Students investigate the importance of separation of powers, checks, balances, and judicial review. They also investigate how national and state governments are linked.

Eighth graders look critically at the 26 amendments to the United States Constitution.

Students practice map skills and take a virtual road trip through Maine examining the history of transportation. They create questions from the information they learned and play a game against other groups.

Students explore three decisions about the atomic bomb faced by the U.S. during WWII, take a position on each of the decisions, and defend their position. Should a bomb have been built, dropped, and was the right decision made?

Students receive instruction on Pidyon Shevuyim in a whole class setting. They work in small groups to read and answer question on the topic, and meet as a class to discuss their findings.

Young scholars examine how artists (painters or cartoonists) use artwork as a means of disseminating a political point of view in this activity that uses primary source documents and examples of political cartoons.

Pupils form small, cooperative learning groups, research a major Chinese dynasty and present their findings to the classroom in this multi-day lesson adaptable to many different age levels.

Students examine county ordinances, develop understanding of degree to which county government serves and regulates citizens, describe competing interests involved in making local political policy, and decide whether government should be...

Students distinguish between civic and public life. In groups, they identify the relationships between the two types of arenas as well. They research the roles of the Fairfax County government and how well they provide healthcare,...

Students work together to develop a city landscape using various symbols. Using the various elements, they justify the placement of each symbol and discover the importance of location and accessibility. They present their landscape to...

Students culminate and extend the Museum visit back into the classroom. They consider the choice Telemachus made to continue searching for his father. They relate the moral dilemma to their own personal experiences.

Students tour the estates built by America's wealthiest visionaries during the years 1911-1929. They discuss the Age of Invention and the people associated with that age in US history.

Students explore the actions of people involved in the Civil Rights Movement. They explore the reasons for the movement and its successes and failures, and explain the sacrifices made by those who participated in the movement.

Students view a video about Betty Ford and how her candid admission of her own battles with addiction has enabled others to face their own addictions. She has done the same for breast cancer, since she was First Lady of the US.

Students discover what the lives of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh were really like after watching a Biography movie about them.

Learners watch a video about Clare Booth Luce who used her brains and her determination to occupy the seats of power, as one of the few congresswomen of her generation.

Students explore how "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio" remains one of America's most beloved sports heroes and a cultural icon of the twentieth century. In 1941 Joe DiMaggio set a major league record that still stands; he safely hit in 56...

Students watch a video and participate in discussion about test pilot, astronaut, senator, and hero-John Glenn.

Students explore how Madeleine Albright made history by becoming the first female American secretary of state. This tough, talented and determined woman has had an unusual life that has well prepared her for her job.

Students explore Guglielmo Marconi, the genius who invented the wireless and helped change our planet into a global village.

Pupils watch the video "Richard Nixon: Man and President, complete vocabulary work and discuss the video using the question provided.

Students explore money, how its value determined, and how mere slips of paper or coins, and in today's high-tech world electronic blips, represent the wealth of a nation.

Students explore how people use money every day and how it is one of the defining resources in our life.

Middle schoolers compare figurative works of art to determine what they say about the cultures that created them.