Critical thinking writing assignment

This exercise provides an opportunity to think outside your normal way of thinking.

Pretend that you have been assigned the task of conducting a tour for aliens who are visiting the earth and observing human life. You’re riding along in a blimp, viewing the landscape below, and you float over a professional baseball stadium. One of the aliens looks down and is very confused by what he sees. You explain that there is a game going on and he asks several important questions.

• What is a game?
• Why are there no female players?
• Why do people get so excited about watching other people play games?
• What is a team?
• Why can’t the people in the seats go down on the field and join in?

If you try to answer these questions fully, it will quickly become apparent that we carry around certain assumptions and values. We support a certain team, for instance, because it makes us feel like we’re a part of a community. This sense of community is a value that matters to some people more than others.

Furthermore, when trying to explain team sports to an alien, you have to explain the value we place on winning and losing.

When you think like an alien tour guide, you are forced to take a deeper look at the things we do and things we value. Sometimes they do not sound logical from the outside looking in.

DIRECTIONS:

• Use Microsoft WORD to type your answer
• Your answer will be 1 paragraph only and this should be about 15 to 20 sentences
• In SENTENCE format, you will need to answer the questions that the alien from outer space asks (they are in bold) – if you would rather write about football, soccer, or basketball, you may do so.
• Think about how you are going to answer the questions before you write your answers
• Refer to the How to Create and Save a document video posted in Ms. Hammond’s Module to set up your document and save
• Refer to the video on How to Submit an assignment
• Use correct spelling, word use, punctuation, capitalization, etc.