CSS will broadcast Mayoral forum for Calgary Schools

The Calgary Science School and Youth Can Vote 2010 (http://www.youthcanvote.com/) are partnering to host a panel discussion, providing an opportunity for the Calgary Mayoral candidates to speak with students across the city.

This 90 minute Mayoral panel discussion will be held at the Calgary Science School (5915 Lewis Drive SW) and will be broadcast on the Internet, allowing a wide range of Calgary schools to join in. During the live panel, grade 9 students at the Calgary Science School will host the event at the school and present questions prepared for the panel. At the same time, the event will be broadcast using Ustream (http://www.ustream.com) to allow students and teachers from schools across Calgary to watch and respond with real-time questions.

The link for the live broadcast will be made available on this site the day of the event.

The purpose of the event is to help students understand the impact that political decision making has on the lives of citizens. As part of this exploration, Calgary Science School students will be examining the role that media, particularly social networking and digital media, play in the campaigning process.

To help our students connect with the world of political campaigns, we are hoping to have numerous Mayoral candidates respond to issues such as:

• Local issues (with a particular focus on issues affecting young people )
• The use of social media and technology in the political process
• Engaging young people in local politics
• Young people’s perception of Calgary
• The motivation behind their decision to run for Mayor

We are still finalizing the times and details of the event, but we're looking at Sept 22 or 23rd for the event. It will take place during typical school hours, either 10-12am or 1-3pm.

In addition to allowing students and teachers to pose questions through Ustream during the live broadcast we would love to gather questions for the candidates from a number of schools before hand. Please comment below if you are interested in sending in questions for the candidates - or just post your questions below.

If you are a teacher at a Calgary school and would like more information about this project, please comment below. We welcome feedback and suggestions as we plan this event.

We will continue to post updates about this opportunity as they are finalized over the next few weeks.