"The Bill to Law Simulation Project- Part ONE"

PART ONE (ORGANIZATION and BILL WRITING):

ASSIGNMENT: We have been discussing the "Bill to Law" Process in class and how bills can be amended in committee.  To see this in action, students will simulating the "Bill to Law" process in class by writing a number of "Bills" that pertain to the operations of Highland High School.

PROCESS: Each student will be in charge of CREATING a single bill pertaining to the operation of Highland High School. Students will use the following

HIGHLAND BILL TEMPLATE

to create their bill. Please make sure that your bill looks very similar to:

MR. BURKHARD'S HIGHLAND BILL

AREAS OF CONCERN FOR ALL HIGHLAND BILLS, to be addressed in the Highland Bill Template:

  1. What is the PROBLEM or ISSUE OF CONCERN that is being addressed by your bill? Each bill should have a particular issue or problem that it is addressing. Frivolous bills, such as "Everybody should get cookies every day" do not address a current problem or issue and will not be considered. Bills should be attempting to make a POSITIVE DIFFERENCE with the contents of their bill. A bill that merely complains about issues, but does not propose a POSITIVE solution will not be accepted.
  2. What is the PURPOSE (Positive Outcome) of your bill? What are you hoping to achieve with the passing of this bill?
  3. What is the SHORT NAME of your bill? Think of the bill titles that we have seen in our studies of actual congressional bills so far.
  4. For this project, you MUST research some FINDINGS for your bill. In other words, what evidence, data and statistics do you have to offer to support the need for your bill? Who will it help? What are the benefits? This information should be RESEARCHED and DOCUMENTED, complete a survey, interview an expert, look up online data, ask administrators, etc.! Please be thorough in this area, a bill with no FINDINGS will not be accepted into committee and will receive a FAILING GRADE. (SPECIAL TIP: Make sure that ANY counter-arguments to your bill is addressed in your FINDINGS, this will give your opponents less ammunition to vote your bill down.)
  5. What are the DEFINITIONS pertaining to your bill? Explain any terms or words that would not be clearly understood by the average PERSON ON THE STREET.
  6. What is the FINANCIAL IMPACT of your bill? Explain in detail any added costs or sources of income for the school that will come from your bill.

BILL CONSIDERATION:

  1. As a class, we will be reviewing all bills in the "Committee of the Whole." We will attempt to IMPROVE all bills as best we can by suggesting additions and subtractions. After all bills have been considered and amended, we will have a HIDDEN VOTE on all bills, trying to find the TWO OR THREE BILLS that are worthy of consideration for sending to Mrs. Bailey for her consideration as an Administration member.

GRADING: Students will be graded on the following criteria:

  • BILL SUMMARIES: Thoughtful completion of the original bill, as outlined above, all bill sections complete and properly analyzed= 50 points. Summary incomplete or incorrectly analyzed= 25 points, bill summary not completed= 0 points.
  • FLOOR ACTION: Proper participation in floor activities, including commenting appropriately at least twice in the discussion= 50 points, Limited participation in floor activities= 25 points, refusal to participate in floor activities= 0 points..
  • INTERACTION AND PARTICIPATION: Thoughtful, respectful and proper interaction with others throughout the course of this project= 50 points, Interactions occassionally inappropriate to the task at hand or disrespectful of the simulation process= 25, student is removed from the simulation for improper interactions= 0 points.