You will choose a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. You will look through libraries, archives and museums, conduct oral history interviews, and visit historic sites. After you have analyzed and interpreted your sources, and have drawn a conclusion about the significance of your topic, you will then be able to present your work in contests in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a website.
U.S. v. Windsor (2013)
Does the DOMA deprive same-sex couples who are legally married under state laws of their Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection under federal law? This case study shows how the Supreme Court answered this question in 2013.
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra (2018)
Does a state law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to post or disseminate information about the availability of contraceptive and abortion services violate the First Amendment?
Individuals Influence Public Policy
In this lesson, students are presented with a controversial school policy and given two viewpoints on the issue. They are then divided into groups, and asked to provide reasons for and against the policy. After deciding whether the policy should be changed or not, the students are asked to reflect on why policies might change and what factors influence policy decisions.
Responsibility and Community Service
This lesson explores how groups of people (or animals) come together to solve community problems. Students will identify a variety of personal responsibilities and civic responsibilities from a set of pictures in order to get a better understanding of what responsibility means. Students will understand that citizens in the United States have a responsibility to help others.
Taking a Stand
This lesson teaches the importance of being informed, forming opinions, and advocating for those opinions to our country’s political life. Students will understand what it means to take a stand and why it is important for citizens to do so for an important issue.
Victoria Goes to Court
This is a children’s book by Benny Agosto, Jr. and his daughter, Victoria Agosto, and its story describes the importance of the legal system to fighting injustice.
Rules, Rules, Rules
In this lesson, students are asked to play a game – passing an object, such as an eraser – in which the rules are unclear and keep changing. Students are then asked to actively reflect on when and why rules are important and necessary. The leader might then connect rules of the game to the rule of law, and discuss the importance of law in our communities and in our society.
Why Should We Care? Understanding Rights and Responsibilities as Citizens
Students will identify some of the rights they enjoy as a citizen, and what responsibilities accompany those rights. They will reflect on whether or not they have a responsibility to protect the rights of others as well as their own.
Mediation and the Adversarial Process
Students are first asked to resolve a hypothetical case via the adversary process. Each student is assigned the role of plaintiff, defendant, or judge. The plaintiff and defendant argue their case in turn, and the judge renders a decision. Students are then asked to reflect on the resolution. They are then instructed to resolve the same case via mediation, and to compare the two methods of dispute resolution.