Mission Statement |
The purpose of the Chico Great Debate is to bring together members of the campus and community to investigate and engage in dialogue around a “hot topic” issue. The entire day of presentations and debates stresses active listening, respectful exchange, and collaborative civic learning through civil discourse. We cater specifically to first-year students in order to encourage a sense of involvement within the Chico community as a whole.
History
This event was created by Dr. Thia Wolf, the founder of Public Sphere Pedagogy (PSP). This methodology focuses first- and second- year student research on public issues and connects that research to public arenas for discussion, reflection, and "next-steps" planning activities. Our first event took place in the Spring term of 2010 with the topic covering the legalization of marijuana. Since then we have helped over 30,000 students improve their academic and civic engagement, which in turn positively affects first- year students' developing identities as member of Chico State and Society. |
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The Event
We incorporate aspects of debate, lecture and group discussion to create an interactive space for students to engage with controversial topics of interest. They are as follows,
The Civic Expo: The Civic Expo is a competition where groups of five or six students showcase the informative projects that they have been working on throughout the semester. Some posters will be about brain trauma while others will be about addictive behaviors. This event is successful due to the fact that these students are informing the public of such varying topics. Each group signs up for a ninety minute time slot where they will teach the public about their respective topic. These groups will often split into 3 sub groups of two, manning the station for thirty minutes a team. Throughout the event, there will be neurological experts posing as spectators who will walk through the aisles quizzing teams on their information. These students will rack up a score, and the top teams will receive prizes for their work.
Debates / Speeches: The debate / speeches portion is a place where students are able to present what they’ve learned regarding the topic to inform/persuade the audience on the subject matter. The speeches can be done either as an individual, or as group speeches. After the speeches are done, the audience then has a chance to ask questions of the speaker.
Cookies and Conversation: Cookies and conversation is a moderator-run discussion which involves students from different courses. Groups go around and share their course topics and project expertise before making connections to the main topic of the Great Debate. This is also a somewhat reflective evaluation of student opinions on U-Course success.
Cookies and Conversation: Cookies and conversation is a moderator-run discussion which involves students from different courses. Groups go around and share their course topics and project expertise before making connections to the main topic of the Great Debate. This is also a somewhat reflective evaluation of student opinions on U-Course success.
The Civic Expo: The Civic Expo is a competition where groups of five or six students showcase the informative projects that they have been working on throughout the semester. Some posters will be about brain trauma while others will be about addictive behaviors. This event is successful due to the fact that these students are informing the public of such varying topics. Each group signs up for a ninety minute time slot where they will teach the public about their respective topic. These groups will often split into 3 sub groups of two, manning the station for thirty minutes a team. Throughout the event, there will be neurological experts posing as spectators who will walk through the aisles quizzing teams on their information. These students will rack up a score, and the top teams will receive prizes for their work.
Debates / Speeches: The debate / speeches portion is a place where students are able to present what they’ve learned regarding the topic to inform/persuade the audience on the subject matter. The speeches can be done either as an individual, or as group speeches. After the speeches are done, the audience then has a chance to ask questions of the speaker.
Cookies and Conversation: Cookies and conversation is a moderator-run discussion which involves students from different courses. Groups go around and share their course topics and project expertise before making connections to the main topic of the Great Debate. This is also a somewhat reflective evaluation of student opinions on U-Course success.
Cookies and Conversation: Cookies and conversation is a moderator-run discussion which involves students from different courses. Groups go around and share their course topics and project expertise before making connections to the main topic of the Great Debate. This is also a somewhat reflective evaluation of student opinions on U-Course success.