A successful debate format for discussing resource policy issues

Debates have been successfully used in many disciplines to discuss public policy issues and are generally recognized as beneficial to student thought and critical thinking processes. A successful debate format used to discuss natural resource policy issues at the upper undergraduate level is presented here. Through the use of class presentations, rebuttals, audiovisual aids, and expert witnesses, students became deeply involved in the understanding of some crucial current events issues. The debates were independently evaluated but the success of the debates was due principally to high student involvement in format development.