Tips For a Great Presentation (and a better grade)

Look up the backround information on your topic, do not get intimidated by long articles, they can only do good for you and make you sound like an expert on your topic.

Check out discussions and forums going on about your topic, or check out webpages of opposing views, then not only can you learn some good arguements for your topic, you can anticipate some of the hard questions the opposing team will ask you. This way you can be prepared and confident.

If you can, try to find an interactive website like I did for bride burning, you can talk to an expert on any questions you have

DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE CROSS EXAM I've done this before, and what decides a lot of kid's minds on who they will vote for is who crushed who during the cross exam.

To do a vicious and awesome cross exam, follow the same steps I mentioned above for your opposing team as soon as you find out who they are.

Do your best to poke holes in the other team's plan for ending their issue, like who will actually follow it, where are the incentives, and is it actually practical

Bride Burning

Great backround information at Wikipedia
Click me Don't be afraid to read the whole article!!! You will learn a lot and sound much better than people who don't know as much on their actual topic. Use the links at the bottom of the page too!

Even better backround info

Ask an author of a book on bride burning some questions!
includes excerpts of the book

NPR radio series: The Partisans of Ali

Still confused about the whole Shiite/Sunni split? ...

Five-part series

Turn up your speakers and get comfortable

Click on the links to listen to each part of the story, loads of information

AIDS

AIDS Statistics Worldwide

AIDS Facts

Doomsday Clock

See if you can figure the alarming trend of this doomsday clock, and what can you do to help push it back

Doomsday Clock

Make a Difference in Darfur! Stay Informed

Please sign try to sign as many as possible! (Some of the sites may appear similar, but they are all different petitions)

Petition Site #1

Petition Site #2

Petition Site #3

Petiton Site #4 (Tell your friends)

Some sites to keep you informed:

http://www.care2.com/news/member/932990365/177232

http://www.movingideas.org/blog/2006/08/congress_falls_short_in_effort.html

http://www.care2.com/news/member/745699847/291666

Rwandan Genocide Timeline

Powerpoint Timeline of Rwandan Massacre

Update on Valentina

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/update.html

Rwandan Chronology List

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/cron.html

Feeling a bit lost? Click on the link above to find a complete chronology of the Rwandan genocide.

Interview with Gerard Prunier

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/interview.html

Correspondent Fergal Keane's interview with Gerard Prunier, author ofThe Rwanda Crisis. This interview covers the history of Tutsis and Hutus; events leading up to the genocide; the West's actions; and Rwanda's chances for justice and reconciliation.

Ghosts of Rwanda Special Frontline Report

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/

Explore the report through links that include an introduction, analysis, interviews, and a timeline.

Rwanda: The Triumph of Evil

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/

Click on the various links to learn more about what actions the West took during the Rwandan Genocide. Interviews with UN personnel, and a chronology of the acitons that the UN took are among some of the links.

VH1 Blood Diamonds Episode

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/vh1_rock_docs/115835/episode_about.jhtml

Describing an episode about Blood Diamonds that is to air on VH1.

Rwanda: A Picture is worth a thousand words

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/

Some amazing and powerful photographs of the tragedy in Rwanda by James Nachtwey, feel free to browse through other pictures as well by clicking on the forward and backward arrows to the bottom right of the pictures.

Valentina's Nightmare: Letter to Daniel written by Fergal Keane

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/todaniel/

A heartfelt and beautiful letter from a father to his newborn infant.

Valentina's Nightmare: Letter to Daniel written by Fergal Keane

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/todaniel/

A heartfelt and beautiful letter from a father to his newborn infant.

small step to help Africa may be diminished

The Bill Gates/Rockefeller Foundation initiative, called "Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa" is putting over $150M towards shifting African agriculture to a system dependent on expensive, harmful chemicals, monocultures of hybrid seeds & GMOs.view stories: http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1610courtesy of: http://www.care2.com/

Child Soldiers Are a Time Bomb

France's foreign minister has warned that the use of child soldiers is a time bomb that threatens stability and growth in Africa and beyond. Philippe Douste-Blazy told a Paris conference that child soldiers were "lost children, lost for peace and lostView story:http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020607H.shtmlcourtesy of : http://www.care2.com

Animal rights violations

Indian conservation experts lash out at China on Tiger Tradehttp://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=352554&sid=NATDog beating in Chinawww.byteland.org/boycottchina/index.html

Global Advancements

Look at how little we have now? Can you fill it up with more good news?
China Turns Landfill Into Wind Farmhttp://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/02/07/china-turns-landfill-into-wind-farm/
Three rare tigers born in zoo, great news for animal community(front page news on 2-09-07)
http://www.yahoo.com/ (see pictures above)

(Is this you?) Poll Finds That American High School Students Do Not Understand Climate Change Issues

Prove to us that you understand and care about environmental issues, Post more good articles and summaries, we'll even start you guys off...(hint: check out the news archives at care2.com)
It's an inconvenient truth that would make Al Gore shudder: Despite an increasing emphasis at school and in the media on the causes and effects of global climate change, most American high school students don't adequately understand the issue...http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/527163/

HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS

We all know there are a lot of human rights being violated in the world, enough to fill blogs to overflowing, what are you going to do about it? You can start by clicking on the free click to donate tab at http://www.care2.com/. Be sure to post some other news you found

Human Rights Violations in Kashmir...http://www.ummah.net/kashmir/kchr/hrviol.htm

Surprising Human Right Violations Tied in with Scientology... http://www.spaink.net/cos/mpoulter/worst.html

The Darkest Corner of the Mind - new torture method in prisons....http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/12/12/1035/

Scary Human Right Violation Facts

In the U.S., a woman is raped every 6 minutes; a woman is battered every 15 seconds. In North Africa, 6,000 women are genitally mutilated each day. This year, more than 15,000 women will be sold into sexual slavery in China. 200 women in Bangladesh will be horribly disfigured when their spurned husbands or suitors burn them with acid. More than 7,000 women in India will be murdered by their families and in-laws in disputes over dowries.As you read this, somewhere a woman is being beaten – or worse – in police custody. In Darfur, a child is crying out in a refugee camp for her lost mother. In Asia, a young woman is being sold into sexual slavery by uncaring relatives. Violence against women is a global epidemic. And it's one of the most inexcusable human rights violations of our time.