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Author: Sophie Gordon

iCivics Investigation Declaration Game Wins GEE! Award

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

iCivics’ newest game, Investigation Declaration, won the Formal Learning category at the annual GEE! Learning Game Awards, which recognize excellence in educational game design.

Winners were announced on Aug. 21 at the Play Make Learn Conference, which is hosted by the UW-Madison School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the office of Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE).

“Play Make Learn is a fantastic opportunity to gather with folks that share a desire to create really great experiences for all kinds of learners,” said Senior Director of Digital Learning Carrie Ray-Hill. “It was incredible to hear our game announced as a winner.”

The game, developed in partnership with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, challenges middle and high school students to track how Enlightenment ideas informed the Declaration of Independence, which then went on to influence declarations of rights and freedoms abroad. Its design takes notes from classic games such as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and includes puzzle and strategy elements of more modern games like Case of the Golden Idol and Return of the Obra Dinn. This complexity aims to help students discover how the ideas that influenced and shaped the Declaration of Independence went on to shape global history.

According to the official announcement, Investigation Declaration impressed judges with its aesthetic, engagement, gameplay, and accessibility features. One judge noted, “I found this a clever way of drawing connections across history. Too often we learn about one country’s perspective, not realizing the global context.”

“I was glad to see the judges appreciated Investigation Declaration’s gameplay,” Ray-Hill said. “We intentionally designed it to embrace student discovery. Players may figure out how the game works before their teachers, and that’s okay! The game gives them the freedom to play through one ‘path’ or several, empowering them to create their own narrative.”

Your Mission: Bring History to Life with Investigation Declaration

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

You know that feeling when you find a resource that just clicks with your students? The one that makes complex historical concepts not just understandable, but genuinely exciting? Well, we’ve got the mission for you! Challenge your class to save the Bureau of Ideas from a global crime ring called Baddies Against Rights & Freedom (B.A.R.F.) with our game, Investigation Declaration!

We’re moving beyond the norms of classic iCivics gameplay to meet the moment in both gaming and civics instruction. Forget the hand-holding; this game is designed for discovery, inquiry, and meaning-making, just like how kids play games outside of school. Think Carmen Sandiego meets Case of the Golden Idol, wrapped up in Enlightenment thought.

A Game-Changer in Your Classroom:

This isn’t just another click-through. This interactive is crafted to tackle some of the trickiest concepts in social studies, especially when it comes to the Enlightenment and its long-lasting impact. Here’s how it hits those key learning objectives:

  • Uncover the “Why”: Students won’t just memorize dates; they’ll actively draw ideological cause-and-effect connections between historical events. They’ll see how one idea led to another and how these powerful concepts sparked revolutions and reforms worldwide.
  • Track the DNA of Ideas: Imagine your students as history’s detectives, tracking a set of Enlightenment ideas like natural rights, state sovereignty, and the Social Contract as they spread across the Atlantic World between 1750 and 1850. They’ll be restoring corrupted files at the Bureau of Ideas, which is basically decoding history!
  • Time and Space Matter: The game beautifully illustrates the roles of time and geography in the spread of ideas. Students will visually and experientially understand that these world-changing events didn’t happen all at once or in one isolated place. This helps build a much richer, more interconnected understanding of history.
  • Beyond the Books: How did ideas actually travel? This game lets students describe methods by which ideas were transmitted – through trade, written communications, migration, and print. It’s a fantastic way to visualize intellectual exchange!
  • Meet the Movers and Shakers: Get ready for students to become familiar with the ideas, people, locations, and events that influenced declarations of rights and freedoms during this pivotal century. They’ll be solving puzzles that reveal these crucial historical connections.

What Makes This Different (and So Good!):

What truly sets this game apart is its commitment to fostering genuine inquiry as they engage with global history. It expands beyond the U.S. Declaration to show its ripple effect, letting kids see that this isn’t happening all at one time and all in one place, truly setting up some great thinking and connection-making.

It’s designed to meet kids where they are, embracing student discovery through gaming. Students are going to figure this out before you do, and that’s okay! It’s about empowering them to be discoverers. Your students can play through one “path” or several, restoring parts or all of the corrupted files.

So, get ready to unleash your Secret Agents! This game isn’t just a fun diversion; it’s a powerful tool for cultivating critical thinking, global awareness, and a deep appreciation for the interconnectedness of our history.

Happy B.A.R.F. busting!

Written by Carrie Ray-Hill and Amanda Setters

Carrie Ray-Hill has spent the last 15 years bringing playful learning to classrooms. She’s credited on more than 20 games and interactives, serving as lead content producer for iCivics. Carrie collaborates with both institutional partners (Council on Foreign Relations, Colonial Williamsburg) and government entities (Department of Defense, National Endowment for the Humanities) to create award-winning projects for classrooms across the United States. Before joining iCivics in 2010, Carrie taught humanities courses across grades 4-12 in St. Louis and Washington, DC. In addition to seeking out the finest of cheeses, Carrie spends her spare time watching British panel shows and killing zombies.

Amanda Setters is a Senior Curriculum Developer at iCivics. She is responsible for creating and revising curricular materials for teachers and students. Prior to joining the iCivics team, Amanda taught middle and high school social studies in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to reading and spending time with her family, Amanda enjoys learning from her favorite historians.

New online game from iCivics and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation teaches how the Declaration of Independence inspired a wave of global change

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (Aug. 25, 2025) – iCivics and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have released a new online game that shows middle- and high-school students how the Declaration of Independence captured the ideas of the Enlightenment and inspired movements toward freedom and democracy across the Atlantic world during the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Investigation Declaration takes place in an alternate time and space where an international crime conglomerate has hacked the fictional Bureau of Ideas, corrupting every file related to freedom, democracy, and individual rights. Players take the role of “Agent 6” as they pursue the origins of these files and discover how ideas spread throughout the Atlantic world in the 100 years following the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. 

As students restore the corrupted files, they discover how the ideas of natural rights, state sovereignty, and the social contract spread from Colonial Williamsburg, Paris, and Philadelphia to Haiti, Liberia, and beyond to inspire a wave of declarations of freedom and rights.

Created collaboratively by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and iCivics, the game takes notes from classic games such as Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? and includes puzzle and strategy elements of more modern games like Case of the Golden Idol and Return of the Obra Dinn. This complexity aims to help students discover how the ideas that influenced and shaped the Declaration of Independence went on to shape global history. This innovative approach to educational game-making earned Investigation Declaration the prestigious 2025 GEE! Award in the Formal Games category.

Investigation Declaration, which is being released in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, merges the game-building expertise of iCivics and the research and education expertise of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Inspired by historian David Armitage’s 2007 book, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, the team looked at the U.S. Declaration as an event, a document, and a genre to be adopted and adapted by people in the years after 1776. Investigation Declaration won the prestigious 2025 winner of the prestigious GEE! Awards

“Colonial Williamsburg is always looking for new ways to bring our unique brand of history education to as many students as possible,” said The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Senior Vice President of Education Mia Nagawiecki. “Thanks to our partnership with iCivics, we have extended our reach beyond our physical location and even our significant web presence to reach kids where they are and through a medium that excites them.”

Investigation Declaration represents an evolution in style for iCivics games, which has led the education gaming industry since its founding in 2009. To meet a new generation of gamers, it uses learn-as-you-play strategies employed by some of the world’s most popular games, such as Fortnite and Roblox. It challenges players to discover game elements as they explore the in-game world, which allows for a multitude of player-based paths through the experience.

“Investigation Declaration moves beyond the norms of classic iCivics gameplay to meet the moment in both gaming and civics instruction,” iCivics CEO Louise Dubé said. “The goal of iCivics has always been to meet young people where they are to teach them the complicated ideas behind our constitutional democracy. If we’re going to carry out that critical mission, we must continue to evolve.”

Teachers who use Investigation Declaration can track their efforts and enter the Civic Star Challenge to win prizes for their students and schools. 

The game is offered in English and Spanish and includes robust educator support materials designed to inspire deeper learning, engagement, and conversation in classrooms.

Sam Hiersteiner

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

Sam Hiersteiner brings more than 15 years of cross-sector leadership experience spanning public affairs and social impact. Prior to joining iCivics, he was the Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Partner at New Profit, the leading venture philanthropy funder, where he built and led the communications function, provided support to dozens of social entrepreneurs in the New Profit community, and managed the organization’s long-term, catalytic collaboration with Deloitte. In his previous role as Vice President at the Glover Park Group (now FGS Global), he co-led a consulting portfolio focused on nonprofits and foundations. He started his career at Burson-Marsteller, serving a pioneering ESG consulting group.

He is a published food and cookbook writer whose work has appeared in the Boston Globe, the Art of Eating, and many other publications. He also serves on the board of Gaining Ground, a nonprofit farm that works to alleviate food insecurity in eastern Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and three children.

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If You Were a Supreme Court Justice, How Would You Decide?

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

The iCivics flagship game, Supreme Decision, helped our students understand the thought process of the Supreme Court justices.

Originally, the game took students through a fictional case of student Ben Brewer, who was suspended for wearing a banned T-shirt to school. Brewer’s lawyers assert that the school limited Ben’s freedom of speech by banning clothing that advertised a controversial band, the Hall of Rejects. (This scenario reminded me of the clothing ban of the band Insane Clown Posse during the ’90s.) Students visited pairs of judges at a time who took the students through different aspects of the court’s decision-making process, including the Tinker v. Des Moines historical precedent, the impact of the court’s decision on the future, interpretation of the Constitution’s language, and analysis of the case’s circumstances.

In playing this game with hundreds of students over the years, the majority never failed to find in favor of Ben’s First Amendment rights, but it’s the discussions that come from the gameplay that varied over the years and make it such a great lesson to carry over each year. Sometimes we talk more in depth about Tinker v. Des Moines; sometimes we debate the current school dress code; sometimes we focus on defining what it means to disrupt the learning environment and who makes that decision; and sometimes students ask to dive deeper into learning about the rights that they keep in school. Over thirty states have banned cell phones during instructional time for the 2025-2026 school year, which should bring another layer of connection to the case.

While the original version of the game went away, iCivics has two updated options that still engage our students with the same ideas today.

One is Argument Wars. In this game, students can choose to play a famous Supreme Court case and hear arguments from both sides. Then they must identify the Constitutional arguments used to support the argument. Once identified, they must build an argument based on Action cards and Support cards. They offer a rebuttal to the opposing side by quickly choosing correct supporting arguments. This game’s strength lies in the variety of gameplay. Not only can you choose between several cases, but you can also choose which side to support and the argument to build. You cannot simply click your way through the game successfully. It takes reading and critical thinking skills to make your way through, but it is not at such a difficulty level that the average student would quit out of frustration.

The second Supreme Court activity truly brings the iCivics gamification to a new level. I first played the new simulation experience at an NCSS Conference, and in the years since, I am continuously surprised by how few people have heard of it! Keeping the name of Supreme Decision, iCivics took the original storyline and developed a truly interactive simulation through the decision-making process. VoxPop is an engagement engine created by Gigantic Mechanic, an internet-based software company that creates “immersive, live-action role plays [where] students explore different perspectives and work together to navigate defining moments in American History.” They currently run six simulations of American history events from Shays’ Rebellion through to the Aids Epidemic of the 1980s. For civics, they have adapted the original Supreme Decision game about student free speech and have also recently added a court case about student due process.

Using this Supreme Decision simulation has been an amazing example of project-based learning, student-led activities, and extension in the classroom. Even my middle schoolers have been able to successfully navigate through the simulations with little help from the teacher, and students have all expressed enthusiasm in the experience. They agree that the work is difficult, but that they understand the topic in the simulation more than they would through the more traditional games. In the History simulations, there is also a video about how the government or company decided in the past, and the students love comparing their results to history. Logistically, this simulation takes between 60-90 minutes to complete, depending on how much time your students will use on their preparation and arguments. With no registration or log in to remember, no student data collected, and no prep required beyond following the prompts on the screen, what do you have to lose? Check out the eight current simulations available on VoxPop, and this year, when you get to your Judicial Branch or Supreme Court unit, carve out a block or two periods to immerse your students and let them make the decisions.

Written by Erin Merrill

Erin Merrill is an award-winning educator in her 19th year of teaching middle school social studies and her 10th year as Department Chair and Middle School lead at Pennington Traditional School in Prince William County, VA. She is passionate about making her students aware and engaged in the current events around them, and thankfully, Civics provides the perfect platform for this.

Through the iCivics Educator Network, the perspectives of teachers across the country contribute to the public conversation about civic education in the United States. Each contributor represents their own opinion. We welcome this plurality of perspectives.

iCivics and Bill of Rights Institute Launch Civic Star Challenge, a Nationwide Initiative to Honor America’s 250th Birthday

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

WASHINGTON, DC [August 18, 2025] – iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute, two of the country’s leading civic education nonprofits, have launched Civic Star Challenge, a nationwide initiative to inspire millions of acts of civic learning in the leadup to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The Civic Star Challenge will make the teaching of the Declaration of Independence digestible and relatable to today’s youth by providing educators with a repository of adaptable lesson plans and activities that teach the key themes of the founding document. The goal is to help students reflect on key themes such as sovereignty, the social contract, equality, natural rights, and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – and to help them connect these concepts to today. These resources are available for free and usable by educators in both classroom and informal educational settings across any subject at icivics.org/civic-star-challenge.

Once they have taught at least one of 11 themes, educators can submit a log of their activities for a chance to win cash prizes totaling more than $200,000.

The first prize opportunity is a random drawing that will take place four times, awarding $300 to 63 winners at each drawing.

In addition, educators can submit 500-700 word essays on why civic learning is important in their classrooms. The essay contest will award one grand prize winner a $10,000 grant to their school and an all-expenses-paid trip to a national civics event. It will award 20 Civic Silver Star Award Winners a $2,000 grant for their schools, and 50 Civic Bronze Star Award Winners with a $1,000 grant for their schools. In addition, 100 National Civic Star Honorees will receive $100 and a digital Certificate of Civic Engagement Leadership.

The goal of Civic Star Challenge is to inspire millions of acts of civic learning before the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026 – and to teach students about the Declaration’s enduring importance and relevance today. 

“The country’s semiquincentennial provides a once-in-a-teaching-lifetime opportunity to engage students in the Declaration of Independence’s 250-year legacy,” iCivics CEO Louise Dubé said. “It’s more than just a challenge, it’s an opportunity to connect the themes and ideals from the Declaration of Independence to the present for lasting impact.”

The Civic Star Challenge is made possible through generous support from Griffin Catalyst, civic engagement initiative of Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin; the Stand Together Trust; and The Pedersen Foundation.

The initiative equips educators with lesson plans and activities that explore the Declaration of Independence in a way that shows how it is still relevant today. Educators will have access to grade-specific choice boards featuring a collection of lessons, primary source activities, videos, and games from both iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute – designed to fit seamlessly into existing curricula and used throughout the school year.

“America’s 250th birthday is an opportunity to educate and reconnect around our nation’s timeless founding principles, like liberty, equality, and justice,” said Bill of Rights Institute President and CEO David Bobb. “Through the Civic Star Challenge, classrooms across America will have the support they need to celebrate this national milestone and engage in the important work of ensuring our principles endure for the next 250 years.”

Building Community Among iCivics Educators

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

On June 25, 2025, we were excited to host our second annual iCivics Educator Convening and bring together 64 educators in San Diego, California. For the second year in a row, this event was hosted in partnership with California’s Power of Democracy Civic Learning Initiative, sponsored by Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, to bring equity to civic learning across the state of California by connecting courts with educators. The participants represented 14 states across the country and came together excited to learn, build community, and inspire each other. Throughout the day, they grappled with topics such as youth voice, advocacy, elementary civics, civics projects, using games in the classroom, inquiry, and media and information literacy.

As San Diego Superior Court Presiding Judge Maureen Hallahan said, “Our court hosts a wide variety of programs and events for San Diego-based students and teachers. So for us to be able to open our doors for a national convening, to see my courtroom turn into a classroom, that makes me proud. And I can see that our outreach staff is proud of what they were able to accomplish here.”

Educators from California and abroad had wonderful takeaways from the day:

  • “I’m not a history instructor, so I used to think it was all about regurgitating random facts. I came because I hoped to find intersection with my work with service learning, and, just as I hoped, there are lots of ways civic engagement ties into service work. I am so appreciative of the workshops, time to meet other practitioners and positive energy around student voice and engagement. The student panel was refreshing and welcomed.” -Germaine J., California
  • “I didn’t really know anything about civics and how to get started- I am a first year teacher and have felt so overwhelmed this past year, now I feel more capable and have a deeper understanding of how to begin my year.” -Olivia J., California
  • “It was amazing to be able to connect with other high school, middle school, and elementary teachers across the United States,” he said. “I met some people who are from Texas—not very far from me—we’re already thinking about collaborating and finding ways. It was a very, very good experience for me, and I’ll definitely participate again.” -Toyosi S., Texas

The program kept educators captivated throughout the afternoon with an interactive general session about legal topics hosted by a panel of Justices including Justice David Rubin and San Diego Superior Court Judges Carolyn Caietti, Ana España, Marissa Bejarano, and Justice José Castillo and a special surprise visit from California Chief Justice Patrcia Guerrero.

The entire convening was a huge success and only made possible by the collaboration between the amazing Power of Democracy staff and the iCivics team.

Written by Natacha Scott

As the Director of Educator Engagement at iCivics, Natacha focuses on growing the engagement of educators in-person and virtually through professional development sessions, curriculum, and other experiences. Prior to joining iCivics, Natacha was an educator at Boston Public Schools for 14 years, serving in various roles from elementary classroom teacher to the district K-12 Director for History and Social Studies. She is passionate about place-based learning and engaging educators in meaningful learning experiences that can immediately translate into the classroom.

iCivics Educator Network Grows Elementary Representation

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

The iCivics Educator Network has increased its elementary representation by nearly 48% this year, the highest level of elementary participation the Educator Network has seen. This growth reflects iCivics’ ongoing efforts to build out its elementary offerings, like the Private i History Detectives curriculum and iCivics Readers.

The Educator Network is made up of about 350 civics, history, government, and social studies teachers—now including 31 elementary educators (nearly double the representation of previous years)—who serve as champions and ambassadors for high-quality, equitable civic education. 

“The iCivics Educator Network is a professional community of the best social studies and civics teachers who are building a movement to reinstate the civic mission of schools in every corner of this country—and that includes elementary educators,” said Natacha Scott, iCivics Director of Educator Engagement. “It is so important to start civic education at a young age, and we are excited to see more elementary teachers learning about iCivics and joining the Educator Network to begin building civic values in students early on.”

The Educator Network enables teachers to share best practices in civics and social studies, playing a key role in helping to empower students to engage as citizens in this country’s constitutional democracy, now and in the future. It provides opportunities for teachers to network with their peers, take part in focus groups, beta test new games and products, engage in special professional development opportunities, and build their voices as advocates for high-quality history and civic education.

Since it was founded in 2011, many iCivics Educator Network members have become some of the most prominent voices from the field advocating for civic education through the opportunities that the network provides. They are permanent fixtures as speakers at prestigious education conferences, routinely appear in both national and local media, and are recognized as excelling in the classroom.

“The iCivics Educator Network not only helped me develop best practices for teaching civics and government, but has allowed me to collaborate with educators from across the country,” said Michael Martirone, a high school social studies teacher in New Jersey and an Educator Network member since 2016. “I’ve had the opportunity to engage in meaningful pedagogical conversations, share civics resources, and seek new perspectives about my content matter—all of which has made me a better teacher for my students.”

The iCivics Educator Network includes educators with a variety of talents, interests, and teaching histories representing a diversity of grade levels K–12, geographic areas, and personal demographics. This year’s cohort saw an increase in educators from urban and “red” areas, as well as more educators who are earlier in their careers.

“We want the Educator Network to reflect the diverse experiences of teachers across the country,” said Scott. “We want to know how the educator in rural Kansas is teaching about due process; we want to know how the educator in a purple area balances teaching about elections. Sharing our stories is the best way for us to learn from each other and strengthen our mission to make civic education a nationwide priority.”

For more information about the iCivics Educator Network, and to find out how you can apply to be a part of the next cohort, visit https://vision.icivics.org/get-involved/educators/

Teaching the Importance of Civic Participation

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

“Raise your hand if you are eligible to vote.”

Only a few hands went up, but there were some confused looks. 

“Raise your hand if you know when you vote.”

More confused looks.

“Where you vote.” 

The more questions I asked my senior Government students about the voting process, the more bewildered faces I saw. Students looked around to see if anyone knew the answers to my questions, but no one did. I have been teaching for 15 years (13 in my current district), and every year I get the same responses, the same confused looks. 

These students are about to become adults, but many have no idea how or when to participate in one of the most fundamental acts of citizenship: voting.

At some point, it hit me—who is actually teaching students how to make their voices heard? There are classes on calculus, literature, culinary, personal finance, automotive technology, and numerous others where students learn valuable skills, but where is the class on voting and civic participation? Where’s the guide for becoming an active, informed participant in our democracy?

For Texas, it’s in your Government class. Those skills are covered in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Standards Chapter 113, Subchapter C, sections (d)13 and (d)14. My students do not arrive with an innate understanding of how they can participate in our democracy. It is my job to assist them in ways they can engage with their government and the voting process. 

Historically, youth voter participation has been extremely low in comparison to voter turnout in other age groups. It’s a trend that we teach in our classes. As the educators of these young voters, we have the opportunity to increase their level of engagement in their own democratic government, which relies so heavily on citizen participation.

In order to accomplish this, I have spoken to election officials within my county to ensure that I was up to date on election codes regarding high school voter registration, as well as received guidelines from the Texas Secretary of State. One year, I partnered up with a student group I led and, together, we created a presentation for their peers. They created a program to present to their senior class in the auditorium. They discussed voter registration requirements, upcoming election timelines with sample ballots, and ways to research offices and candidates on nonpartisan websites. At the end, we had a balloon drop! It was so much fun, and I was so happy to see the students invested and developing lifelong civic participation habits.

I’ve also used resources like the iCivics game, Cast Your Vote, which is very impactful regarding the burden a citizen faces in a democracy in the quest to become an informed voter. And I’ve used the lesson plan, Voting: Will You Do it?, as an icebreaker. I have found that students engage more when they are given agency within the assignment or task, as well as understanding the purpose or the “why.”

Democracy cannot function without citizen participation. My goal is for students to understand how crucial their participation is if they want their government to reflect their beliefs and needs. I bring up examples where students were able to bring about change by getting involved. The purpose of this is for my students to understand that there are no gatekeepers to the government or creating change.

Written by Brittany Marrs

Brittany Marrs is a National Board Certification candidate and veteran social studies educator with over a decade of experience teaching Government, AP Macroeconomics, and Dual Credit courses at Magnolia High School in Texas. A passionate advocate for civic education, she serves as an Ambassador for the iCivics Educator Network, a member of the National Constitution Center’s Teacher Advisory Council, Association of Texas Professional Educators, and Texas Community College Teachers. She also served on the Social Studies TEKS Streamlining Committee for Government and Economics. At Magnolia High School, Brittany serves as the Senior Class Faculty Sponsor. She is also a College Board AP Macroeconomics Reader and an active member of several community organizations, committed to equipping students with the knowledge and tools to become informed and engaged citizens.

Through the iCivics Educator Network, the perspectives of teachers across the country contribute to the public conversation about civic education in the United States. Each contributor represents their own opinion. We welcome this plurality of perspectives.

Student Choice, Real Decisions: Why I Use Brief the Chief

Posted on by Sophie Gordon

There’s something powerful about putting students in the driver’s seat of history. When students play iCivics’ Brief the Chief, they get to help real presidents make real decisions that shaped our nation.

In this game, students take on the role of presidential advisors, guiding Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Lyndon Johnson through high-stakes moments in American history. Unlike a worksheet, choosing the right “answer” isn’t the point here. This learning game focuses on asking good questions, thinking critically, and making tough calls under pressure.

For example, if a student chooses Abraham Lincoln, they might need to decide whether or not to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. They can interview his Secretary of State, a military leader, or other advisors to figure out the risks and rewards. With Jefferson, students might dig into trade policy with Haiti or the importance of securing the Port of New Orleans. And if they pick LBJ, they’ll confront civil rights issues or help him decide whether to run for re-election.

What I love most is how into it the students get. The game helps them take notes, but I like to encourage students to keep their own notebook to organize their thoughts and lock in the learning. I love when students share their experiences and their decision-making strategies with their classmates. Sometimes they’ll debate what was the best move in each scenario. Even the quiet kids come alive and explain their learning as I wander the classroom and get down on their level to check in.

And because students get so much choice, the game is different each time they play. Students choose which president to advise, which challenge to tackle, and how they spend their time. The gaming is fun and the learning is rich. They’re doing history, but also practicing evidence-based reasoning, decision making, and critical thinking.

For teachers considering Brief the Chief, give your students some background knowledge before they play. It helps slow them down and take the reading seriously. Encourage note-taking and make sure they interview everyone. Definitely use the Extension Pack which includes lesson plans, slides, and handouts. (What a time-saver!) And don’t skip the post-game reflection! That’s where some of the best connections happen.

If you’re looking for a way to bring energy and real-world thinking into your civics or history class, Brief the Chief is a win. It’s interactive, meaningful, and gives students a chance to lead. And honestly, students deserve a chance to shape history as they’re learning it!

Written by Christian Wrabley

Christian Wrabley is an award-winning civics and American history educator with over a decade of classroom experience. He is a member of the iCivics Educator Network and contributed to some fun work with the Design Squad. As a National Constitution Center Constitutional Fellow and a PBS Digital Innovator All-Star, he blends innovative teaching with real-world civic engagement. Christian has created national resources for PBS, WQED, and Junior Scholastic, and is a founding member of Pennsylvania’s Democracy Bowl. His work inspires students to lead, think critically, and participate in democracy long before they’re old enough to vote. Christian lives in Johnstown, PA, with his wife and three kids.

Through the iCivics Educator Network, the perspectives of teachers across the country contribute to the public conversation about civic education in the United States. Each contributor represents their own opinion. We welcome this plurality of perspectives.