“A HEALTH CRISIS IN AMERICA”

“Smoking and Air Pollution”

Presented by: Mr. Almonte

PS. 133

New York City, NY

INTRODUCTION

Imagine! You are sitting in your own apartment and the person beneath you is smoking a cigarette. The fumes filter p through the air ducts and get into you kitchen where you and your family are eating. You run down to the apartment below and knock on the door. A man appears still smoking his cigarette. You tell him to stop the smoking; it is polluting the building with dangerous chemicals. He closes the door in your face. Is he breaking the law? Do you have any legal rights? After all, he is in his own apartment and has first and fourteenth amendment rights but this has become a major SOCIAL PRPOBLEM! Your only alternative is to turn to a “public policy analyst” for help and contact your local elected officials.

You have been assigned the role of adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City. He is adamantly opposed to public anywhere in the city. He has asked you to make a public service announcement that the City can use to push for legislation to ban smoking in all New York City Buildings. You product, fro this web quest will be given to the Mayor’s committee. However, you cannot intelligently talk to your congressman until you have a policy. This you will accomplish in this web quest. Smoking has been debated for the past 30 years. Smokers argue they have the right to smoke in their own domain while, those affected by pollution argue it is unhealthful and driving up health care costs. “Second hand smoke” is also endangering the lives of auld and children. In this web quest you will make critical findings and create a policy to address this problem of pollution by second hand smoking. Good luck. You can save the health of thousands!

TASK

The class will be divided into groups. Each group will be responsible for producing a ONE MINTE minimum public service announcement.

The announcement will be accomplished buy use of a VIDEO CAMERA.

This one minute Video Public Service announcement will include the six steps of the PUBLIC POLIY ANALYST. It should be interesting, enthusiastic and informative. The video should mirror 20/20 type of investigatory methods. You may use interviews, reporter facts, charts, graphs and illustrations. Be sure to edit the final copy to be shown in class.

PROCEDURE

1: The class will be divided into groups of FOUR.

2: Each group will be responsible for a video product and will be graded by the rubric as a group.

3: Individual roles will be assigned as follows

STUDENT # 1} DIRECTOR—This student will direct the video and create scenes that will be entertaining as well as informative

STUDETN # 2} SCRIPT WRITER- This student will create a script for the video using the six step public policy analyst worksheets. All steps must be included in the video.

STUDETN # 3} RESEARCHER—This student will use the internet sites in the Resource section of the web quest to complete all six worksheets of the public policy analyst. He/she will then advise the script writer and director as to the best way of completing the video

STUDENT # 4} TIME KEEPER- This student will have many functions. First he/she will make certain the group stays on task and follows deadlines set down by the instructor. Secondly, he/she will make certain each member of the group completes their obligation. Thirdly, he/she will coordinate the sending of information among members and will help in the research completing the PPA worksheets

THE PUBLIC POLICY ANALYST

Each group will use the use the six step public policy analyst as an outline for completing the web quest product video. Each step should be included somewhere in the video. The six worksheets must be completed by the researcher. They are linked below for access. Click on the

“MS Word” worksheet link at the bottom after reading the web page. These sheets must be completed by the “researcher.

STEP # 1: Determining the Social Problem

STEP # 2: Gathering the evidence for the social problem

STEP # 3: Determining the causes for the social problem

STEP # 4: Evaluating an existing public policy related to the social

Problem

STEP # 5: Finding solutions to the social problem

STEP # 6: Choosing the BEST solution

RESOURCES

GENERAL WEB SITES FOR RESEARCH

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

WWW.YAHOO.COM

WWW.ASK.COM

SPECIFIC WEB SITES FOR RESEARCH

Cigarette air pollution

American Lung Association findings

Smoking bans (Wikipedia) a history)

Legal discussion of smoking bans

Smoking ban in NYC—long PDF file

Smoking ban results

Second hand smoke

Passive smoking

Smoking contributes to air pollution

EVALAUTION

RUBRIC FOR GRADING THE VIDEO PRODUCT

Video- Preproduction : SMOKING AND AIR POLLUITION

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Teacher Name: Mr. ALMONTE

CATEGORY	4 EXCELLENT	3 VERY GOOD	2 SATISFACTORY	1 POORLY DONE	Score
Teamwork	Students meet and discuss regularly. All students contribute to the discussion and all are listened to respectfully. All team members contribute a fair share of the work.	Students meet and discuss regularly. Most students contribute to the discussion and are listened to respectfully. All team members contribute a fair share of the work.	A couple of team meetings are held. Most students contribute to the discussion and are listened to respectfully. All team members contribute a fair share of the work.	Meetings are not held AND/OR some team members do not contribute a fair share of the work.
Concept	Team has a clear picture of what they are trying to achieve. Each member can describe what they are trying to do and generally how his/her work will contribute to the final product.	Team has a fairly clear picture of what they are trying to achieve. Each member can describe what they are trying to do overall but has trouble describing how his/her work will contribute to the final product.	Team has brainstormed their concept, but no clear focus has emerged for the team. Team members may describe the goals/final product differently.	Team has spent little effort on brainstorming and refining a concept. Team members are unclear on the goals and how their contributions will help them reach the goal.
Script	Script is complete and it is clear what each actor will say and do. Entries and exits are scripted as are important movements. Script is quite professional.	Script is mostly complete. It is clear what each actor will say and do. Script is shows planning.	Script has a few major flaws. It is not always clear what the actors are to say and do. Script shows an attempt at planning, but seems incomplete.	There is no script. Actors are expected to invent what they say and do as they go along.
USE OF PPA	Used all steps in the PPA in the video	used all steps of the PPA in the video with a few mistakes	Used only 5 steps of the PPA in the video	Use of the PPA poorly defined
Lighting Setup	Additional lighting has been used to eliminate shadows and glares. Cameras are set to the appropriate light level.	Additional lighting has been used, but may not be set up optimally. Cameras are set to the appropriate light level.	Cameras are set to appropriate light level, but no additional lighting was used when needed.	Cameras are not set to appropriate light level. Additional lighting may, or may not, be used.
Sound Setup	Microphones are positioned optimally to ensure that important sounds and dialogue are captured. The team has made every attempt to anticipate and filter out unwanted ambient noise in the recording.	Microphones are positioned optimally to ensure that important sounds and dialogue are captured.	At least one microphone (in addition to that on the camera) is used to ensure that dialogue is captured.	Little attention was paid to ensuring quality sound during the shoot.

CONCLUSION

You should have learned critical lessons by completing this web quest. You now have a clear understanding of the relationship between smoking and air pollution. You also have experienced the role of the public policy analyst in a democratic society. This person searches and exposes social problems then finds effective solutions. These solutions can be presented in many forms to create change. Let’s hope your video made a positive impact on our society. Thanks for your participation. It is much appreciated by all!

STANDARDS ADDRESSED

Social Studies

Standard 4:   Economics

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.

Standard 5:   Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

English Language Arts

Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 3:   Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Standard 4:   Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.