Civil Government Apprentice: "The Fifth Future" Foreign Policy Final Project

BACKGROUND: For this Final Project, we will be synthesizing all of the material that you have learned this semester into a single declaration of how you feel your country should be run over the next 20 years (your adulthood.) You will need to do a little bit of research regarding what some experts call "The Four Futures" of United States Foreign Policy and coming to some personal conclusions regarding the futures that YOU feel are important.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: One of the questions that the students must answer in this mini-project has to do with the Debt and the Financial Condition of the United States. This information was covered in the following videos from the Khan Academy:

SOURCE FOR RESEARCH:  Students will do their basic research by reviewing the information outlined in "The United States Role in the World- The Four Futures". Students will be required to complete some basic notes regarding this information by filling out the FOUR FUTURES NOTES PAGE.

This will be turned in with the rest of the project materials and will be worth points for the CIvil Government competition.

Students are ENCOURAGED to do additional research, as needed, to make their own personal conclusions regarding the FIFTH FUTURE: their own personal description of what they feel should be the goals of the United States foreign policy. One place that I would highly recommend is the EXPERT OPINION INTERVIEWS that accompany this online lesson, found at:

http://www.choices.edu/resources/scholars_usrole.php

There are 10-15 experts that give their 1-2 minute opinions about a number of foreign policy issues on this page. It would be wise to incorporate this information into your final product.

THE TASK:   Each student will be be answering the following questions adapted from the reading above:

• What do you think the long-term goals of the United States should be?
• What should we do on issues such as terrorism, Iraq, economic policy, immigration, and the environment within the context of your long-term
goals?
• How do others view us currently?
• How would you like us to be viewed?
• How does your future address the issues of DEBT and FINANCIAL CONDITION as reviewed in the videos from Khan Academy?
• What are the strengths of the Future you are proposing?
• What might be the arguments against it?

YOUR DELIVERY: This Final Project is one that is designed to make you THINK about your country and how it acts in the world today and in the future. I am asking each student to answer the questions above and present their FIFTH FUTURE to me in a way that conveys all of the answers to the questions above and demonstrates thought, logic and a sense of concern about the future of the country, as well as demonstrating a working understanding of the basics of how your government works and, on occasion, does NOT work for the betterment of it's citizens. How the student proceeds with this mini-project is completely up to the student. I will accept ANYTHING in any format that conveys your ideas and your feelings.

GRADING:  This Final Project will be worth 20 percent of the semester grade, but the Final Project cannot drop a student lower than one letter grade.