Survey must be completed by Wednesday, January 28th, at 9:00 pm.

Your final act as part of the Global Issues 621 discussion unit is to fill out the Term II Survey which you can find by clicking on the Surveys button above.  Please respond to all questions honestly, as Coffin uses your results to help plan next year’s course delivery.  It has been a pleasure working with you all this semester and here’s hoping the rest of your year goes smoothly!

Again, surveys must be completed by 9:00 pm on Wednesday, January 28th.

Given the volume of schoolwork each of you unlikely is faced with as the semester concludes, we shall avoid a discussion this week.  You will notice, however, a new link on the coffinblog site requesting quotes for the wall.  If you are inclined to share a quote which you think would look good on Coffin’s classroom wall (and which shall forever immortalize you as the sender), please feel free to submit.  The winner shall be announced during the last week of June.

Responses will be expected on or before Sunday, January 11, by 9 pm.

The past two discussion assignments in the Open Forum have engaged more of you in valid question and answer conversations than one could have hoped (148 as of January 5).  Again, there are some very good questions still unanswered on the Open Forum, so we’re going to return to it this week – with a minor twist.  You shall be given questions from six of your classmates and you must reply to three (no word limits, but remember that “brevity is the soul of wit”, according to our old pal William Shakespeare).

1. Return to the Open Forum section of this site.
2. Re-familiarize yourselves with the discussions posted to date from #90 to #148.
3. Questions to which you MUST provide a reponse this week (choose three of the six and provide comprehensive and intelligent responses):
   • Shauna-Lee’s question regarding Afghanistan (#147).  We’ve been avoiding this one all year and it’s time we knew where everyone stood.
   • The first part of Dylan’s question dealing with humankind’s capacity for major change (#148).  Students’ choice whether they want to tackle the Venus Project portion.
   • Krista’s question (#144) regarding Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.  This may require you to look into the news from the past few weeks/decades.
   • Anna’s question dealing with the ‘Greater Depression’ (#140).  It might help to take a look at how we dug ourselves out of the last one before responding to this one.
   • Michelle’s question dealing with climate change (#108).  Don’t simply paraphrase Al Gore when responding to this one.
   • Lucas’s question regarding global political corruption (#126).  You’ll have to do a little digging around in the news (or talk to Lucas) to provide some context here.
4. Please do not address your response to the person who posed the question.   Begin simply with the topic number.  (For example:  147 - I think Canadian troops should…)
5. If you notice that someone’s question is lacking responses, please attempt to provide a response to that question.  We’d like to hear from you all on a wide variety of topics.

Responses will be expected by Sunday, January 11, no later than 9pm.

Responses will be expected on or before Sunday, December 14, by 9 pm.

Nick Smith posted a question on the Open Forum section of this site.  Please read the question and engage in the discussion.  There are three tasks this week.  Firstly, each of you shall be expected to reply to Nick’s question AND, secondly, pose an interesting comment/query of your own to spark more discussion (this MUST be 50 words or less and deal – at least in some part – with global issues and concerns).  Thirdly, over the next week or so, please also respond to one of the interesting topics posed by your classmates.  To clarify, here’s what needs to be done for this week:

1. Respond to Nick’s question.
2. Post a question/comment of your own for your classmates’ reactions.
3. Respond to at least one of your classmates’ questions/comments.

Responses will be expected by Sunday, December 14, no later than 9pm.

Responses will be expected on or before Sunday, December 7, by 9 pm.

World Population Issues:
For the past while, we have been learning about world population statistics/growth.  We have also discussed the United Nations Population Fund and its findings regarding how population issues affect youth around the world.  Your task this week is to access the UNFPA’s report entitled Reaching Common Ground:  Culture, Gender, and Human Rights, which is the youth supplement to 2008’s report on the state of the world’s population.  You do not have to read the entire article, but you do have to read the Preface and the Introduction plus the story of ONE of the young people profiled in the report.  After reading this material, provide some a reaction/commentary in response to the content of what you have read.  Something in the neighborhood of 300-500 words would be appropriate.

Responses will be expected by Sunday, December 7, no later than 9pm.

Responses for this post shall be due Sunday, November 16 by 9:00 pm.

This week’s post is a MUST-DO (meaning it MUST be completed or students will have an incomplete grade at mid-terms).

Using the cult or sect or new religious movement you’ve chosen to study, find an article online with your choice as its subject.  Read and make notes about the article and then, using the notes to the right about Writing Article Reviews, construct a review of no more than 300 words.  Be sure to follow the instructions about writing reviews when crafting your response.

A good resource for finding articles is ebscohost. 

• username:  peiebsco
• password:  level3

Remember, responses should be no more than 300 words (so be a strict editor) and should be submitted on or before Sunday, November 16 at 9:00 pm.

It appears that we need a name for our Global Issues 621 humanitarian project.  Submissions are welcome/expected from all Global Issues students and the winning submission will receive extra marks on the assignment of his/her choice.  Deadline for submissions is November 15.

This week, we have a series of student-generated poll questions for which NO research is required.  Please respond to all poll questions briefly and intelligently.