Introduce learners to the debate format with an activity that uses the National Park Service's controversial Channel Islands restoration program as a topic. Class members learn how to generate provocative debate questions, how to prepare for and organize a debate, how to debrief the activity, and how to determine who won.

Concepts

biodiversity, environmental adaptations, ocean habitats, habitats, pigs, bald eagles, eagles, debate

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Have groups research the current state of the eradication programs on the Channel Islands and use information from these searches in the debate
• While accurate for the time they were produced, the debate materials are dated; decide before you begin whether to encourage teams to locate more current materials or to limit their arguments to information provided in the packet

Classroom Considerations

• The second resource in a series of seven assumes class members have watched the documentary West of the West: Tales from California's Channel Islands, which can be found in the first resource in the series 
• Class members must generate the debate question

Pros

• Debaters must integrate information from a documentary, newspaper editorials, and National Park service information sheets to prepare

Cons

• No model debate questions are included
• The editorials included in the resource are dated