The CIF topic for the 2006-2007 school year is "Space: Forum for Cooperation or Next Frontier for WMD Proliferation?" Students will address the benchmarks for this topic from the following perspectives: scientific, environmental, political/geopolitical, economic, and social/cultural.

Student participants will create products for each of the three Benchmarks and make those products available on the CIF web site. These products may be in any format that can be posted to the web. For examples of the kind of work that is expected, please check the Benchmark Results for 2002-2003.

The CIF benchmarks for 2006-2007 are listed below. Click on each benchmark link to view the full set of objectives and the suggested activities. You can also obtain a PDF version by clicking on that link at the end of each benchmark description.

Benchmark One:

• The purpose of Benchmark I is for you to build definitions and other basic, but necessary, background knowledge about space and how it is being used for both civilian and military applications.
• You are to develop these definitions and background knowledge in the context of the four CIF domains (scientific/environmental, economic, social/cultural, and political/geo-political).
• In your investigations you will need this knowledge to understand the topics you will investigate in Benchmarks II and III.
• Make sure you carefully reference all materials you use in your text and in a bibliography. (Benchmark_I.pdf or Benchmark_I.doc)

Benchmark Two:

• In Benchmark I you developed a working definition of space to use throughout the rest of the project. You also learned about the history of people’s interest in and interaction with space, why space might be interesting or fascinating, and you began to learn about the technologies needed for use in space.
• The purpose of Benchmark II is for you to research deeper into people’s interactions in space. Your task is to examine decisions that have been made by various nations to use or “to develop” space and you will investigate people’s approaches to controlling the use of space.
• In your investigations you are to analyze these issues in the context of the four domains (scientific/environmental, economic, social/cultural, and political/geo-political) that help you to build an understanding of what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present.
• Make sure you carefully reference all materials you use in your text and in a bibliography. (Benchmark_II.pdf or Benchmark_II.doc)

Benchmark Three:

• The purpose of Benchmark III is to help you draw some conclusions of your own on whether space programs are a positive advance. You will, through your own research, come to a supported opinion.
• Your final task is to use the knowledge you have gained thus far in Benchmark I and in Benchmark II. You will try to determine the kinds of issues and/or problems that might arise in the development of space, and how these problems might be contained, controlled, or ameliorated. This task focuses on the identification and analysis of scenarios for the future.
• In your investigations you will describe these scenarios within the context of the four domains: scientific/environmental, political/geopolitical, economic, and social/cultural.
• Make sure you carefully reference all materials you use in your text and in a bibliography. (Benchmark_III.pdf or Benchmark_III.doc)

http://www.criticalissuesforum.org/bmks07.html
updated 09 December 2006