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Security and Savings for All?
Students act as either Democrats or Republicans to debate plans to alter Social Security. For homework, they consider whether Social Security has become too politicized and propose their own solutions.
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Team Works
Students define "group" and list American social and political movements throughout history. They examine one model of a successful team and positive group mentality by reading and identify the traits of a successful group and those of...
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Gotta Dance
Students share dance moves that reflect their personalities or depict how they are feeling, explore popularity of recreational and competitive social dancing by reading and discussing the article "Follow the Flying Feet,"
present...
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The Ad Campaign
Students explore how political candidates use mass media to deliver their messages to voters. Focusing on specific issues in the upcoming election, students create television commercials representing different parties' views.
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Masking the Truth
Learners explore the artistic and social significance of African masks. They create their own masks that reflect an important aspect of moving in their lives.
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Helping Hands
Students discuss what they can do to help their community, then create posters for the school that list and provide details for 'Ten Things You Can Do To Help' in different social service areas.
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Calamity Sane
Students observe responses to emergency situations by participating in and making observations about a fire drill. They then analyze the fire drill proceedings from the perspective of a sociologist investigating social order during...
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Rushing the Border
Students discuss the issues of immigrants who overstay their legal welcome. They explore the recent changes in immigration registration, and participate in a roundtable discussion.
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What Constitutes a State?
Students examine the differences between various state constitutions in the United States. Then, using their own
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Freedom Fighters
Students research different branches and special units of the United States military. They create and present performances that synthesize their research and demonstrate their understanding about the roles that these groups play in...
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Making The Holidays Special
Learners examine ways in which holiday television specials reflect some of the religious, historic and cultural themes of the holidays on which they focus. They create their own holiday television specials in groups, each focusing on a...
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The Young Faces of Poverty
Learners explore the topic of child poverty in the United States and the government's responses to it in different areas and through different programs and laws. They share their thoughts in letters to their Congressional representatives.
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Occupational Oxymoron
Students consider their own notions of poverty, examine the life of a woman classified as "working poor" from a variety of perspectives, and present their findings to the class. Then, students synthesize their knowledge in a paper.
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Deadly Diseases
Students consider the social, political, environmental, economic, medical and other considerations for why particular countries experience outbreaks of certain infectious diseases.
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Multinational Corporation Relocation
Students examine and analyze the concept of why multinational corporations relocate production facilities from developed nations to less developed nations. They explore the patterns and networks of economic interdependence incorporating...
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A More Perfect Union?
Students read and discuss the article "Bush Insists U.S. Must Not Fail in Iraq." They work in small groups to answer three questions based on their category by searching for the answers in the article read in class.
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It's Up for Debate
In this instructional activity, students investigate the different platforms of each of the Presidential hopefuls for the 2000 election. Small groups each carefully research the platforms of an assigned candidate and then create a...
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Soul Food
Students identify foods that they associate with different cultural groups in which they are members and speculate possible connections between specific foods and the cultures in which they are popular. They also explore the importance...
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How Can We Do Research on the Internet?
Students demonstrate how to use the Internet to research historical individuals. In this technology lesson, students use the "Internet Coach" CD-ROM to identify how to gather information on the Internet. Students choose an important...
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Building a Memorial to the Underground Railroad
Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. In this Underground Railroad lesson, students examine the attributes and function of the Underground Railroad in order to...
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Where are We?
Fifth graders explore places visited by Lewis and Clark. In this geographical concepts lesson, 5th graders plot places on a map and put events in chronological order. Students find locations on a map using longitude and latitude....
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Burning Hatred
Students examine the constitutionality of various forms of expression; they then take part in a mock trial on the issue of cross burning. Divide the class into three groups; Supreme Court Justices, and two groups that don't agree on this...
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Making the Invisible Visible
Students evaluate the various ways in which cyberspace is beginning to be mapped by geographers, cartographers, artists, and scientists and use their understanding of the information these new maps can convey to create their own maps of...
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Empire State-Building
Students explore how empires around the globe have impacted the world in which they have existed. They analyze whether or not the United States is an imperialist nation and create their own empires based on their understanding of empires...