Educator Resources Educator Resources

60-Second Civics is a daily podcast that provides a quick and convenient way for listeners to learn about our nation’s government, the Constitution, and our history. The podcast explores themes related to civics and government, the constitutional issues behind the headlines, and the people and ideas that formed our nation’s history and government. The daily podcast is accompanied by a quiz question.

Students are introduced to the 9/11 attacks and learn that the nation’s response created tension between the need for security and America’s tradition of liberty. They are then introduced to the Declaration of Independence and Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and learn that these documents describe fundamental values and principles that characterize the American political culture.

Students learn about the duties and powers of the three branches of government, the amendment process, and the role of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

What really happened at the Battle of Lexington? In this lesson, students practice sourcing, corroboration, and contextualization as they weigh competing accounts of who fired the first shots of the Revolutionary War.

Go on a virtual field trip to the Museum of the American Revolution with Lauren Tarshis, author of the I Survived… books! You’ll go behind the scenes to meet a museum curator and a museum educator, to examine real and replica artifacts, and to learn stories of real people – including kids and teens – who lived during this dynamic time. This program is presented in partnership with Scholastic, Inc.

Do you like running things? Branches of Power lets you do something that no one else can: control all three branches of the U.S. government.

This lesson asks students to investigate the connections between constitutional principles, the United States founding documents, and their relationship to one another.

This lesson looks at the intersection between constitutional principles and the struggle for equality during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Run your own law firm specializing in Constitutional law and determine whether clients have a right, match them with the best lawyer, and win the case!

This film explores the First Amendment right of the “people peaceably to assemble” through the lens of the U.S. Supreme Court case National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie.

This DBQuest takes students through the competing takes on the National Bank as proposed by Alexander Hamilton, and efforts to persuade President Washington to approve or veto the plan.

Using the example of Executive Order 10730, students will explore how executive orders can be used to enforce the law and examine how Eisenhower justified his authorization of troops under federal authority to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

Are the tactics used by suffragists to fight for political power still effective? This video series explores four techniques that suffragists used to reshape the nation’s democracy: protesting, organizing, branding, and lobbying.

This lesson explores the principles of popular sovereignty and government by consent.

The year is 1787, and the new U.S. Constitution has been drafted. Travel across the 13 states and use your persuasive pamphleteering skills to convince them to ratify our founding document — or not — and outmaneuver your rival publishers along the way.