INTERNSHIP "NADER" ACTIVITY SUMMARIES

1. Activity Two: Energy Waste Hunt

"This activity discusses current energy sources and some alternatives, including energy efficiency. By conducting an energy waste hunt to identify wasteful uses of energy in the school and by implementing various techniques, students can help their school save money on utility bills."

We should have the student who is interested in this program go to one of the various CITY or STATE offices and complete a survey. After they complete their survey, they must then prepare an ACTION PLAN to assist their assigned building and office in their search to become more "Energy Efficient."

2. Activity Three: Toy Safety Survey

"One way to protect children from being victims of hazardous toys is to survey local stores and make the information available to the public and the agencies charged with toy regulation. Surveys should be done every year, by as many groups, in as many areas as possible. Many consumers never question the safety of the toys before they buy."

We should encourage the student of this activity to survey three to five different toys and by using standards tests (which they obtain), have them check to see if the toy is appropriate for the age group indicated by the toy's manufacturer.

3. Activity Four: Using the Freedom of Information Act

"This activity introduces the FOIA to students and gives them the opportunity to practice using this tool by requesting information held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). FBI files are of particular interest because the agency has collected information on a variety of people and events discussed in the movement history chapters of this book."

We need to have the student ask the FBI and the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE for articles of information. I am not sure if this project can be completed in the semester, however. It is my belief that if the student completed their part of this work, we will then have enough information (fully dependent upon how well the student has requested the information) to grade the student in this activity. The student can submit their information to you by mail or next semester.

4. Activity Five: A Community Profile of Voter Participation

"The purpose of this study is to study patterns of voter registration in your community to identify possible institutional barriers that cause low voter participation among voters of different age groups, races, education levels, and geographic locations. Profiling these patterns will help identify some of the barriers to full participation in your community. Students will complete the profile by making recommendations to their community to improve voter participation."

This project could become the most important one of the group. This requires an active approach, one that will put the student's name in the local (and possibly Harrisburg) newspaper. If the student has a partner, the two of them could, in all probability, complete a survey of the entire county. The more students working on this project, the better.

5. Activity Six: Access for People with Disabilities

There are several classifications of disability: mental, emotional, and physical. They have varying levels of severity, and today's men and women are more sensitive to them now than ever before. Since the medical community has made strong strides in their ability to diagnose a disability and it's severity, the rest of us have been properly informed to the causes and prevention, or lack thereof.

If we can, we should have a few of the students complete a Disability access survey on several of our CITY and STATE government offices, we will be completing a great service to our community. I recommend assigning people to this project in pairs.

6. Activity Eight: A Study of Representativeness in the Jury Selection Process

"The purpose of this activity is to learn about the history and functions of the jury system and to survey your community's jury selection process. If the current selection system does not produce a representative cross-section of potential jurors, students can recommend changes for their community. Students might want to start by observing a jury trial, sitting in on an orientation session for jurors or asking the court's representative to speak with students. The survey is based on a study conducted by college students working with New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)."

This would be an excellent opportunity for the student(s) to get to know the LOCAL and STATE justice system. The individual(s) assigned to this task should be sent to complete all the above tasks in the intro paragraph, along with that, they should also assist in the teaching of the section that has to deal with the courts. They should have their guest speaker come in at that time and help to present the courts to their classmates. This activity could also bleed over into the development of a program to take the simulation to the High Schools in the area, also something we were looking at for this semester.