The students will write an essay based on the following prompts:

1. Based only on the laws in our file archive, summarize Nebraska’s current water quality legislation. 
2. Based only on the bills in our file archive, what might Nebraska’s water quality legislation look like in the near future? How would the state’s current policies change?
3. Based on what you currently know about it, can you identify any gaps in Nebraska’s water quality legislation? (i.e. an overlooked group of people whose interests aren’t currently being represented, a common unintended negative consequence that might be avoided, problems enforcing a law, etc.).
4. During this inquiry, we discussed the intended and unintended consequences of legislation. What are the intended consequences of your project? What unintended consequences might it have, both positive and negative? (specific to Solution Plan Project)
5. During this inquiry, we discussed how some laws are more “democratic” than others. In what ways could you incorporate democratic principles into your project? (specific to Solution Plan Project)

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

As they are writing their essays, the students will need to reference the bill/law files they created as a class during the lesson. Because the students will all need to access the files at the same time, you may want to think about making the archive digital, either by having the students create them this way or by scanning them after they’re finished.