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Instructions
It is our pleasure to welcome you to The Futures of the U.S.
The graduate students in a course in the Futures Studies program at the University of Houston have assembled instructional material on seven long-term issues affecting the future of the United States that are involved in the current Presidential election. We hope that teachers can use these materials this month, before the election, as well as after it to talk about the future of the country with their students.
We have chosen the year of 2028 as our time horizon. By 2028 another five Presidential elections and many other events will occur and the potential for change and surprise is vast. Nevertheless, as educators, we should consider what this election means to the long-term future of the country.
Our mission in the University of Houston Futures Studies program, in addition to graduating professional futurists, is to bring futures thinking into the whole educational system. This project is part of that mission. You can find more about that visiting the Foresight Education Project at http://foresighteducation.org.
The instructional materials on this site include the following:
- Statement of the Issue – a brief description of the issue and why it is important to the US future
- Terms – definitions of the basic concepts important for understanding the issue
- Things to Know – the essential facts about the issue
- Quantities – the numbers that describe how big or how important the issue is
- Structures – the arrangements that guide behavior on the issue, such as laws, regulations, contracts, etc.
- Stakeholders – the parties involved in the issue who are trying to influence the outcome of the issue to their advantage.
- Forecasts – a brief description of the expected long-term future of the issue and some alternatives based on the uncertainties involved in the issue
- Candidates – the positions of the Presidential candidates and their parties on the issues
- Resources – a selected list of the best sources for additional information about the issue
Teachers are encouraged to use these materials in ways that are a best fit for themselves, their students, their discipline and their teaching style.
It has been a big effort to assemble this material in just one month, since the beginning of school this semester. (And Oh! We had a hurricane in Houston during that time, too!) But we do not want to leave it at that. We would love feedback and more ideas. And, in return, we are prepared to answer your questions and help you, if you will let us, use these materials in class. We want teachers to be talking about the future in all their classes so we are prepared to do anything we can do to make that happen.
We are here to help your understand. (If you register on the site, you can send us a message from the profile pages linked below.)
| Issue | Profile |
| General Futures | Dr. Peter Bishop |
| Budget | Kay Strong |
| Climate | Morgan Freeman |
| Energy | Simeon Spearman |
| Globalization | Darko Lovric |
| Health | Shawn Clark |
| Immigration | Dennis Draeger |
| Infrastructure | Sara Robinson |
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Latest page update: made by FutureoftheUS
, Oct 7 2008, 12:04 AM EDT
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