How do we develop citizen participation? Citizen activism was crucial in forcing governmental response to cultural disasters such as gun violence (like at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School), the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Rhode Island students who sued claiming a right to civic education.
This session features Pennsylvania teacher Jennifer Cody who has included student selected civic projects in her curriculum for years and Tilly Robinson, a high school senior who recently testified in front of the Indiana legislature in opposition to a bill that would restrict what’s taught in Indiana’s K-12 classrooms. The session’s moderator is Elizabeth Osborn, Director of Education at the Indiana University Center on Representative Government, developer of the free civics interactive Engaging Congress.
The Center is developing, with funding from the Library of Congress, a new free interactive app: Action Citizen. Action Citizen develops inquiry skills and culminates with a civic action project. Attendees will get a sneak preview of Action Citizen as they gather data, make observations, and pose questions through a primary source analysis related to the environment. These materials work well with individual/group work or in person/virtual learning and easily accommodate strategies for inclusion of all learners.
