“We all met at 7:30 pm at Westbury on Trim Baptist Church for our third STEM meeting.
The week before each patrol had been asked to read and research different economic and political issues that were relevant to our trip to Nepal in some ways. These issues included; trade before aid, independence for Tibet and compensation for the exploitation of minorities.
To begin with a member of the Bristol City Youth Council started the evening with an activity about budgeting and deciding what to do with money for libraries, work experience and more.
Next we were told what we would be arguing for or against in a debate about the issues we had researched. We spent 20 minutes creating arguments and counter arguments and planning what to say in the debate. Once we had finished planning two scouts arguing for an issue and two scouts arguing against that issue would come up and argue their points they had planned earlier. After each debate a vote would be taken to see who had convinced the most people for their point and also to see if any scout’s minds had been changed towards the issue.
Lastly, to end the evening we were debriefed and any questions scouts had were answered.”
Sam B
“Our most recent meeting was a debate evening. We began in four groups, talking about the best solutions for Bristol’s problems for young people such as: recycling, work experience, and library use. This was run by the Chair of the Bristol Youth council, Matt Simpson, and it was interesting to know that the problems we were given were those that were important to us.
Then, we were split into our patrols and we had to fight for or against a statement. The three debates were about whether there should be compensation for cultural appropriation, whether Tibet should be a separate country, and whether trade was better than aid for developing countries. After discussing, and picking the strongest points in our patrols, two members had to argue their cause. I was arguing for compensation for cultural appropriation which was quite difficult as most of my patrol were against the cause.
It was really interesting to hear people’s contributions to the debates and to see that some people had changed their opinions on a certain topic it was very educational and I think we all felt that we had learned something from the evening. ”
Lexi P
