Students will launch the Mock Congress project by analyzing competing policy evidence, surfacing how freedom, equality, and safety shape public decisions, and beginning an evidence-based stance on an urgent community issue. They will also learn the project pathway, products, and expectations for drafting a bill that fits the correct level of government authority.

Students will test an initial stance on an immigration, migration, or environmental policy question by studying competing viewpoints, sorting early evidence, and building a claim map that names a policy position, reasons, concerns, and likely objections tied to freedom, equality, and safety.

Students will gather and test evidence for their policy position by evaluating source credibility, comparing competing perspectives, tracking supporting and challenging evidence, and revising their understanding before building formal arguments in the next phase.

Students will transform researched evidence into a defensible public policy argument by strengthening warrants, rebuttals, bill language, and speaking moves. They will rehearse for Mock Congress and the public forum through expert-informed drafting, peer critique, revision, and a formal comparative analysis checkpoint.

Students will present and defend their final policy bills and posters to an authentic public audience, gather stakeholder feedback, compare how different levels of government would respond to their proposal, and close the project with a structured reflection on how evidence, competing values, and public critique shaped their thinking.