Death Penalty Lesson

Learning Objectives

• Student should know about the history of the death penalty
• Student should know why the death penalty causes controversy
• Student should be able to come up with their own educated opinion on the death penalty

Background Summary
The death penalty has caused some major controversy in the United States. The death penalty has been controversial for many years. Michigan was the first state to outlaw the death penalty in 1846. Since then, some states followed their example and outlawed the death penalty, although most states still allow it. The death penalty is currently legal in 32 states. The image shows the states that  allow the death penalty (green=banned, red=legal). There are four common ways to put someone to death. These methods include lethal injection, which is the most common, electric chair, hanging, and firing squad (not very common). Lethal injection is also dying out because US pharmaceutical companies are refusing to supply the drugs required to kill someone. One method that was used was a gas chamber but that was quickly removed as a plausible method of execution. In many states, capital punishment is used for extreme crimes such as treason and 1st degree murder. On an international scale, after WWII, the UN went on a campaign to end capital punishment because everyone has a right to life. Below is a graph that shows the countries that banned the death penalty by year. This day, the US and China are the only industrialized countries that have the death penalty in use.


The 1970's had almost no executions because people were so opposed to it.

Electric Chair is the second most common execution method.

Controversial Readings
Pro: http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/teacher/c/about/arguments/argument1a.htm
Con: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/31/why-the-death-penalty-needs-to-die.html
Neutral: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/opinion/blecker-death-penalty/

Documentary
This video is designed to show you the execution process for you to make a decision on whether you think it is humane or not.

Assessment

1. How many states have the death penalty?
2. What was the first state to outlaw the death penalty?
3. What time period the least amount of executions in the US?
4. How many industrialized countries have the death penalty?
5. What countries are they?
6. What is the most common form of execution?
7. What are 2 arguments that are for the death penalty?
8. What are 2 arguments that are against the death penalty?
9. Do you think any of the arguments are invalid?
10. What is your opinion on the death penalty?

Animal Comebacks in Europe

When people talk about the environment, it is often depressing. Usually when you hear about the environment on the news or in school, it is about how we are destroying it or a disaster happened. It leads us to believe that humans are a blight on the world and everything we touch gets destroyed. although we have had, for the majority, a negative impact on the environment, we have caused some good things as well. Not everything in the environment is going wrong, in fact there are many good things that are happening right now too. One example of a good thing is the comebacks some animals are making. Many animals populations are steadily increasing and are looking a lot healthier than they have been in the past. Some of Europe's key animals are making huge comebacks. The Lynx, the Bears, Wolves, Eagles, and Vultures have increased in numbers. Their population increase is largely due to the efforts of conservationists who wanted the animals protected. When they became protected, the numbers started a steady increase and are still growing. The White-Tailed Eagle has made a major comeback in the past 30 years. It is estimated that there are around 6000 pairs of eagles in Europe. An example of this growth is in Germany where in 40 years the population has grown from 110 pairs to 470 pairs. 470 pairs of eagles were found in 2004 and are still increasing. The population of Grizzly bears us up to 100,000 in the Eurasia area, this is a massive increase from the 70,000 it used to be. Wolves are also on a huge comeback. Wolves were hunted and killed because they would eat sheep and chickens, so people would see them as pests and killed them off. Wolves numbers dwindled to very low numbers when they were hunted. Now, the numbers are on the rise again and they are thriving. The wolf population in Europe is back up to around 13,000 in 2013 and are higher today. Lynx, like the wolf and the bear, are thriving in Europe too. Their numbers are back up to 10,000 after a long period of population decline. Not only are the animals on the rise in Europe, new habitats have been made as well. Urban birds are thriving because of the cities and the trash people throw away. What we are doing is destroying one environment but creating another. People always hear about the bad and the worst of humans and the environment. We never hear the good side of things even though there are many good things that come as a result of our efforts. If we did not step up and protect these animals than the side effects could have been horrific. The number of animals that are hunted by the animals we saved would have gone way out of balance. If those numbers go out of balance than there is an overpopulation and there wouldn't be enough food for all the animals. If the animals eat all the food than that would have major impacts on the environment itself. We not only saved the immediate animals, we saved the environment from devastation. 

     

Bear Population             

  

Sources:

http://www.livescience.com/49191-bears-wolves-carnivores-thriving-europe.html

http://www.wolf.org/wow/europe/

http://www.europeanraptors.org/raptors/white_tailed_eagle.html

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/species/profiles/mammals/brown_bear2/

https://www.google.com/search?q=wolves+in+europe&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS602US602&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&imgil=2mLImqxo2RZmhM%253A%253BGcvH7j636KcJNM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.wolf.org%25252Fwow%25252Feurope%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=2mLImqxo2RZmhM%253A%252CGcvH7j636KcJNM%252C_&usg=__GfzkiAGrpc4LbPx6uu5MT2rkMlA%3D&ved=0CDsQyjc&ei=SzK1VIePDYqhNoGmhNgO#tbm=isch&q=urban+animals&imgdii=_&imgrc=pr-aMlCC2sa3yM%253A%3B4LCsNSAG2JS1FM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.wired.com%252Fimages_blogs%252Fwiredscience%252F2013%252F08%252F407966238_e074811cf5_o.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.wired.com%252F2013%252F08%252Furban-animal-brain-behavior-evolution%252Fall%252F%3B741%3B800