HSA - Government Links

Skills and Resources
Primary Sources
Supreme Court/Law links
Political Science
The Legislative Branch
The Executive Branch
The Presidential Libraries
Geography/Demographics/Land use
Regulatory Agencies
Foreign Policy/International Organizations
Economics
Maryland History and Government

Skills and Resources

http://www.thegateway.org/

This resource on the Internet is made available by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Educational Digital Library Initiative; The Gateway to Educational Materials has over 27,000 thousand lesson plans, activities, projects, and Web sites that span the curriculum. Users can browse resources, search by subject, keyword, title or grade level.

http://www.firstgov.gov/

The official Web portal of the U.S. federal government, this site offers access to more than 51 million government Web pages and is a good first step for government information. Search a wealth of state and federal government resources for helpful information and guidance. Users can choose from a directory of services for citizens, businesses and government employees. FirstGov for Kids (http://www.kids.gov) is a government interagency portal designed especially for young children.

http://edsitement.neh.fed.us/

EDSITEment (National Endowment for the Humanities)

http://www.ed.gov/free

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)

http://americanstrategy.org

American Strategy

http://www.ucomics.com

Political cartoons from over 20 of today's top cartoonists.

http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/political_cartoons.html

Political Cartoons

http://Cagle.slate.msn.com/politicalcartoons

Political Cartoons updated daily from over 90 American Editorial Cartoonists.

www.hpol.org

History and Politics Out Loud- Speeches from American History

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/news/news.html

This web site includes links under the headings: Student Current Event Resources, Online News Articles and Journals, Online Newspapers to current event articles about national and world events.

http://newslink.org/mdnews.html

Online Newspaper Links in Maryland

www.fedstats.gov

The gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies

Back to top

Primary Sources

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/

A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service sponsored web site. The Our Documents initiative is a cooperative effort among National History Day, The National Archives and Records Administration, USA Freedom Corps, and The Corporation for National and Community Service. You can download Adobe files of each document, read transcripts, access the teacher source book with lesson plans using the documents, and links to the National History Day web site.

http://www.archives.gov

The National Archives and Records Administration

The following Web sites contain additional information about primary sources and links to digitized images and documents.

http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom

The National Archives and Records Administration

The Digital classroom has links to Teaching with Documents lesson plans, copies of primary sources, links to www.ourdocuments.gov , document analysis worksheets, and details about professional development workshops offered to teachers and school systems.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/bdsdhome.html

Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention (1774-1789)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

National Security Archive

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/

The University of Oklahoma Law Center: A Chronology of US Historical Documents

Back to top

Supreme Court/Law links

http://www.oyez.org

Multimedia Database including Supreme Court Cases (searchable by Date, Subject, Title or Citation), Court Justices, A Virtual Tour of the Supreme Court, Case Lists from the Current Docket, links to www.appellate.net , and an interactive game called Oyez baseball.

http://www.landmarkcases.org

Developed by Street Law, Maryland high school teachers, law students, law professors, attorneys and the Supreme Court Historical Society. Provides lesson plans, links to oral arguments, moot court activities and other resources. All of the required Supreme Court Cases for the Government H.S.A. are included.

http://www.supremecourthistory.org/index.html

U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society web site

Links to Teacher resources, audio oral arguments, details on how the court works, Society publications and workshops for teachers and graduate students on Constitutional issues.

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/lessons/hs_equality.html

Equal protection lessons

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/ lessons/hs_jury.html

Trial by Jury lessons and links from the American Bar Association

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/ lessons/hs_dueprocess.html

Due process freedoms and human rights American Bar Association

http://www.courts.wa.gov/education/lessons/?fa=education_lessons.lphigh

Judges in the Classroom: High School Lesson Plans covering topics such as: Consumer law, contracts, Equality, Discrimination and Civil Rights, First Amendment rights, Juvenile Justice, Mock Trials, etc.

Back to top

Political Science

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/impeachments/index.html

The History Place's collection on impeachment, both the process and the history

http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/results/restable.html

Historical election results 1789-1996

http://www.vote-smart.org

This web site is a collection of easy explanations about various processes of government. Contents include: How a Bill becomes a law, information about Congress, Congressional leadership, the President, the Constitution, Elections, Campaign Finance, the Federal Budget (statistics) and State Government.

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/education/LessonPlans/index.shtml

National Constitution Center Educational Resources including lesson plans, teaching aids and events.

http://www.vote-smart.org/index.phtml

Find out where your candidates stand on issues in Maryland! This web site offers a plethora of materials and links to government web sites with statistics on elections, national, state and local elections, Congressional information, etc.

http://www.civiced.org

This is an excellent site with lessons at every grade level to answer the basic question, why do we need rules and a government? Related resources and publications are available.

Back to top

The Legislative Branch

http://www.house.gov/

U.S. House of Representatives web site-Students learn about who makes our laws and the process they go through. They can also study current laws and bills being introduced and read about the daily progress

http://www.senate.gov/

United States Senate web site-Students can visit the web pages of individual Senators or send them emails. This site is also a virtual tour of the United States Senate Building.

http://www.loc.gov/

The Library of Congress

http://thomas.loc.gov/

Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/legbranch/legbranch.html

Legislative Branch Internet Resources. Links to directories for the U.S. Congress, Legislative agencies and Commissions and legislative research sources.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html

A Century of Law Making

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/democracy/debtquest.html

This simulation encourages student team to draft letters to their Congressional representatives and senators presenting their case on how the budget should be allocated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/ articles/timeline_politics1.html

War Powers Timeline. Produced and posted by the Washington Post.

Back to top

The Executive Branch

http://www.whitehouse.gov

The White House

http://www.loc.gov/global/executive/fed.html

Official U.S. Executive Branch Web Sites. Provided by the Library of Congress with open links to the offices in the Executive Office of the President, Executive Agencies, Independent Agencies, Quasi-official Agencies, and Boards, Commissions and Committees.

http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/preshome.html

This site has a lot of information about the Presidents and their First Ladies. Some sound clips and historical documents.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pihome.html

"I do Solemnly swear" Presidential Inaugurations

http://www.usdoj.gov/kidspage/index.html

Department of Justice: Just for Kids

http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/home.html

Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History Behring Center’s web site about the American Presidency. This web site, based on their popular exhibit, provides teachers and students with interactive activities, lesson plans, resources including a Presidential timeline, photos of artifacts from the campaign trail, etc.

http://www.usais.org/

U.S.A. Immigration Services – This website helps students find out how to become a citizen of the United States. In the Green Card Lottery section, you can find out about this program, which makes 50,000 immigrant visas available each year through a lottery system. Under Visas, you can read about the difference between temporary and permanent visas and obtain the addresses of U.S. embassies.

http://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/briefhistory.html#developmentofssa

Social Security history with charts, quotes, etc…

Back to top

The Presidential Libraries

http://www.archives.gov/presidential_libraries/index.html

Presidential Libraries Main Page

http://hoover.archives.gov/education/index.html

Herbert Hoover Library

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/

Harry S. Truman Library

Project Whistlestop: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/educatio.htm

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum

http://eisenhower.archives.gov

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

http://www.jfklibrary.org

John F. Kennedy Library and Museum

(Look under "Student resources" for audio and motion clips).

http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/ (Research: online holdings)

Lyndon B. Johnson Library

http://www.ford.utexas.edu/

Gerald Ford Library (See Online Historical Materials: photographs and documents)

Back to top

Geography/Demographics/Land use

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/2kpopden.html

Map of the census data – 2000

http://factfinder.census.gov

Search this database of materials related to the U.S>. Census. Maps and Tables are available for quick reference or you can do a comprehensive search for materials relating to your region, state, county, city, etc.

http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

This website uses real census data to make population projections. Lots of graphs and maps.

http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/maps_1790to2000.html

PDF-formatted maps of the growth of cities in the United States from 1790 to 2000.

http://www.fedstats.gov/mapstats/thememaps

Site of a variety of statistical maps for the United States or any of the fifty states.

Back to top

State Issues

http://www.cfpa.org/cpa/index.cfm

This web site, sponsored by the Center for Policy Alternatives, allows users to navigate issues by state and view economic data.

http://www.mdp.state.md.us/smartintro.htm

Maryland Department of Planning web site highlighting Smart Growth. Users can use links to resources, ten principles of Smart Growth, Rural legacy maps and background, and Picture Maryland http://www.sunspot.net/ads/dnr/ .

http://dnrweb.dnr.state.md.us/smartgrowth/home.htm

Where do we grow from here? A Maryland Department of Natural Resources resource for teachers to discuss growth and its impact on Maryland.

Back to top

Regulatory Agencies

http://www2.faa.gov

Federal Aviation Administration

http://www.ftc.gov

Federal Trade Commission

http://www.fda.gov/

Food and Drug Administration

http://www.fcc.gov/

Federal Communications Commission

http://www.epa.gov/teachers

EPA website including links to Curriculum materials, workshops and conferences, and much more. Excellent resource for students and teachers to examine the various ways that government plays a part in land management issues

Back to top

Foreign Policy/International Organizations

http://www.usnewsclassroom.com/resources/activities/act030113.html

"Investigating American Foreign Policy" lesson plan with a companion article by Jay Tolson entitled "The New American Empire". Students explore the periods of U.S. Foreign policy since 1787 and the ideas that influence it.

http://www.worldbank.org/html/schools/

The World Bank's website for students and teachers

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/exrp/what.htm#box2

Purposes of the IMF

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/howlend.htm

How does the IMF lend?

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/glance.htm

IMF Fact sheet

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/center/action/eng/index.htm

The IMF in action!

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/center/quiz/mm/eng/index.htm

Monetary mania

http://www.un.org/News/

United Nations News Center with links to the UN home page http://www.un.org

http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/schools/ lessons/hs_humanrights.html

UN universal Declaration of Human Rights lesson

http://www.nato.int/

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/policy/nafta/nafta.html

North American Free Trade Agreement. This web site (sponsored by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service) contains a fact sheet and benefits of NAFTA with visuals.

http://www.citizen.org/trade/nafta/index.cfm

North American Free Trade Agreement. Public Citizen, a national non-profit public interest organization, compiled this web site devoted to a discussion of NAFTA. Students can search the Trade Adjustment Assistance database to calculate the job losses due to NAFTA by state or by company. There are also related links to documents discussing NAFTA and democracy, the environment, health, agriculture, and worker’s rights and jobs.

Back to top

Economics

http://www.kc.frb.org/fed101/indexflash.cfm

Federal Reserve today

http://www.kc.frb.org/fed101/policy/money.cfm

The FED and inflation- interactive site.

http://www.kc.frb.org/fed101/scavengerhunt

FED scavenger hunt- very cool site for teams of kids to "accept the missions" and learn about the FED.

http://www.kc.frb.org/Pubaffrs/moneystory.htm#EarlyFormsMoney

History of money

http://www.federalreserveeducation.org

The education site for the Federal Reserve

http://www.bos.frb.org/peanuts/leadpgs/intro.htm#signin

Peanuts and crackerjacks baseball game- Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

http://app.ny.frb.org/cfpicnic/frame1.cfm

Federal Reserve System's Public Information Catalog

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

Calculate the CPI ! This is a cool site to have kids check out for a homework assignment or even in class if you have access to a computer!

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock

National Debt clock

http://abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/ wnt_000308_CL_Debt_feature.html

Debt reduction- good or bad???

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/guides/kyrgyzstan/econ.html

Lesson: Kyrgyzstan's Transition from a Centrally-Planned Economy to a Market-Driven Economy

www.econedlink.org

A program sponsored by the National Council on Economic Education and provides users with links to lesson plans, and internet-based lesson materials for K-12 teachers.

www.fte.org

Foundation for Teaching Economics. This Foundation provides free teacher workshops every year on economics topic with free resources and lesson plans. The lessons and articles on economic topics can be found on their web site.

• Job jungle lesson for employment: (labor market game)
  http://www.fte.org/teachers/lessons/efl/thurs/eflthurs1.htm
• Lesson Plans:
  http://www.fte.org/teachers/lessons/lessons.htm
• Teenage Consumer Price Index project online:
  http://www.fte.org/teachers/connect/tcpi.htm

http://www.smgww.org/

Stock Market Game is an "educational program that stimulates learning about economics, finance, and the American economic system. It consists of a 10-week simulation that allows participants to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in the stock market".

http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/gang1.htm

This is a fun site for students to develop skills to understanding international exchange rates and their relationship to U.S. currency. Students trace international criminals by tracking down their credit cards.

http://www.money.org/index.shtml

Students will love learning about money that their grandparents once used. This site includes an exhibit with money and some audios.

http://www.dismal.com

Current statistics and economic analysis. Teachers can join free with a letter on school stationary.

Back to top

Maryland History and Government

http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/

Maryland State Archives

http://www.mdhs.org/index.html

Maryland Historical Society

http://www.mdhs.org/library/Z24Index.html

Maryland Historical Society's Image Collection.

http://mlis.state.md.us/

Maryland General Assembly home page. Students can search legislation by topic, bill number or by statute. Session information as well as links to the delegates contact information is available.

http://www.mec.state.md.us/

Maryland’s Electronic Capital- This web site created by the Maryland State Archives links the user to the www.maryland.gov portal and other links to the Maryland Judiciary, Governor’s office, General Assembly, Executive Agencies, and much more.

http://www.intandem.com/NewPrideSite/MD/MD_Home.html

Lesson plans from the Pride of Baltimore

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/irc/boc.html

African Americans in the Chesapeake Bay Region