This document outlines a 10th grade social studies project where students will explore how citizens impact government policy through protests and civic engagement. It provides learning objectives, requirements, and a 7-step process for the project. Students will create a multimedia presentation analyzing how the Bill of Rights protects current movements and protests, while incorporating information on a local protest. They will research citizenship rights, duties, and responsibilities to create an organizational chart.

1. How citizens impact government and policy
10th grade Social Studies project

2.  One of the greatest benefits to the Constitution and Bill of
Rights is that they are living documents. In this project
students will explore their development to discover why
they were created and how they still provide the basic
elements of freedom to all U.S. citizens. In this project
students will answer the questions “How does the Bill of
Rights protect current movements such as the Tea Party?”
and “Will it allow them to do anything or are some
restrictions in place?” Students will create a multimedia
presentation and post their presentations in an on-line
format to explain their evaluation of the
questions. Students must also include information on a
local protest, peaceful or not peaceful, to provide in their
presentation.

3.  Students will be able to explain how the interactions of
citizens with one another help monitor and influence
government policy.
 Students will be able to explain how the interactions of
citizens with one another help monitor and influence
government policy.

4.  Students will be able to summarize the characteristics of
United States citizenship and evaluate responsibilities,
duties, privileges and rights of United States citizens.
 Students will create a chart of their own design that
lists the characteristics of citizenship under the
headings: duties, privileges, responsibilities and rights.

5.  Students will be able to analyze and evaluate the United
States Constitution and the Bill of Rights; describe and
measure the challenges faced by the new United States
government.
 Students must incorporate into their multimedia
presentation evidence of at least one protest/movement
that has impacted government policy.

6.  Students will gain knowledge of
 U.S. Constitution
 U.S. Bill of Rights
 Historical Protests
 Right to Peaceable Assembly
 Students will be able to
 Create a multimedia presentation.
 Properly conduct Internet research.
 Work effectively as a group.
 Properly cite sources.
 Properly create a chart labeling the rights, duties,
responsibilities and privileges of citizens.
 Answer the question “How do citizens change
government/policy through peaceable assembly?”

7.  Step 1
 The instructor will introduce students to the
topic. Students will be broken up into groups, and each
group will be given copies of all of the rubrics and other
project information. The instructor will go over all of
the information with students, so they know what is
expected of them. During this step groups will have
time to organize and assign roles.

8.  Step 2
 The class will then be given a lesson on the duties,
privileges, rights and responsibilities of being a good
citizen. Some topics that should specifically be included
in this lesson should be voting, jury duty, taxes, and the
responsibility of keeping up with government affairs. In
this lesson the instructor will go over with students how
to properly create an organizational chart. Students will
then create a chart that lists duties, privileges, rights and
responsibilities. They will be responsible for providing
examples of each of the four subjects. Students may use
the Internet to research the aspects of citizenship to
help them with their chart.

9.  Step 3
 Students will be given a portion of class times to
conduct research and work on their project. They will
also have to work outside of class to complete the
project. Students should be given at least one entire
class period to conduct their research.

10.  Step 4
 Each group must turn in a rough draft of their project on a
date selected by the instructor, so the instructor can check for
errors, make sure that students are properly citing sources in
projects, and make sure progress is being made. The
instructor will provide feedback to each group on their
project. Students should submit their rough draft to the
instructor within two to three days after their final class
period to conduct research on the project. The instructor
should have feedback to students within three days after all
rough drafts have been submitted. The instructor should
then allow students at least three days to correct any errors
found in the projects before students should be required to
post their presentations.

11.  Step 5
 Students will post their multimedia presentation on-
line. Students must also provide a final copy of the
presentation to the instructor. The instructor will use
the presentation rubric to grade each presentation.

12.  Step 6
 Each student will be responsible for filling out a self
evaluation and a group evaluation on each of their group
members. This will allow the instructor to see if there
are conflicting reports about people’s contribution.

13.  Step 7
 Each student will be given their grade. Each group will
be given time to get together to view the feedback given
to them by the instructor.

14.  Buck Institute for Education. What is Project Based
Learning (PBL)? Retrieved from:
http://www.bie.org/about/what_pbl
 Edutopia. 5 Keys to Rigorous Project Based Learning.
Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/video/5-
keys-ri
 West Virginia Department of Education. Teach 21
Project Based Learning. Retrieved from:
http://wveis.k12.wv.us/teach21/public/project/Guide.c
fm?upid=3731&tsele1=4&tsele2=110