Assignment/Activity Title — CAP Debates

Year — Sophomore

Portfolio Competency — Critical Thinking

Skill(s) — Writing, Research, Speaking/Presenting, Teaching

CAP Debates was an assignment that I thoroughly enjoyed. The project was to compete in a formal
debate for our assigned topic. For me, the assigned topic was whether NASA should end its partnerships with
private companies to colonize mars. We argued in favor of ending these partnerships. The objective of our CAP
Debates was to allow us to research a topic we were interested in, but unfamiliar with, and compete in a debate
with partners, using research and outlines for what was to come. We completed organizers, drafted arguments,
and put hours of research into our work. Our goal was to craft factually based arguments that would allow us to
compete in a debate with ease and, hopefully, win.
CAP Debates requires writing, research, speaking, and teaching skills throughout the process of the
project. For the Debate, you must research your topic and roles as a debater, and be completely well versed and
prepared for any opposing arguments. You must write your assigned parts eloquently and time-sensitively. I
was assigned the part of partner 2, where I created and presented the rebuttal, speech, participated in the second
crossfire, and gave the final focus speech, specifically. Within the debate, you must speak and teach
simultaneously, as the goal is to carry your point across in order to persuade the audience and judges in your
favor. All of these factors relate to how the CAP Debates project requires great critical thinking. Within the
debate itself, participants must evaluate the arguments and critiques of their arguments in order to provide
defense for themselves and attack their opponents, requiring critical thinking in order to provide the best
response. For instance, with the rebuttal, I had to think of arguments that my opponent would make prior to the
debate itself, and then, during the debate, revise the speech to address all of the points my opponents presented.
Within all of the crossfires, we had to think quickly of questions to ask our opponents to throw them off and
recall all of the information we researched. As well as this, for the final focus speech, I had to state why my
partner and I won the debate, requiring recollection of well-presented arguments as well as recognizing where
our opponents may have not recognized an argument or fell short in some way, all of these components required
critical thinking.
What I learned from this project challenges me to think differently in many ways. I learned so much
about private investment in government projects and how the government spends the annual federal budget. For
instance, in 2020 NASA spent nearly half of their annual budget on government contracts with private space
companies, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. I also learned about the motivations of private investors like the
aforementioned Elon Musk, and how some of his major motivating factors for such expensive and unsafe
projects are self-serving and negligent of the people, as shown by quotes in which he states that there’s a
“[g]ood chance you'll die [if you have a faint heart], and it's going to be tough going...It'd be pretty glorious if it
works out” (Wattles) and “do I want to be buried on Mars or Earth? I'm like, Mars sounds cool” ( Brown).
These perspectives offered new information to me and allowed me to be more deeply aware of issues from an
economic standpoint that shows how seemingly economic-based issues directly affect social issues. The concept
of Mars colonization has huge health and class issues, as space is stated to have too many health issues to be
able to live there and hypothetical tickets would leave behind everyone except the wealthy, especially with the
addition of private investment with a profit motive in federal projects. Researching this issue with a lens from
an economic standpoint gave a new perspective of how important it is to be aware of economic perspectives and
who is a part of these perspectives, when being conscious of social issues.
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Student Signature (Print here: Aisling Gearhart) Date: 02/21/20

______________________________________________________________________________2/24/21__________
Teacher Signature Date