These examples illustrate how an interesting story may lead to a topic.
Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports
Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a small sports
medicine laboratory near San Francisco, California, has made headlines
recently. Federal prosecutors have charged BALCO with distributing
undetectable steroids to elite athletes. The case exemplifies
questions of ethics, health and law that currently plague professional
and competitive sports alike. Many young people idolize athletes
and, in their efforts to emulate their sports heroes and succeed
in sports, are tempted to use body-altering drugs. "I'd say
500,000 to 600,000 kids in the U.S. have used these drugs at some
time," says researcher Charles Yesalis, professor of exercise
and sport science at Pennsylvania State University, State College,
Pennsylvania. Studies have proven how unsafe steroids and other
performance-enhancing drugs are, especially to teenagers. Kidney
failure, gender deformities, mood swings, acne, and depression
are just a few of the side effects.
Thinking Questions: What does the prevalence of steroid use among professional
athletes and young people say about society today? What changes
can be made in the sporting industry to control the problem? Critics
charge advertisers with promoting distorted body images in order
to sell products; what questions does this raise about consumer
economics, the sports and recreation industries, and personal
responsibility?
Other Possible Categories: Health & Safety, Science
& Technology
Real Extreme Sports
ESPN, an internationally broadcast, sports entertainment television
network, has popularized a group of “extreme” sports
in recent years. Skateboarding, bmx, snowboarding, wakeboarding,
and many other sports are highlighted annually in the worldwide
X Games competition. Participants in these games push the boundaries
of their sport using innovative and dangerous moves. However,
long before ESPN commercialized these activities, many cultures
had their own, much older versions of extreme sports. In Spain,
the running of the bulls has taken place in the streets of Pamplona
since the 1500s. Thousands of people run for 800 meters alongside
six bulls while trying not to get gored. In Kirkwall, a town on
the Scottish Orkney Island of Pomona, they have played a sport
called Ba’ since the 1700s. Ba’ requires two teams
and a 1.5 kg leather ball. The goal is to move the ball from one
side of town to the other, using any means necessary. The team
starting from the south (the Doonies) tries to get the ball into
the water of the northern harbor. The team starting from the North
(the Uppies) must throw the ball against a wall at the southern
end of town. Broken bones, concussions, and crushed ribs are a
common part of Ba’.
Thinking Questions: What attracts people to extreme games and endeavors?
Are the motivations any different today than they were centuries
ago? What are the origins of ancient and contemporary extreme
sports, and what do they tell us about the societies that created
them? What are the physiological and psychological implications
of going to extremes?
Other Possible Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Social
Sciences & Culture, Science & Technology
Traditional Childrens’ Game
Children from around the world love to play games. Most traditional
children’s games only require common everyday objects, if
anything at all. In Germany, one such game is Sardines. In this
game, one person hides while the rest of the players look for
this person. When a person finds the person who is hiding, this
person hides too. Once the last person finds the rest of the hiding
group, the game is over and this person starts the next game by
hiding first. Kulit K’rang is a game that originated in
Indonesia and requires at least 80 small pebbles, a bowl and six
players. After dispensing 10 pebbles to each player and putting
the rest into the bowl, each player takes turns tossing pebbles
into the air with one hand while trying to collect a pebble from
their own pile with the same throwing hand. If a person is successful,
they get to take a pebble from the bowl and then the next person
has their turn. If the person is unsuccessful, they must put one
of their pebbles into the bowl. The game ends when there are no
more pebbles left in the bowl. The winner is the one with the
most pebbles.
Thinking Questions: What commonalities can be found among games played
in different cultures? What behaviors, social values or skills
do games teach us? What is the history of a particular game; does
it change over time or as it is adopted in new places?
Other Possible Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Social
Sciences & Culture
Citations:
- Williams, Lance, Mark Fainaru-Wada. “What
Bonds told BALCO grand jury.” San Francisco Chronicle. 3 Dec. 2004. 19 Jun. 2005. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/03/BALCO.TMP>.
- “Teen athletes and performance-enhancing
substances: What parents can do.” MayoClinic. 22 December
2004. 19 Jun. 2005.<http://www.mayoclinic.com/
invoke.cfm?id=SM00045>.
- “Extreme Sports.” Wikipedia.
19 Jun. 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_sports>.
- “Buzkashi – National Sport of
Afganistan.” KidzWorld Sports Zone Sports Almanac.
<http://www.kidzworld.com/site/Sports_Almanac.htm>.
- “Ba’, Ba’, Black Eyes.”
KidzWorld Sports Zone Sports Almanac. <http://www.kidzworld.com/site/Sports_Almanac.htm>.
- “Extreme Sports.” HickokSports. 7 March 2004.
<http://www.hickoksports.com/history/extremesports.shtml>.
- “Running of the Bulls.” WebCurrents. 2002. 12 Jul. 2005. <http://www.learnersonline.com/weekly/lessons02/week27/>.
- Rosenfeld, Vanessa. “Traditional Children’s
Games.” Topics, An Online Magazine for Learners of English.
15 Jul. 2005. <http://www.topics-mag.com/
edition11/games-tag.htm>.
- “Education Resources.” UNICEF
Australia. 21 Jul. 2005. <http://www.unicef.org.au/
SchoolRoom-Subs.asp?SchoolRoomID=4>.
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