Month: September 2023

34 Students Take Civic Education into Their Own Hands Through iCivics Equity in Civics Youth Fellowship

Posted on by icivics

Now in its fifth year, the fellowship helps students from across the country build civic leadership skills and explore how civic education can become more relevant to all youth in the United States

September 20, 2023—iCivics has selected 34 talented high school students from across the country to take part in the iCivics Equity in Civics Youth Fellowship (ECYF). The students were selected after a competitive process that saw nearly 350 applicants from 38 states and Washington, D.C.

The yearlong fellowship helps students develop leadership and communications skills in collaboration with peers and experts in the field of civic education. Throughout the year, students research and explore how civic education can become more equitable for students across the United States, utilizing their own lived experiences to become ambassadors and shed light on how civic education can include student voices from every background.

“I am excited for this year’s fellows to come together, learn from one another, and use their lived experiences to shed some light on the current state of civic education for our young people,” said iCivics Youth Engagement Coordinator Michael Reyes.

The fellowship kicked off in late August, and moves into full-gear with an in-person symposium in Washington D.C. in early fall. It continues through the 2023-2024 school year as fellows engage virtually in group discussions with their peers, workshops and lectures with experts in the field, and projects designed to strengthen listening and collaborative skills. All of the fellows’ work will be centered around ensuring that civic education is available and relevant to all students in the United States. 

Over the past five years, students from across the country representing rural, urban and suburban districts have taken part in the fellowship. They have become an integral part of informing the broader civic education movement, sharing their experiences and thoughts at convenings for the Educating for American Democracy initiative, the Ronald Reagan Institute, Civic Learning Week, and the Commonwealth Club. They have been featured in media such as The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and WBUR in Boston. 

iCivics is proud to announce this year’s Equity in Civics Youth Fellows:

  • Maurits A. – Florida
  • Titus A. – Arizona
  • Liana A. –Maine
  • Addison A. – Louisiana
  • Alexandra B. – Oregon
  • Erica B. – Minnesota
  • Maya B. – California
  • August B. – Delaware
  • Jayla C. – Georgia
  • Rainie C. – Oregon
  • Ace C. – Iowa
  • Shreya D. – Washington
  • Miranda D. – New Jersey
  • Kora D. – Massachusetts
  • HamzaE. – California
  • Pablo G. – California
  • Kaimy I. – North Carolina
  • Daye K. – Georgia
  • Shirin K. – Pennsylvania
  • Wyatt L. – Arizona
  • Mia L. – Illinois
  • Dontrell M. – Georgia
  • Ronald M. – North Carolina
  • Aser M. – Maryland
  • Tithi M. – New Jersey
  • ColtonM. – New Hampshire
  • Folasade O. – Connecticut
  • Cian O. – Massachusetts
  • Saghana P. – Michigan
  • Ellie P. – Virginia
  • Elijah S. – Tennessee
  • Pratheek T. – Virginia
  • AlyssaV. – Ohio
  • Sarah V. – New York

For more information about the iCivics Equity in Civics Youth Fellowship, and how to participate, visit the website.

Dive into Primary Sources & Inquiry-based Learning with Three New DBQuests

Posted on by Luke O'Connor

Are you looking for ways to incorporate primary source analysis into your lessons without spending hours preparing? 

Unlock the power of inquiry-based learning with our three new DBQuests! Each DBQuest asks students a big question which acts as a guiding light for in-depth analysis of three multimedia primary resources. With step-by-step guidance from a virtual writing assistant, students will gather evidence, check sources, analyze what they mean, and write responses to important questions.

Explore Our Three Newest DBQuests

Non-Voting Delegates in Congress

Today there are six non-voting members of Congress representing American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In this DBQuest, students will explore the duties and limitations of non-voting members from the perspective of the members themselves.

Policy, Public Interest, and… Margarine?

This DBQuest invites students to take a closer look at how the public can inform and impact public policy over time. Students will review and analyze primary sources from 1900–1949 to discover how legislation can change and the role of public opinion in these changes. It’s a DBQuest with extra butter (or margarine) on top! 

Kids Making a Difference

Hear as kids from three different times in history share, in their own words, how they helped their communities and country tackle the issue of food insecurity in times of war and peace. In this DBQuest, students will use evidence from primary sources to support analysis, answer questions, and describe how young people have made a difference in their communities throughout U.S. history. 

iCivics and George Washington’s Mount Vernon Launch Free Online Game About Civility and Compromise at the Constitutional Convention

Posted on by icivics

MOUNT VERNON, VA – September 7, 2023 – This Constitution Day, iCivics and George Washington’s Mount Vernon will release Constitutional Compromise, a new online game that takes students through the major issues – and key compromises – that shaped our nation’s governing charter, the United States Constitution.

Developed with support from philanthropist Kenneth C. Griffin, Constitutional Compromise is the first game that iCivics has created specifically for use within a museum exhibit. The game will be available for free for anyone to use at icivics.org, and it will be available for on-site play to the over one million visitors to Mount Vernon every year. By 2026, the game will move into a new permanent exhibit on George Washington at Mount Vernon.

Designed for middle and high school students, the game places students in Philadelphia in 1787 and challenges students to grapple with the intense debates that occurred between the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, including: the scope of national government, representation of power, how population is determined, executive functions, the transatlantic slave trade, and whether the country should have a Bill of Rights.

George Washington, who served as President of the Constitutional Convention, leads players through the debates by requiring them to weigh the arguments they hear and decide how they might have moved forward if they were writing the Constitution. The game then compares their decisions with the compromises that delegates had to make to create a new system of self-government, even though they were difficult and sometimes imperfect (and, on the issue of slavery, morally unacceptable).

It was built by award-winning educational games developer Filament Games. It is free to use and is also available in Spanish and with full support for English Language Learners and has supporting documents for educators to use during Constitution Week and beyond to teach about the Constitution.

More than 100 students from the Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. will gather on Sept. 18 at Mount Vernon, President Washington’s home, for an event that will be live streamed to thousands of students across the country, starting at 9:30 AM EST. The livestream will be available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7T7ImWrpgs

“Now more than ever it’s critical that Americans have a firm grounding in the important framework that the U.S. Constitution provides for our democracy,” Mount Vernon President & CEO Doug Bradburn said. “Mount Vernon is delighted to have the perfect partner in iCivics as we worked together to create Constitutional Compromise.”