Last week we discussed the problems folks thought were important, and the evidence supporting the idea that these problems are real and important. Today, we are going to select five problems for study. We will do this as follows:
1. Everyone will write a very short description of a problem on a big sticky-note. A good problem should start with a statement of a gap or a shortcoming or an excess of something: "There isn't enough.... for ....." or "There are too many .... in the country."
2. We will then post our answers on the board. Remember, each person should have developed two of these.
3. I will ask people to explain what the evidence is of this problem.
4. We will spend some time discussing other possible causes and reasons why these are or are not the most important problems.
We will not select the most important problems this week--we will vote for the top five on email. I will set up a listserve or some other tool for sharing email among us.
Pretty straightforward, right? The goal for this class session is to be well prepared to discuss your problem, and perhaps to convince us that it is deserving of attention.