TEACHER MATERIALS
How does Nebraska’s current legislation address the issue of statewide water quality?
The Language of Bills and Laws
In this activity, the students discover the importance of learning how to read bills and laws before trying to analyze one. Split the class into small groups and assign one of the following sources to each group. Because they are written with specialized language and formatting, all of these sources are meant to challenge the students to the point where they will not be able to derive much meaning from them. If they express frustration and ask for help, assure them that all they need to do is try their best to decipher their assigned texts, and that the class will eventually discuss all of the texts together.
- Text #1: “A Budding-Defective M2 Mutant Exhibits Reduced Membrane Interaction, Insensitivity to Cholesterol, and Perturbed Interdomain Coupling”
- Text #2: “To be, or not to be…”
- Text #3: “Soft Serve/Shake Combination Freezer Taylor Model C602” (pages 39-40)
- Text #4: “Sample Disclosures: Accounting for Income Taxes”
- Text #5: “San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Proposed Budget”
Reading Bills and Laws
In this activity, the students will develop strategies for reading bills and laws. They will read LB1102 and work in small groups to fill out a corresponding “bill examination form.” Afterwards, they will have a class discussion about the strategies they came up with. At the end of this discussion, you may need to supplement their list with a few of your own strategies, taken from the guide below.
Reading Omnibus Bills and Laws
In this activity, the students will learn about what an omnibus bill is and how to read one. They will read LB809 (an omnibus bill) and fill out a bill examination form for it. Finally, they will have a class discussion about the bill. A teacher’s guide to LB809 is provided.
Reviewing Relevant Legislation
In this activity, the students will establish 1) what Nebraska’s water quality laws are currently like and 2) what relevant bills are currently on their way to being passed in this state. First, you must teach them about what it means for a law to have “no teeth.” To help illustrate your points, you may have them read an article about the “toothiness” of local California laws. Then, the students will read Nebraska bills and laws related to water quality and create files for them using a template.
“Does San Jose’s ‘Sunshine’ policy have teeth?”
List of Nebraska bills and laws related to water quality
Searching for More Information
In this activity, the students will add to the files they created in the previous activity by searching for more information online. They will fill out section 8 of the bill/law file they created during the previous activity.
Choosing Evaluation Criteria
In this activity, the students will create a list of criteria that they will use to evaluate bills and laws. During a class discussion, they will compare the criteria they came up with to the criteria found in the first document below. You may also need to explain these criteria in depth; more information about them can be found in the second document below.
Bill/law evaluation criteria breakdown
Evaluating Bills and Laws – The Practice Round
In this activity, the students will practice evaluating bills/laws. You may want to provide your students with a guided handout for this activity.