POLS 2305: Federal Government

Common Core Assignments for 2022-23

 

1. POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSESSMENT AREA
2. Personal Responsibility: connect choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making

2. Social Responsibility
3. intercultural competence
4. knowledge of civic responsibility
5. knowledge of engaging in regional, national, and global communities

 

1. INFORMATION FOR INSTRUCTORS

 

1. Students must complete BOTH #1 AND #2 (choose either A, B, or C for #2, Social Responsibility) in section IV.
2. You may choose the minimum length of the essay.
3. PROMPTS

 

1. Personal Responsibility Essay

You are a Texas Senator on a three person Senate Committee on Education.  The committee has been given an extra $2 million by the Comptroller of Public Accounts who shows that there has been a significant increase in tax revenue in the state.  The money will go toward college scholarships in public universities.  The committee’s job is to decide on proper allocation of the funds and make a recommendation to the full Senate.

Senator Rawls represents an economically challenged portion of urban Dallas.  Senator Rawls grew up in this neighborhood and expresses that poor people are the individuals most in need, and that all extra resources should go to those most in need.  Senator Rawls recommends that all scholarships be need based.  Senator Bentham represents and was raised in an upper middle class portion of Houston.  Senator Bentham says the money should go to the students who are excellent high school students who want to major in STEM fields.  Senator Bentham says the investment will produce and overall healthier society and that ability to succeed in college in an important field is more import than being in personal need because the investment is more likely to produce more overall good in things like medical procedures, drugs, and infrastructure.

You are the third and deciding vote.  In a full sentence, grammatically correct essay explain the following in the order outlined by the numbers below.

1.   What is your decision on how to distribute the money?
2.  Rawls (give to those most in need) and Bentham (give to those who will give the most back) explain their basis of decision making in justifying their decision.  Explain the basis of your decision.  Justify your decision.  What will this mean in future decisions that you make as a legislator?  What are the pros and cons of your decision making process?
3.  What about general experiences in your life caused you to have the core beliefs to make the decision.
4. 2. Social Responsibility

Intercultural competence

You are legislative aide for a member of the Texas House of Representatives.  The representative’s chief of staff selects you and two other aides to work together to find out the details of a shooting in a small Texas town earlier that morning.  Your team must get the information quickly.

In your own words, answer the following questions.

1. What expectations about individual behavior, and responsibilities, would you have for yourself?
2. How would you communicate them to your group?
3. How would you find out if the expectations of others in the group differ from yours?
4. How could you and your group best resolve any such differences that might arise?

 

1. Knowledge of civic responsibility

 

In your own words, answer the following questions.

1. Why is it important to vote?
2. Why is it important to be well informed on civic issues?
3. Considering your previous answers what is your responsibility to your community when it comes to voting and being informed on civic issues?

 

1. Knowledge of engaging in regional, national, and global communities

You are a Texas State Representative for a Latino/Latina community in east Houston that is populated by a lot of refineries.  The refineries provide a lot of jobs but cause air quality and health problems in the district.

 

1. What factors best explain this problem from the refinery worker perspective?
2. From the resident perspective?
3. Given the interconnectedness of the two groups, what personal, and social, responsibilities do you have regarding this problem?
4. As a state legislator how would you act on these responsibilities?