Week 5-7: Debate

Formal Debate Week 5 (July 2nd-18th): The class will divide into opposing sides to debate a current hot-topic in the field of medicine.  First (July 2nd), the class will brainstorm ideas on controversial applications of emergent technologies, medicines, and practices in the medical field.  Next, as a group, a list will be determined for debate.  Then the class will vote on the topic of debate, and then divide into self-selected teams.

 Each team will have the following roles:

• a group leader,
• fact checker,
• researchers,
  
• speech writer, and
• presenters (intros, rebuttal & conclusions). 

Next week, July 9th, come to class ready to work in teams.  July 11th, be ready for a mock debate. Your teacher and peers will provide informal feedback.  July 18th the groups will present the formal debate in front of judges for a grade.  

Format:On the day of the debate, each team will present their opening arguments.  Time will be given to regroup for rebuttals.  After rebuttals are presented, the guests judges will provide feedback on your critical analysis of the topic discussed.  In the end, you will receive a team score based on the guest judges' combined scores. See rubric for criteria.  We will use the same lecture hall for the debate that we use for class. 

 (64 minutes planned for debate)

1. Team A introduction (Team A usually defends the proposal):     10 min
2. 5 minute break. During this period, the judges can fill out the rubric.
   
3. Team B introduction (Team B opposes the proposal):                 10 min
4. 5 minute break. During this period, the judges can fill out the rubric.
   
5. Break: Team members prepare their rebuttals                               5 min.
6. Team B Rebuttal:                                                                                 5 min
7. 2 minute break for judges to fill out rubric 
   
8. Team A Rebuttal:                                                                                 5 min.
9. 2 minute break for judges to fill out rubric. 
   
10. Team A Concluding remarks                                                              5 min.
11. Team B Concluding remarks                                                              5 min.
12. Debriefing (discussion of how the debate went with the class)      5+ min.

****Judges will submit the graded rubric with comments the following day.   Judges will use this  rubric.  I strongly suggest that the students review the elements in the rubric that you will be evaluated on.

Please note: Your formal debate will be viewed by invited guests.   For this reason, we ask that on the day of the debate that you dress in casual business attire. 

Resources: Your task is to add the resources you plan to use on this wiki as your prepare for your debate. Add them to the comment section below. For starters, I found the first one:

•  iDebate has pros and cons on numerous topics: http://idebate.org/ 

• American Medical Association: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics.page

Homework:

1. Research articles and information to use in the debate. Share findings with your team in a summary of key issue and include name of authors and date.

2. Study the medical terminology list of words 1-100. 

3. Complete another MRL lexile test ( you should have 3 done by this week).

4. Complete another MRL module posttest (you should have 3 complete modules done this week).