{"id":3134,"date":"2015-10-03T14:14:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T14:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/?p=3134"},"modified":"2016-07-15T11:45:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T11:45:36","slug":"balloon-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/balloon-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"Balloon Debates: Templates and Tips!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3573\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20-1024x661.jpg\" alt=\"Knockout Template\" width=\"600\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20-1024x661.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20.jpg 1456w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>&#8220;You are in a hot air balloon that is losing height rapidly. It will soon crash into the side of a mountain because it is overweight. To prevent the certain death of everybody on board, only one person will be allowed to stay in the balloon!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Balloon debates are a great way of promoting research and presentational skills, and invariably make for a very lively lesson!<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Lesson 1: Students research a character and prepare their presentations<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In the first lesson, each student needs to choose (or will be allocated) a character relating to the topic of study (for example, eminent Victorians).<\/li>\n<li>Names can be allocated randomly to the students using the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/random-name-picker\/\">ClassTools Random Name Picker<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Each student should then be given a copy of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2_Template.ppt\">PowerPoint Template<\/a> which they can use to frame their research:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note: Defining \u201cImportance\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To be historically important, a person must do some or all of the following:<\/p>\n<table width=\"466\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"76\">When?<\/td>\n<td width=\"390\">Had an impact both in the short- and the long-term<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"76\">Who?<\/td>\n<td width=\"390\">Had an impact on a lot of people\u2019s lives<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"76\">Where?<\/td>\n<td width=\"390\">Had an impact over many countries<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"76\">What?<\/td>\n<td width=\"390\">Had an impact on many areas of life \u2013 for example: politics, economics, society, religion\u2026it is a good idea to define these in discussion with students.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><strong>Lesson 2: Conducting the Balloon Debate<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_4406\" style=\"width: 1033px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/10\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4406\" class=\"wp-image-4406 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/10\" alt=\"balloon\" width=\"1023\" height=\"575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/10 1023w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/10-300x169. 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4406\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Year 7 Balloon Debate: Who was the most INTERESTING Roman Emperor?<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>A.\u00a0Getting Ready for the First Round &#8211; focusing on &#8216;positives&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u25aa Give the students 10 minutes to refresh their memories and to revise the material.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aaIf they had homework time before the lesson, they will hopefully have made a mask ready for the debate.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa Get the PowerPoints saved into a public area so they can be shown on the whiteboard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>B.\u00a0The first round of the debate &#8211; focusing on &#8216;positives&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u25aa Four or five students stand at the front. Choose these randomly using the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/random-name-picker\/\">Classtools name picker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa The first student\u2019s Powerpoint is put onto the screen. The student is not allowed to read the slide \u2013 it\u2019s there for the benefit of the audience \u2013 and they can only speak for 60 seconds, explaining what they did and why they deserve to stay in the balloon (note: they should speak in the first person, i.e. as if they ARE the character).<\/p>\n<p>\u25aaAt the end of their speech, invite questions from the audience. These can be answered directly, OR the student concerned can nominate a &#8216;researcher&#8217; to make a note of these questions and start finding the answers to them.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa Repeat this format for the other four students.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aaGo back to each of the nominated &#8216;researchers&#8217;, one after the other, to get answers to the questions raised during the debate.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa Each member of the audience then has to vote for just one character to be thrown <strong>OUT<\/strong> of the balloon.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa The two characters who get the least votes are then \u2018thrown out\u2019 (or even bottom three, depending on the size of the class \/ time available).<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa This process is repeated with the remaining people in the class.<\/p>\n<p><strong>C. Getting ready for the final round of the debate &#8211; focusing on &#8216;negatives&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3734\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-10-03-at-17.31.59.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3734\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3734\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-10-03-at-17.31.59-1024x712.jpg\" alt=\"Round 2: Dish the Dirt\" width=\"1024\" height=\"712\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-10-03-at-17.31.59-1024x712.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-10-03-at-17.31.59-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-10-03-at-17.31.59.jpg 1964w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3734\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Round 2: Dish the Dirt &#8211; possible search terms for students to use when using the web to research negative points about the rival finalists!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u25aa Each\u00a0finalist now works with a team consisting of the people they defeated in Round 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa Their task is to gather evidence AGAINST the other finalists, for example suggesting that they were insignificant, unheroic, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa In this way, the focus of the whole debate is changed, everybody remains engaged, and the final will not merely consist of rehearsing the same old points a second time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>D. The final round of the debate &#8211; focusing on &#8216;negatives&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u25aa The finalists should line up at the front of the class.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa The first finalist should explain why the person to their left\u00a0does NOT deserve to stay in the balloon. The person criticised in this way should be given a chance to respond before they in turn criticise the person to their left. The person at the end of the line should criticise the person who started the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa The audience then has to vote who should be thrown out. It is important that they don&#8217;t vote for who should stay in &#8211; because there is too much of a tendency for students to vote in favour of the finalist whose team they\u00a0belong to.<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa The &#8216;Two hands \/ One hand&#8221; voting system works well here: in this format, students raise two hands (=two votes against) their least favourite character, and one hand against the second least-favoured. This makes for a slightly more sophisticated voting outcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 4: Written outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a written \u201coutcome\u201d you could get students to answer the questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Who were the last three people to survive in the balloon, and why were they considered so important?<\/li>\n<li>How could you argue that your character was more important than any one of the three finalists?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><strong>Taking it further<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Get students to make a mask to wear during the debate. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/make-a-mask\/\">this post<\/a> on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\">ClassTools blog<\/a> for some ideas.<\/li>\n<li>Students could produce a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/diamond-diagrams-for-prioritisation\/\">Diamond9 Diagram<\/a> ranking the importance of different characters.<\/li>\n<li>Students could produce a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/connecting-factors-with-paper-people-display-projects\/\">&#8216;Paper People&#8217; project<\/a> to connect the various characters discussed during the debate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Downloads:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/BALLOON.docx\">Balloon Debate: Knockout Template!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3573 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"Knockout Template\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20-1024x661.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-04-11-at-15.20.20.jpg 1456w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1_Balloon_Debate_Rules.doc\">Balloon Debate: Quickstart Guide for Teachers<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-18.12.19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3143\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-18.12.19-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-02-03 at 18.12.19\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-18.12.19-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-18.12.19-695x1024.jpg 695w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-18.12.19.jpg 726w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2_Template.ppt\">Balloon Debate: Research Template<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3141\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-17.57.02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3141\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3141\" src=\"http:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-17.57.02-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Balloon Debate: Research Template\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-17.57.02-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-17.57.02-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-17.57.02.jpg 1336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3141\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Balloon Debate: Research Template<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You are in a hot air balloon that is losing height rapidly. It will soon crash into the side of a mountain because it is overweight. To prevent the certain death of everybody on board, only one person will be allowed to stay in the balloon!&#8221; Balloon debates are a great way of promoting research [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[171,172],"class_list":["bg-responsive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4413,"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions\/4413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.classtools.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}