Note: In this class we focus on government, work on our reading and writing skills (something we can all work on our entire lives!), and work on and practice our critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is focus for Quality Enhancement Plan.

Critical thinking is described this way: "Critical thinking is a disciplined and continuous process of asking the right questions and practicing logical thought processes to come to justifiable conclusions."

This test focuses on all three of these objectives. Please use complete sentences, proofread your responses, reach a conclusion in your answers, and support your conclusions. Remember - in this class you are never graded on your opinion, but on your ability to form an opinion and support it - which is essential to critical thinking!

Each test question is worth equal points. Each answer should be at least one paragraph long (8-10 sentences). Please proofread your responses and make sure you use complete sentences.

Chapter 1 - The Social and Economic Environment of Texas Politics

1. Your book splits Texas into regions and discusses details on each region. Looking at all of the Texas regions, which one would you most want to live in and why? Or if you are currently living in the one you like the most tell me why you like it the most OR tell me which one you would NOT want to live in and why.

Chapter 2 - The Texas Constitution

2. What two (2) things did you learned about the Texas Constitution that you did not know before reading this chapter that you found the most interesting and why?

Chapter 3 - Texas Government and Politics in the Federal System

3. Do you think federalism is easy to achieve or hard to achieve and why? Give me an example to back up your opinion - i.e. if you think it is hard to balance the rights of the federal government with the rights of the states give me an example and explain a time when it was hard.

4. Do you think states should have their own immigration laws or should the national government have immigration laws and the states should have to follow one set of laws? Why? Fully explain.

5. Do you think the United States Supreme Court had the right to make a law regarding same sex marriage or did the United State Supreme Court overstep its bounds and cross into state's rights since marriage falls to the states to regulate? Fully explain your answer.

Chapter 4 - Local Government in Texas

6. Pick someone in a Texas County Government that is discussed in the Chapter (pages 109-113) - or someone in a Texas County Government - research that person to learn more about them and write me at least one paragraph about that person and what you learned (i.e. research the Dallas County District Attorney and write me a paragraph about what you learned) - anyone you are interested in learning about on the County level.

Chapter 5 - The Texas Legislature

7. Research the most recent session of the Texas Legislature. The session ended on May 29, 2017 and there was also a special session called. You can research the session on any of your favorite search engines and see what came out of the session.

Write me at least one paragraph about a piece of legislation that was passed and explain it and tell me what you think about it - what is your opinion of it and why?

My goal is that you see it is reallyeasy to research "legislation passed in 85th Texas Legislature" or "legislation passed in most recent session of Texas Legislature" and you will always do this your whole life to track what is going on in the Texas Legislature during, after, and between sessions.

Use any search engine you want to find an overview of what happened in this last session.

You can always research legislation and - LegiScan can be used to research bills in any state - this link is for Texas. Legiscan is a GREAT website -you can also search by session (2017) and by topic (i.e. abortion).

8. If you were a member of the Texas Legislature and had a bill you wanted to get passed that your constituents really supported - tell me what all you would do before and during the session to make sure that your bill got passed. Who would you meet with to get support and what would you do to ensure the bill got passed?

Chapter 6 - The Texas Executive

9. If you were voting for the Texas Governor - tell me at least three (3) qualities you would look for in that person - and fully explain why those qualities are important to you in a Texas Governor.

Chapter 7 - The Texas Bureaucracy and Policy Implementation

10. Tell me three (3) things you have learned about the Texas Bureaucracy and why you will remember these things from your reading and/or your classmates' posts.