December 4, 2002

AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED, INSPECTOR?
Developing Interactive Scenarios about the United Nations Inspections in Iraq

Grades:  6-8, 9-12

Subjects:  Civics, Current Events, Global History, Language Arts, Social Studies

Related New York Times Article
"U.N. Team Visits Palace in Iraq, By JOHN F. BURNS with TERENCE NEILAN", December 4, 2002

Overview of Lesson Plan:: In this lesson, students further their understanding of the United Nations inspections in Iraq. They then develop flow charts to organize ideas for interactive scenarios about the inspections in which the choices the reader makes determine the outcome.

SUGGESTED TIME ALLOWANCE:   1 hour

OBJECTIVES:
Students will:

  1. Brainstorm possible outcomes of the United Nations inspections in Iraq.
  2. Learn about the most recent findings of the United Nations inspection teams in Iraq by reading and discussing "U.N. Inspection Team Visits Palace in Iraq."
  3. Create flow charts to show possible chains of events that might lead to several potential outcomes of the United Nations inspections in Iraq.
  4. Write interactive scenarios based on the flow charts designed in class.

RESOURCES / MATERIALS:

ACTIVITIES / PROCEDURES:
NOTE TO TEACHERS: If you have access to Inspiration software, you may wish to use it for this lesson. Inspiration allows students to make flow charts and brainstorming webs for many purposes. To download a free trial of Inspiration, go to http://www.inspiration.com/freetrial/index.cfm.

  1. WARM-UP/DO-NOW: Students respond to the following prompt in their journals (written on the board prior to class): "What do you think is the most likely final outcome of the United Nations inspections in Iraq? What events may lead up to that outcome? What events might follow that outcome? Create a chain of events leading to your predicted outcome, connecting possible events with arrows." After a few minutes, write some of the chains of events that students have generated on the board. For example, one possible chain of events might be: Inspection teams find weapons of mass destruction → Congress votes to declare war on Iraq → Reserve troops are called in → Student anti-war demonstrations erupt all over the country → War boosts the economy. Create several scenarios on the board, and discuss with students how each event is triggered by the events that precede it.
  2. As a class, read and discuss the article "U.N. Team Visits Palace in Iraq," focusing on the following questions:
    1. How are the current rules concerning palace inspections different from the rules that governed these inspections in the 1990's?
    2. How did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan describe the level of Iraqi cooperation in the inspections?
    3. How did President Bush describe the level of Iraqi cooperation in the inspections?
    4. What is the significance of the moved equipment that the inspectors noticed?
    5. How was the palace's entryway described in the article?
    6. According to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, what is the goal of the inspections?
    7. According to the Iraqis, what happened to the missing equipment, as mentioned in the article?
    8. For what purpose is the Samoud missile thought to have been developed?
    9. According to Brig. Gen. Muhammad Saleh, why are the Iraqis cooperating with the inspections?
    10. Why is the Samoud missile not banned under the United Nations resolutions?
    11. What is the main concern surrounding the Samoud missile?
  3. In this activity, students will make flow charts to represent possible chains of events that could be triggered by the actions and potential findings of the United Nations inspectors.
    Model the process of creating a flow chart for students with the following hypothetical scenario, written on the board and framed with a rectangle: "Imagine that you win $1000 in the lottery. What might you do?" Then, allow students to brainstorm answers to this question. List the responses on the board. Have the class vote to select the two answers students like the most. Encourage students to choose two answers that are very different from each other. For example, students might choose "Put it under your mattress" and "Buy a new stereo." Write these responses next to the first text-filled rectangle, but border them each in a diamond to indicate that a choice must be made between them.
    Call on one student to make a choice between the two options that the class has selected, and then ask students to suggest possible outcomes of that course of action. Next to each text-filled diamond, write a logical outcome. For example, next to the diamond containing the text "Put it under your mattress," you might write, "Your house gets robbed, and all the money is stolen." This should be in a rectangular text box to indicate that it is an event, not a choice to be made. Next to the diamond containing the text "But a new stereo," you might write, "You are the millionth customer at the electronics store, and you win $1000 more." This too should be in a rectangular text box to indicate that it is an event rather than a choice to be made. Continue adding rectangular event boxes and diamond-shaped choice boxes until students understand how to construct this type of simple flow chart.
    Then group students in pairs or groups of three. Give each pair or small group the following scenario, either written on the board or photocopied for easier student access:
    "You are a United Nations weapons inspector. You have just finished the inspection of a top-secret missile development plant in the Waziriyah district of Iraq, and you have noticed that several pieces of equipment have been moved. This equipment was tagged in 1998 by the U.N. Special Commission and was not supposed to have been moved. Iraqi officials tell you that the equipment was destroyed in late 1998 by American missiles. However, you know that President Bush will want a more thorough explanation. What do you do?"
    Option 1: .......
    Option 2: .......

    Explain to students that they are to come up with two specific choices that the subject of the story could make. (Possible choices include angrily demanding to see the manager of the plant, telling President Bush that you believe the Iraqi officials, making an appointment to meet with the manager of the plant the following day, looking in the basement, etc.) Then, each group should create a flow chart modeled after the one created in class, using the options they come up with to generate outcomes and then subsequent options. Each finished flow chart should have 10-15 rectangular event boxes. Encourage students to include very different final outcomes at the end of each event chain.
  4. WRAP-UP/HOMEWORK: For homework, students should complete their flow charts, if necessary. Then, each student should write an interactive scenario based on the flow chart that his group has designed, in which the choices that the reader makes determine the outcome of the story. Each page should contain a full description of one event, enclosed in the rectangular text boxes. At the bottom of the page, the reader should be presented with two options, enclosed in the diamond-shaped text boxes. Based on the choice the reader makes, he or she turns to a different page in the book. Each story should have 10-15 pages, representing the 10-15 events students included in their flow charts. Events that have choices will prompt the reader to turn to a new page. Events that represent endings of the scenario will not include choices. Students may choose to illustrate one of more pages in their books. These scenario books should be kept in the classroom for a period of time so that students may read each other's work.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

EVALUATION / ASSESSMENT:
Students will be evaluated based on initial journal entries, participation in class and group discussions, thoughtful participation in group brainstorming sessions, group flow charts and individual interactive scenarios.

VOCABULARY:
mass destruction, contentious, assert, sustain, buttressed, obstructed, opulence, liaison, illuminated, chandelier, inscribed, inevitable, disarmament, terse, amiss, brusquely, surveillance, propellant, ballistic, conventional, hangar, intransigence, preliminary, breach, mandate, feisty, circumspect, impose, indignity, defiance

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:

  1. Create a timeline to show the course of the relationship between the United States and Iraq since Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Illustrate your timeline with clippings from newspapers or copies of articles and pictures you find online.
  2. Write a letter to one of the following people explaining what you feel should be the next step in the inspections process or the next military or diplomatic action: President George W. Bush, Secretary General Kofi Annan, Chief Arms Inspector Hans Blix, or Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Alternately, write letters from one of these people to one, two or all of the other three.
  3. Imagine that is it the year 3000, and over 100 planets have been discovered to have intelligent life on them. Draft a proposal for a "United Planets" organization modeled after the existing United Nations. Include information in your proposal about how representatives would be housed, where the meetings would take place, how decisions would be made, what kinds of actions and programs the United Planets would support, and the method by which member planets would be admitted to the organization. For each element of the proposal, explain how your ideas are similar to or different from the workings of the United Nations.
  4. Citizens in the United States are protected from unjustified searches; that is, agents of the government cannot enter private homes without a search warrant. Find out how search warrants are issued and what kind of evidence officers of the law need before they can obtain one. Take on the role of Chief of Police and write a memo to new police recruits explaining the process of obtaining a search warrant and how a warrant can be used.

INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS:
American History- Create a graphic that could be used on the evening news that shows how the rules governing the current United Nations inspections in Iraq are different from the rules that governed the same inspections in the 1990's. Your graphic can contain both text and images.

Economics- Find out what the median income is in both the United States and Iraq. Then, compare the typical prices of food, housing and other necessities. Write a letter to the United Nations explaining the inequities between the economic situations of average citizens in these two countries.

Fine Arts- Design a virtual tour of a famous palace using digital photographs and a multi-media program such as HyperStudio or Kid Pix. Highlight the artistic elements of the palace, including architecture, gardens, furniture, paintings and sculptures.

Science- Create a pamphlet to alert people to the dangers of chemical and biological weapons. Include information on what people can do to protect themselves from these weapons.

Copyright 2002
The New York Times Company

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