday, September 11th	Brandon M. Sydney S. Chris R.	N/A
Civil Liberties, Rights, and Freedoms		Kiernan R. Denia C. Parris W.	N/A
Economic Performance, Population, and Migration		Zorae T. Jordan W. Davis W.	Evan M. Shiv P.
Social Welfare Issues and the Environment		Abby J. Kristen B. Justin P. Abbey M.	Sara K. Cameron B. Tom F.

Please check your email for your independent country analysis.

Political Science and Research!

Time to do some work!

Today, you’re going to review some of the basic principles of research in political science.  (This MIGHT be because you have a project coming up which will require you to do some research, so.)  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Review and take notes over the PowerPoint on political science and research.  We have the laptop cart, but they are the terrible and slow ones, so you might want to also consider using your phone if you need to.  Here’s the PowerPoint you need: Methodology and Research in Political Science.
2. Once you’ve finished examining the material, please get in a small group (3 to 4 people, max) and create a poster using butcher paper which does the following:

• Illustrates the difference between NORMATIVE and EMPIRICAL questions
  • Provides at least ONE example of each
• Identifies and describes the THREE types of social research questions
  • Further identifies whether these are NORMATIVE or EMPIRICAL types of questions
• Illustrates the idea of CROSS-SECTIONAL and LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH
  • Indicates which type of research question might be best served by cross-sectional or longitudinal studies
• Is NEAT, COLORFUL, and as CREATIVE as possible
• When you’re done with your poster, please put your names on the back, and come and get some tape to hang it on the wall.

At the end of class, I’ll introduce our upcoming research project on the governmental and political structure of the U.S.

 

Quiz Corrections for Unit One!

Quiz corrections for the Unit One Quiz must be turned in by Friday, August 25th at 4:30 PM to receive credit.  Please select the Google Form below that represents your class, and select as many of the available correction dates and times as you think you will need.  While I can accommodate some students coming for correction on days other than the scheduled dates for their class’ corrections, I can’t have ALL of you present at once.  Please try, to the very best of your ability, to stick to the schedules I’ve included in the forms:

“A” Day Classes

“B” Day Classes

Legitimacy Mindmap

Using your text, please create a mindmap (a visual representation of information) of the concepts of political legitimacy explained by O’Neil in Chapter 2.  You need to:

• Make sure that any description you write is in your OWN words– do not copy from the text,
• Make certain the information you include is clear, correct, and legible.

This information will be particularly relevant as we work through the Weber reading this week.

Again, my apologies for the slow posting on my part.

Also, remember that you should meet in your regular classrooms tomorrow, and then we’ll head over to the counseling session on college applications as a group.  Try to sit down tonight at some point and thing about any questions you might have about applications, college choice, federal aid, scholarships, etc.

See you tomorrow!

Utilitarianism, Moral Calculus, and Freedom v. Equality

This post is just for fun, so if you were looking for the video on how to write FRQs for this class, please check the post before this one.  If you want to think a little more about our discussion of how governments navigate the balancing act between individual freedoms and collective equality, you might want to check out the following stuff.

So in our last class, we talked a little about the tension which exists between freedom and equality in politics, ideology, and governments: how should we, as humans, organize ourselves?  Should we emphasize the total freedom of the individual?  If we do that, are we doing so at the equality of those who have less power?  Or, should we emphasize collective equality– should we try to do the most amount of good for the most amount of people, even if that limits individual freedoms in some cases?

These are pretty tough questions, and there have been lots of pretty smart people who have spent their entire professional lives thinking about them.  I mentioned one in class during our last meeting– John Stuart Mill, who was a leading thinker in utilitarianism.  If you’d like to consider some of the benefits and difficulties of utilitarianism as a moral philosophy, I suggest that you watch the Crash Course below:

As the above video explains, both Mills and Jeremy Bentham were Act Utilitarians– which required that one act, at all times, in a manner to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.  In order to determine how much pain or pleasure an act was likely to cause, Bentham proposed a sort of moral calculus (well, he called it “felicific” calculus, and other philosophers have since called it “ethical” or “hedonistic” calculus– but it’s not calculus at all, it’s just algebra) to objectively determine if an act should be carried out.  I know there were some of you who wanted to know more about this, so if you go here, you can read a pretty straightforward explanation of how it would work.