Focus (or Guiding) Questions:

How do national and international political affairs, environmental crises, health crises, and social needs affect the Presidency and our national life?

What is civic responsibility?

What role do third parties and special interest groups play in the election of a President and national political life?

Know:

The Constitutional duties of a President

How social and environmental events, among others, affect the Presidency and national life.

The impact of third parties and special interest groups on our national political life.

Do:

In small groups of 3-4, conduct through research on a particular President, with a particular focus on how outside forces, both national and international, affect the administration of each.

Create and present an audio-visual project for each President (Gerald R. Ford through the present) that succinctly outlines the major events of their terms of office and the crises they faced both within the nation and in the global community. 

Develop a community service project related to the local election process.

Step 1: Inform students that this segment of the instructional year will be the development of a culminating project that will showcase what they have learned through the process of research and disseminating information.  In other words, this is their time to teach!  In addition, inform students that they will create a community service learning project related to the local election process.  Divide the class into seven teams to conduct research on the Presidents of the U.S. from Gerald R. Ford through Barack H. Obama.

Gerald Rudolph Ford

James Earl Carter, Jr.

Ronald Wilson Reagan

George Herbert Walker Bush

William Jefferson Clinton

George Walker Bush

Barack Hussein Obama

Helsinki Accords

Mayaguez

National Energy Act

OPEC

Andrew Young

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

realpolitik

Panama Canal

SALT II

mujahideen

Camp David Accords

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Iran hostage crisis

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

Earth Day (1970)

EPA – Environmental Protection Agency

Three Mile Island

New Right

conservative coalition

Moral Majority

supply-side economics

SDI – Strategic Defense Initiative

trickle-down theory

Sandra Day O’Conner

AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Roe v. Wade

A Nation at Risk

ERA – Equal Rights Amendment

INF Treaty

Berlin Wall

Tiananmen Square

Sandanistas versus Contras

Iran-Contra scandal

Persian Gulf War

Operation Desert Storm

September 11, 2001

NAFTA – North American Free Trade Agreement

Contract with America

Election of 2000 dispute

Ralph Nader and the Green Party

GATT – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

Internet

Telecommunications Act of 1996

ISS – International Space Station

Human Genome Project

genetic engineering

MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging

urban flight

Proposition 187

War on Terrorism

Step 1: Inform students that this segment of the instructional year will be the development of a culminating project that will showcase what they have learned through the process of research and disseminating information.  In other words, this is their time to teach!  In addition, inform students that they will create a community service learning project related to the local election process.  Divide the class into seven teams to conduct research on the Presidents of the U.S. from Gerald R. Ford through Barack H. Obama.

Step 2: Divide the class into seven teams to conduct research on the Presidents of the U.S. from Gerald R. Ford through Barack H. Obama.  The teams will research each one of the terms, focusing on a variety of issues that Presidents had to address as the nation’s leader including: industrialization, urbanization, immigration, education, health care, epidemics/pandemics, environmental concerns, terrorism, social upheaval, and any other pertinent notable events or crises at home or abroad.

Step 3: Using copies of the U.S. Constitution, provide a review the responsibilities and powers of the President.

Step 4: Instruct students to carefully review the following Academic Vocabulary list as those people, events, and/or ideas affected the presidency of the leader they have been assigned.  Please point out that the list is not exhaustive, and they will find additional items to include in their presentation.  Copies of a current U.S. history text would also be helpful to serve as a guide and outline of the events and times.  Point out that one of the objectives is to identify how third parties play a significant role in political life and how civic-minded citizens impact the political process and national life for good or ill in our democratic republic.

Step 5: Having scheduled a computer lab well in advance for this culminating project, direct students as they begin their research, meeting several times with each team to ensure they are on target with their project and are not missing any key elements.  This will require a lot of guidance on the part of the instructor as you help students sort out the essential and nonessential information to produce a quality audio-visual project utilizing either a PowerPoint or Movie Maker format (or another audio-visual format of your choice).

Step 6: If there are an abundance of students in your class, assign one team to develop a community service project of their choice related to local politics.  One idea may be to create a community forum that will bring together local elected officials and grass roots organizations to address a particular community issue, provide a round table discussion for future community development, or to debate a particular issue.  Students would need to plan, coordinate, and develop ways to effectively advertise the event to the community at large well in advance of the scheduled forum. 

Conduct extensive research on a particular President and the events that unfolded during his term of office.

Produce a quality audio-visual project to disseminate the above research.

Develop a community service project related to the local political process.

This module is designed to be the culminating project for the eleventh grade student.  After participation in the projects, students will have analyzed and evaluated the importance of the role of the U.S. President, the impact of a variety of forces that affect the presidency, the importance of engaging in the political life of the nation, and the consideration of defending positions on American interests, values, and principles as a citizen of the United States.

This module is designed to correlate and support all of the modules for the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grades as it builds and adds strength to the student’s  knowledgebase related to U.S. history, civic-mindedness, and global awareness on a broad variety of interconnected issues.