Travel back to 1787 as young scholars investigate the creation of the US Constitution. After first working in small groups to create sets of classroom rules, students go on to read a summary of the Constitution and watch a short video...

Bring history to life for your young scholars with a Fourth of July lesson series. After a class reading of the Declaration of Independence, students translate this pivotal document into layman's terms before working in small...

September 17, Constitution Day so named because that was the day in 1787, that 39 men signed the Constitution, is the focus of a series of activities designed to simulate a Constitutional convention and open a study of the US Constitution.

Scholars closely read Justice John Marshall Harlan's dissenting opinion in the Plessy v. Ferguson case, seeking to understand why he disagreed with the court's decision that racial segregation laws for public spaces were constitutional....

One person, one voice ... right? Using a simulation where uneven groups are given the same voice, scholars discover why fair apportionment based on an accurate census is important. Once finished, they use actual data to consider what...

Scholars examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and analyze the ideas in the preamble. Readers define new vocabulary words, listen to a Masterful Reading, answer questions in pairs, participate in a jigsaw discussion, and...

Learners explore how the Constitution provides for separation of power and limited government, as evidenced by the three branches of government. They participate in role-playing situations, group discussions, and complete worksheets to...

Is there a correlation between a country's wealth and the extent of its ecological footprint? What exactly constitutes an ecological footprint, and how does one country stack up against the rest? This is a unique lesson to incorporate...

Why should classes care about the First Amendment? An engaging lesson serves as a powerful tool for answering just that. As all four cases in the lesson relate directly to freedom of expression in schools, young scholars explore the...

"How did the slavery system undermine the United States' democratic principles?" This question launches a study of how the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, and Article IV,...

Can a state government tax the federal government? The Supreme Court case McCullough v. Maryland explores different governments in the United States. Scholars research the court's decision with a video and discussion. They formulate...

As part of their study of the 1963 March on Washington, class members do a side-by-side comparison of the original text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" with a transcript of the speech he delivered. The take away from the...

To understand the controversy surrounding the US 2000 presidential election, class members investigate the rationale behind the Electoral Collage, the intimidation involved in the election of 1876, and the 2004 American League...

Class members research citizenship in Ancient Rome and in the United States and use the provided graphic organizers to compare the rights and responsibilities of citizens in these two democracies.

To demonstrate their understanding of the steps Alabama took to become a state, groups create a poster that identifies what the United States Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance required of a territory to become a state.

Discover the fascinating history of the Equal Rights Amendment and discuss the major implications and considerations associated with it today. Here you will find background information on the topic, a graphic organizer summarizing...

The city of Los Angeles' 1979 Special Order 40 states: "LAPD officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person." After reading a fact sheet that details the history of Special Order...

Why are some immigrant groups in the United States embraced while others become disenfranchised? To answer this question, teams investigate why groups emigrated to the US, why some of these these peoples were...

Get your message across. Scholars use their prior knowledge and artistic skills to create public service announcements. The project is designed to explain the importance of civic harmony and the responsibility of all citizens to...

What was the Children's Crusade and how did it impact the civil rights movement in the United States? Your young learners will learn about this incredible event through a variety of instructional activities, from reading a poem and...

As part of a study of immigration law, class members read a summary of the Supreme Court case, Arizona v. United States. They then examine a series of examples and acting as federal court judges, must determine if the scenarios...

The U.S. Guest-Worker Program and the H-2A visa are the focus of a social studies activity. First, class members assume the role of advisors who must present the president with four proposals that would amend the visas given to...

Class pairs examine eight runaway slave advertisements from the mid-1800s to develop an understanding of the conditions slaves faced and of race relations.

Young citizens consider the American civil rights movement as part of the global struggle for human rights. After using a timeline activity to learn about the major events in the civil rights movement, class members study...