Physics 3000 Debate information

This is not an individual assignment! You will be participating in teams of two or three. Work together, well in advance, with your teammates to develop your arguments and anticipate rebuttals and questions from the other side.
Your debate topics have already been assigned (below). You should already be studying the topic and developing arguments, since you'll need to understand the case for both sides no matter which side you argue.
You will be assigned a debating side based on my super-secret random assignment formula. You'll receive your assignment about five days before the debate.
Each team must turn in a single written assignment at the beginning of the case, summarizing in three to four pages your arguments and responses to at least four anticipated arguments from the other side.
The members of each team should decide among themselves how to allocate presentation tasks. Each student on the team should have approximately equal total speaking time. While each student's performance will be graded separately, the entire team will be penalized if speaking time is allocated unequally.

The format will be somewhere in between a classic formal debate and a typical political candidates' debate:

TIME
:00	Coin flip to decide which side goes first.
:00-:05	Side 1 opening statement.
:05-:10	Side 2 opening statement.
:10-:12	Side 2 cross-examination (questions only) to Side 1.
:12-:14	Side 1 cross-examination (questions only) to Side 2.
:14-:20	Break while both sides prepare responses and rebuttals.
:20-:23	Side 2 response to questions.
:23-:26	Side 1 response to questions.
:26-:31	Side 1 rebuttal and closing statement.
:31-:36	Side 2 rebuttal and closing statement.
:36-	Class discussion of debate.

Physics 3000 Debate Schedule

Date	Topic	Students
Nov. 17	Human space flight (should / should not) be a major focus of NASA's efforts in ten years.	Gopakumar Paterson Stone Reeves Evanko
Nov. 19	The federal government (should / should not) support a large funded research program in social sciences.	Prekeris Riley Hillery Wagner
Nov. 29	Religious objections should be given (equal weight / less or no consideration) compared with secular ethical concerns when deciding on funding for biological research.	McManis DiBenedetto Jurkiewicz Berrier Barenberg
Dec. 1	Uncertainty about whether humans are causing dangerous climate change is (mostly genuine / mostly manufactured).	Flesher Johnson White Ripley Salh
Dec. 6	The United States (should/should not) develop offensive cyberwarfare capabilities.	Nelson Watson Sandstedt Finlay Schuster