Frankenstein, Isms, World War I, Russian Revolution, Heart of Darkness:
Relating issues of science, technology, and governance to current events
Essential Questions:
Isms, World War I, the Russian Revolution, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness all raise
questions about the ethics of governance, conquest, scientific and technological ideas. What ethical and moral dilemmas do
these pose for our time? How should we deal with these dilemmas?
Your task:
You will research one of the following topics (i.e. one sub point—the broad points are solely to find commonalities). Your
group will quickly choose which one to research. You may incorporate any resources you find, as long as you can defend their
validity and relevance. You MUST informally cite your sources both in your preparation.
Topics:
 Genetic engineering
 GMO foods, health, the environment, and economics
 Engineering babies / pre-natal testing
 Revival of extinct species
 Communication technology
 Personal communication (PDAs, online communities, etiquette, privacy etc.)
 Media (print, online, broadcast, radio, hardware to make previous media digital)
 Use of technology for personal relationships, social networking, communication and understanding of both
localized communities and our global community.
 Advances in medicine
 Drug therapies or other machines treating various diseases (incl. surgeries)
 Stem cell research
 Environmental impacts
 Global trade and its impact on biodiversity
 Cost of production vs. environmental costs
 Relationship between human and nature
 Relationships of the developed to developing countries
 Aid packages and integration into the world
 Establishing and supporting democracies
 Roles of former colonies to their former conquerors
 Relief of third world debt
You prepare:
 As many notes on the topic as possible—facts and evidence that you find interesting and/or support your stance on your issue
(one per group).
 An informally formatted Works Cited Page and w/ annotations explaining the sources’ validity (one per group).
 A resolution and t-chart during the debate showing what points were made and questions asked (one per table).
 Answers to key questions at the end of the debate (one per person).
Structure of lesson:
 5 minutes to prep debate with your partner
 35 minutes to debate your topic
 10 minutes of unstructured discussion
 25 minutes to respond to your assessment questions
 Remaining time informal group discussion
Assessment (after the discussion):
Include these topics in your discussion and then you will write responses based on your mixed-topics discussion:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How do these issues connect to Isms, WWI, Russian Revolution, Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness?
What are some social, political, artistic and economic reactions to the rapid technological and ideological advances we
are experiences? Be specific and insightful.
How is our current society (you classify as local community, country, segment of population, global community)
reacting to today’s ideological and technology’s progress? Do you agree with these reactions or do you think we need
to do things differently with the technology and ideas we have?
What specifics steps could your community, country and the world do to assure appropriate use of technology and
ideology going forward? Be reasonable. creative and specific.
Your debate prep and the debate itself will be a 25 point participation grade. Your answers to the assessment questions
will be a 20 point culminating grade.