From solitary exercise to team activities, learn more about the important role of sports at Eastern State Penitentiary including the penitentiary’s integrated baseball teams and legendary boxer turned Eastern State baseball player Charles “Jack” Blackburn.
Far From Home: Locations and Logistics of Women Facing Incarceration
This lesson explores the complex and far-reaching consequences of maternal incarceration. Students will examine how incarceration of mothers impacts their children through separation trauma, and how this effect is magnified for marginalized communities. The lesson addresses barriers incarcerated mothers face in reuniting with their children after release, including legal challenges, limited access to family support services, and societal stigma. Students will also investigate human rights issues related to maternal incarceration through research and discussion.
Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum
Students are confused about how to evaluate online information. We all are. The Civic Online Reasoning curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.
Climate Change Video Handout
This handout can be used as part of our Preparing for Environmental Pathways lesson or as an independent activity in your classroom. Students will watch the video linked within and answer questions to deepen their understanding of the climate crisis.
Elections and Voting: An Overview
Students will explore the Constitutional amendments that deal with elections, the qualifications for voting, and protections offered to voters. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, explains the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-sixth amendments, the history of voting in America, Supreme Court cases, and measures that ensure voters can vote without discrimination based on property ownership, race, sex, and age. Created by National Constitution Center.
How Did the Cold War Stay Cold?
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union amassed tens of thousands of nuclear weapons—enough firepower to annihilate each other many times over. In this video, learn how rivalries between the world’s superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, avoided turning into nuclear war.
How Did the United States Become a Global Power?
With the world’s largest economy, hundreds of overseas military bases, and leadership positions in various international institutions, the United States is an undeniable global power. But this was not always the case. In this multimedia resource, learn how domestic expansion and three wars—the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II—transformed the United States’ standing in the world.
What Kinds of Governments Exist?
How governments interpret, prioritize, and grapple with pillars of modern society—for instance, security, freedom, and prosperity—determines the kinds of policies they enact. In this multimedia resource, explore the differences between democracies and autocracies, communism and capitalism, and right and left leaning ideologies.
What Is the National Security Council?
The National Security Council is a group of top advisors tasked with providing guidance on foreign policy matters and implementing the president’s decisions. Learn how the president’s advisors protect U.S. national security and help with foreign policy decision-making and coordination across the executive branch.
What Roles Do Congress and the Executive Branch Play in U.S. Foreign Policy?
This Council on Foreign Relations Education resource helps students understand what the Constitution says about foreign policy. Students explore how the powers of Congress and the president protect and advance the country’s interests abroad. Through infographics, charts, and case studies, students will learn how the balance of power between these branches of government might look different in theory and practice.