This lesson contains multiple summative options. One is directly related to the Solution Plan Project; the others are not, though completing them would still help your students progress towards completing the project. If you are treating this lesson as a stand-alone entity (rather than teaching it along with other lessons in the Protecting Nebraska Waters curriculum), or if your students are not completing the Solution Plan Project, you should choose Option 1 or Option 2. In making your decision, you should also keep in mind how much time you want to dedicate to this assessment, as well as which option is the most natural “next step” in your students’ learning, regardless of whether or not they are completing the Solution Plan Project. 

The students will be randomly assigned 1-3 senator case files from the archive they created. Following these instructions, they will write about how they would try to influence their assigned senators. You may choose to add the end products to their archive alongside the corresponding case files. 

Essay topics:

• What are this senator’s priorities? How does he/she feel about water quality issues? 
• What motivates this senator? What underlies his/her priorities?
• How would you try to influence this senator’s decisions (regarding water quality issues)

For more information about assigning and grading essays, see this guide. 

The students will write 300 – 500 words about how what they learned in this lesson could apply to their Solution Plan Project.

Reflection prompts

• How likely is your district’s senator to be interested in your civic action plan? Explain your reasoning.
• If you wanted to convince your district’s senator to consider your ideas, how would you try to do so? Would you try to influence your senator’s decisions directly or indirectly?
• If you wanted to convince a different district’s senator to consider your ideas, who would you approach, and why? Explain how you would do it.
• Based on the nature of your project, do you think it would be worth your time to try to approach a senator (yours or another district’s) with your ideas? Explain your reasoning.