Themes and Activities

Select a theme and preview activities that you may assign to your students. Familiarize yourself with the steps involved in completing each activity. Examine corresponding lesson plans that have been designed for students in grades 8 through 12.

TIP: Using Interactives with the Whole Class

Follow these instructions if you want to involve the whole class in an interactive and save the work for later. Teachers can only save work done on interactives from a student workspace.

  1. With the class code, create a student workspace.
  2. Access the interactive from your student account.
  3. Do the activity. You can click “Save” to go back to it ater. After you complete the activity click “Save” and choose to “Continue working on assignment.”

Public Criticisms of Congress: A Look at American Political Cartoons

Get an historical perspective on the place of political cartoons in our representative democracy, explore public criticisms of Congress, and develop your own views about Congress.

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Critical Thinking: Analyzing Congressional Floor Debates

Examine the main components of an effective, thoughtful argument in Congress, analyze examples of Congressional debates, and learn how to present a case on a particular issue.

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Consensus Building and the Virtual Congress

Delve into consensus building in the legislative process by examining historical examples and experience the process first-hand by taking on the role of Members of Congress within a virtual world - the Virtual Congress.

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The Impact of Congress: The First Congress

Examine eleven of the most important accomplishments of the First Congress under the new U.S. Constitution (1789-91), and discover the impact of these accomplishments over the years.

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The Impact of Congress: Congressional Moments

Examine key legislation throughout our country's history that impacts our lives today. Watch videos featuring primary source images from the Library of Congress that illuminate these significant decisions in our nation's history.

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Citizen Participation: Civic Quotes

Explore a collection of 64 notable quotations from a variety of U.S. government leaders over the years and take a quiz featuring questions from recent NAEP tests in civics. Available as an iPad app and an online version.

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Citizen Participation: Francis and Paul in 'Citizens Unite: A Helpful Guide to Being a Better Citizen'

Join Francis the Platypus and Paul the Robot in this entertaining 10-minute animated video as they learn about our representative democracy and what it means to be a citizen.

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