SOCIAL STUDIES ACTIVITIES

Bill Me!

Objectives-Social Studies

1. Students will learn the process whereby a bill becomes a law through the State Legislative system.

2. Students will conduct a legislative simulation designed to help familiarize them with the legislative process.

3. Students will prepare for and argue a number of legislative mandates designed to ensure that Iowans are able to reduce their energy use.

Module Overview-Social Studies

The social studies portion of this unit introduces students to the legislative process in Iowa. Students first discover how an idea becomes a bill. This activity leads into another activity in which students learn how a bill becomes a law. Students have an opportunity to apply this knowledge through a mock legislative session in which students write and present bills to the legislature dealing with saving energy.

Suggested Teaching Strategies

Begin the module by presenting students with the problem. It goes something like this: "Our country is faced with a serious energy shortage. Each state must cut their fossil fuel use by a specified amount, determined by a complicated formula which takes into account population, industry, size, and a variety of other factors. Over the next ten years, every state must cut its use of fossil fuels by at least 20%. How each state will accomplish this is up to them. If the 20% cuts are not met, states will no longer be eligible for many of the federal dollars they now receive."

Before students can begin thinking of possible solutions to this problem, they must first become familiar with the different sources of energy being used in Iowa. They also need to know the uses of fossil fuels here in Iowa. Show this to students, asking them to share their ideas on what the graph means.

Iowa Energy Usage in 1994

Since this unit concentrates on fossil fuels, ask students which of the fuels listed in the table are fossil fuels. (Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are fossil fuels.) As can be seen from the data in the pie graph, coal, petroleum, and natural gas are the most widely used fuels in Iowa. Hydroelectric power is considered a "clean" fuel, being produced from water flowing over a dam. Nuclear power is not a fossil fuel and comprises only a small percentage of the energy used in Iowa in 1994.

Ask students to make some guesses about the specific uses of coal, petroleum and natural gas in Iowa. Write their responses on the chalkboard. Once this has been done, share with students the data and accompanying pie graph shown below.

Iowa Energy Use by Sector in 1994

Point out that most of the petroleum consumed in Iowa is in the form of gasoline for vehicles. Students should be able to conclude that we need to cut our use of coal, petroleum and natural gas.

In 1994, the largest user of energy in Iowa was for the generation of electricity. The electricity sector consumed 37% of the total energy consumed in this state. The industrial and transportation sectors used 24% and 23% respectively. Usage in the residential sector accounted for 12% and 8% was consumed in the commercial sector.

Ask students to make some general statements about what the data in both these tables tells us about how to cut our energy consumption by 20%. Hopefully students will conclude that changes in our use of electricity at home, in our driving, in the cars we choose to drive, and in our industries are prime targets for reducing use of fossil fuels in Iowa. Student's suggestions for legislation should be aimed at these areas, but will likely include other suggestions.

Iowa's energy consumption has remained relatively constant since 1971. Energy efficiency plays a big role in this steady state. For example, cars have become more efficient, so even though there are more vehicles on the road today than there were in 1971, the vehicles get more miles per gallon of gasoline than did the vehicles of the 1970's. Students may not be thinking of more efficient use of energy as being important. However, energy efficiency could be the largest contributor to energy savings in Iowa's near future. When drafting legislation to decrease Iowa's energy use, students may want to consider ideas dealing with increased efficiency.

Another possible area of energy savings lies in using alternative fuels. For Iowa, wind energy, biomass, corn based fuels (ethanol), and solar could be important in decreasing our use of fossil fuels. Again, you may need to steer students in a direction that will encourage them to draft legislation that will encourage the development of alternative fuels.

Role Call

Teacher Notes

Objective:
Students will learn the roles, responsibilities and organizational structure of our state government. Students will state the five key positions in our state government.

Materials:
Prior to beginning this module, prepare a set of cards for distribution to each member of your class. Appendix D contains the different cards needed for the activity. Reproduce enough cards to give each student a card. It is best to have an equal number of Senators and Representatives.

Suggested Teaching Strategies:
In this activity, students will be assigned to be members of either the House of Representatives or the Senate. You may wish to make some determinations as to which students should work together.

Prior to class, set up the room in a legislative-type arrangement. The diagram in Appendix D provides a suggestion as to how to arrange your classroom. Place cards at each table, indicating which places are reserved for Senators and which are for Representatives. Also place cards out for the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House. An American flag and an Iowa flag near the governor's seat would be a nice touch.

As students enter the classroom, hand each student a card. Ask students with "Senator" cards to sit at the seats designated for Senators. Legislators from the "House" should sit in those seats designated for the House of Representatives. Each legislator should choose an Iowa town they wish to represent. Ask each Senator and Representative to make a desk sign listing his/her name and hometown. Encourage students to choose cities from across the state.

The role of the Governor is one which may not see a great deal of action throughout the simulation. You may wish to allow the class to elect a governor. Another option is to have a celebrity governor. This could be a principal, local police chief or even the mayor. It would work nicely to have a different celebrity governor each day of the simulation. In Iowa, the Governor appoints the Lieutenant Governor. For the purposes of this simulation, you may want to allow the members of the Senate to elect the Lieutenant Governor from among the senators. The Speaker of the House is elected by the Representatives of the House. Conduct elections for the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House during this introductory class period.

Extensions:
Post an Iowa map in the classroom. Students could then place a pin in their "hometown" cities. Use one color to represent senators and one for representatives.

Ask students to find the names of the state senators and representatives. Write their names and hometowns on an Iowa map and post the map in the classroom.

Home/Community Connection:
Invite one of the representatives from your district to speak to your class. Prior to the visit, encourage each student to write at least one question to ask the speaker. If feasible, try to arrange for the guest legislator to address your class and other over the fiber optic network. Make arrangements with middle schools from other parts of the state to participate.

How an Idea Becomes a Bill

Teacher Notes

Objectives:
Students will be able to write a legislative bill about a specific idea.

Materials:
copies of the Bill Worksheet (1-2 for each student group, see Appendix D)

Suggested Teaching Strategies:
Begin by asking students if they have ever heard anyone say that it seems to take forever to get anything done in Congress. A similar time frame seems to operate at the state level. Ask students for their opinions on why this happens. Students will likely respond about the difficulty of getting all of the sides to agree on one idea.

Ask if anyone knows of any issues that are currently being discussed in the state legislature or which are pending. Students need not know the particulars of any bill, just the concept ideas. Keep track of student's ideas on the chalkboard. Be prepared to contribute some ideas of your own to get students started thinking along this line.

Up to this point you have probably used the terms "bill" and "law" without defining them. Ask students to what a bill is. What is the difference between a bill and a law? Develop a class definition for a bill on the chalkboard. You will likely end up with something like this:

A bill is an idea that you want to become a law.

Once a bill is agreed upon, as evidenced by receiving a majority of votes in both the House and Senate, it becomes a law. Our state has had laws dealing with many issues. Ask students to name some of state laws we have had. There ideas might include some of the following:
speed limits
seat belt use
helmet law
drinking age
drinking
smoking
driver's permit age

In the past, some of the most significant bills have dealt with issues such as health, education, crime and welfare. Ask students what new issues they think might come up in the future? Student responses might include issues such as recycling and gang violence. Some students may name energy use and production as a future area of concentrated legislation. Point out to students that in the future, legislators may have to take a more active role in dictating our energy use as nonrenewable energy resources dwindle. This means they may be introducing bills to the legislature dealing with energy use.

At this time, ask the Governor to give his/her opening statement. (See Governor's card)

Explain to students that in this legislative simulation, students will be introducing bills in both the Senate and House. All of the bills will deal with Iowa's future energy use.

Challenge students to write at least on bill to be introduced into either the senate or house dealing with an energy issue that is likely to affect us in the near future. Review with students the Bill Form Worksheet, providing an example as you go.

BILL WORKSHEET
Bill Title: Make up a descriptive title for your bill
Subject: Write a two or three word description of your bill
Number: Bills are normally numbered sequentially. You may assign a four digit number to your bill.
What do you want to change? Write several sentences highlighting what needs to be changed. In other words, what is the problem?
How are you going to do it? Write several sentences describing how you propose to make the change. Who will the changes be targeted for? (Homeowners, businesses, industry, etc.)

Below is a list of possible topics for bills. Each of the areas suggested deals with energy use. You may wish to either have students choose one or more topics on which they wish to work, or to assign a topic to each working group. You may also wish to encourage students to come up with their own energy bills. Provide students adequate time to discuss their bills, making certain they use the Bill Worksheet as they go. The completed bills will be introduced to the legislature in Activity 3.

Possible Topics for Energy Bills

Cutting Electricity Use:

A great deal of energy is wasted for lighting, heating, and cooling buildings. How can business hours be restricted or rearranged to decrease the use energy for lighting, heating and cooling? Think about the hours per day or per week businesses might be allowed to stay open. Would it be possible to restrict the number of hours businesses are allowed to keep signs lit each day?

What steps can be taken to increase the use of fluorescent light bulbs and to decrease the use of incandescent light bulbs?

A great deal of energy is used to cool and heat public lobby and other non-work areas. What can be done to decrease the amount of energy used for heating and cooling lobby areas?

Electrical space heaters use a lot of energy, and are many times used when additional heat is not essential. What steps can be taken to decrease the use of space heaters in Iowa?

Energy Efficiency

New high efficiency appliances are now on the market. What can be done to increase the use/purchase of these new high efficiency appliances in Iowa?

Water heaters use a tremendous amount of electricity. Significant energy savings can be realized by insulating water heaters. What can be done to increase the use of insulation around water heaters in homes and businesses?

What requirements can be made for the use of low flow shower heads and aerators?

Alternative Energy

What can be done to get utility companies to increase their use of wind, solar, and water power?

What can be done to encourage homeowners to increase their use of solar and wind energy?

Transportation

Many families own more vehicles than they have drivers. For example, if there are only two drivers in a family, why should they have three or four vehicles. What can be done to restrict the number of vehicles a family can own?

Many families drive many miles that are not essential each week. What can be done to restrict the number of miles a family can drive each week or each month?

Vehicles are on the market that use alternative fuels such as ethanol and electricity and are very efficient. However, these vehicles are not typically available through local car dealers. What steps can be taken to ensure that car dealers have vehicles available that use alternative fuels?

Home/Community Connections:
Have students write energy use bills for energy use in their homes. Ask them to present the bills to their families. Have them vote on which bills they would like to becomes "laws" in their homes. (Yes, your vote counts too!)

Have students ask one or both of their parents/guardians to find out those energy efficient measures that have been taken over the past few years at their place of work. Find out if these measures were taken by choice, because of a law, or for other reasons.

Challenge students to find out if your city or county has any laws related to energy use.

Extensions:
Do some library research on the federal energy legislation that has been passed in the last five years. Have the regulations been aimed mainly at homes, transportation, or businesses?

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Teacher Notes

Objective:
Students will be able to describe the steps by which a bill becomes a law in the state legislature.

Materials:
overheads of the bill passage process

Suggested Teaching Strategies:
The process by which a bill moves through the House of Representatives and the Senate will appear complicated to students. The series of activities in this module will help students to experience this process first hand. This direct experience should help students to better understand the processes involved. Begin by showing students an overhead of the flowchart entitled "Wouldn't It Be Nice If It Were This Simple?" in Appendix D. In an ideal situation this could happen. But it rarely does. The process is much more complicated than this. Give each student group a copy of the flowcharts entitled "How the House of Representatives Passes a Bill" and "How the Senate Passes a Bill" (See Appendix D). These should be followed through in detail, with the teacher explaining the process and providing examples along the way.

Explain the legislative process with the help of the flowcharts. While most social studies teachers are very familiar with the state legislative process, the general points are listed below as a refresher for those teachers who do not normally teach a unit on this topic.

• A bill may be introduced (can start) on either side...the House or the Senate.
• The exact same process occurs on each side, but the starting place may differ. If you know what process the House goes through...the Senate follows the same steps.
• To become a law, a bill must be approved by both the House and the Senate (simple majority) and then signed by the Governor.
• Any legislator in the Senate or House can introduce any bill on any subject.
• After each bill has been introduced, it is sent to committee. In committee, four things can happen:
  1. Pass as is in the House........if this happens, it goes to the Senate
  2. Change it.......committee can change any bill. They many times call in experts to testify.
  3. Kill it.....if a bill dies in committee, the bill goes back to the author. That person can then either rewrite the bill and reintroduce it or can let it drop.
  4. Pigeon hole it...if the bill is crazy and far out, it can be placed in the "pigeon hole" and sits there until someone wants it reconsidered. It could stay here forever. It is not given back to the author when pigeon-holed.
• The bill comes back to the House floor after the committee works on it. Everyone in House should be present as the bill is reread, line for line, to the whole House. The bill is then debated by House members. Pros and cons are presented. Anyone can speak.
• Bill is then voted on. Each person is called on the vote.
• If the bill passes the House, it goes to the Senate and the same process occurs there. If the Senate then passes the bill without a change, it goes to the Governor for signing. If the Governor signs it, the bill becomes a law. If the Governor vetoes it, the bill returns to where it started, either in the House or the Senate, to be voted on again. This time it must receive 2/3 majority vote in both houses to become a law (to override the veto).
• There are many other options which can occur once a bill is passed by both the House and Senate. The numerous options are likely to confuse students. It is suggested that these options be excluded at this time.
• If the bill fails in either the House or the Senate, it is dead. The bill is then given back to the author. They can work on it if time permits.
• If a bill passes the House, it is sent to the Senate. There, it is introduced to all senators and goes right into committee. Here, it has the same options as the House.
• If the senate Committee changes a bill which has already been passed by the House, same process is gone through as in the House. If the changed bill is then passed by the Senate, it goes to a joint conference committee. (This committee is made up of the two members from the Senate committee who worked with this bill and 2 members of the House committee who worked with this bills. The Speaker of the House and Lieutenant Governor pick these people. That committee writes a compromise bill. This is then sent back to the original starting place (the house in this case) and the process is repeated.
• Once the same form of the bill passes the House and Senate, it goes on to the governor.

The Simulation:
To begin the simulation, all students should be sitting in their respective House and Senate positions. Each of the bills written in Activity 2 should be introduced. When students introduce a bill, they should follow this format:

Introduce yourself, the bill number, and the bill itself to the members of the House or Senate.

In the interest of efficiency, it is suggested that each student be assigned to be on only one committee. You may wish to make these committee assignments prior to the legislative simulation. Since bills are first debated in committees where they are introduced, separate committees should be formed for Senate members and for House of Representatives members. After the bills are introduced, ask students to break into committees to debate the bills and make any changes, if desired. Remind students of the four options which a committee has (i.e., pass it, change it, pigeon-hole it, or kill it). Discourage students from using the last two options.

Once the committees have reached a consensus, follow each bill through the legislative process. To keep students' attention focused throughout the process, ask each student to be making a list of pros and cons for each of the bills discussed. They should refer to these notes when each bill is being debated, before being voted on. Inform students that during the debate process, each student will be asked to speak at least once using this format:

I support this bill because......
I oppose this bill because ......

As each bill is voted on, the Speaker of the House (or Lt. Governor) will reread the bill before taking the vote. He/She will use a roll call format to call on each person. Each representative must respond "the Representative from ..... votes Yea (or Nay)".

Students will likely need a great deal of guidance in debating and voting on the first bill. As additional bills are introduced, the process should become more familiar to students, making less teacher guidance necessary.

It may not be possible to deal with all of the bills, depending on the number of class days you wish to spend on the simulation. Once the simulation has ended, ask students to share their reactions to the discussion questions below.

Discussion Questions:
1. How will these new projects be funded?

2. What happens to Iowa communities that resist changes or who are unable to conform? (Fines, taxes, jail time for community leaders?)

3. What was difficult about passing a law? What was easy about passing a law?

4. What relevance do these laws/bills have in today's world? Explain.

5. What would your reaction be if your laws went into effect immediately?

Extensions:
Ask students to find and bring in copies of state and local laws pertaining to energy consumption and energy efficiency.

Home/Community Connection:
Present your findings for #4 dealing with building insulation, to your school board or superintendent. Give suggestions for improving school energy efficiency.