Politics & Government

Home // Politics & Government

Politics & Government

Politics & Government (P&G) is the study of the role power plays regulating citizens, nations, and society.

Game Theory

You Have To See It To Believe It

Pictionary is a drawing game that leaves players speechless. It doesn’t favor artists or scholars, but instead small groups who synchronize their minds to accomplish the same goals. But how does that happen? Why? And with whom do you play?

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Context

What’s Your Intention?

Columbus made landfall on a few Caribbean islands in 1492. There he met a few Native nations, noting they seemed submissive. Two centuries later, the combined population of North & South American Native nations, estimated to have been over 60 million, had declined by over 80%. Meanwhile, European agents were moving tens of millions of Africans to the Americas. Who? Where? How? And why?

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Perspective

Lockstep

Fighting a war is hard work! Then again, forging a nation from scratch and creating a government to run it are two completely different tasks. How did the 13 colonies pull it off? Perspective helps us explore how the Framers imagined a new way to live in community; a highly orchestrated approach that practically ensured our freedom.

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Change

Federalists: For the Win

Between 1786-87, Shay’s Rebellion rocked the newly formed United States, exposing the weaknesses of our first government, the Articles of Confederation. Whereby 4,000 farmers in rural Massachusetts, broke and busted, struggled under mounting debt. Many Framers stood by--watching, their hands tied--wanting to solve the crisis' underlying issues. Clearly, something had to change.

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Conflict

Abomination

Tariffs are taxes, sometimes tools, sometimes weapons, that governments might add to imports. For Southern states swimming in sugar and capitalized on cotton—two commodities based on enslaved labor—tariffs threatened to put an end to duty-free shopping. For Northern states that would aim to compete against Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution, tariffs were the first step toward innovation.

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download

Pre-Game Booklets For All 10 Jams

Game Theory

Context

Perspective

Change

Conflict

Rights

Cooperation

Connection

Trust

Creativity

Rights

This Land Was Made for You & Me

The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo marked the US’ victory over Mexico, plus payment for vast regions of the American West—from Texas to California. Next, Congress struggled to determine which new states carved from those areas would accept slavery, and which would ban it. But was slavery the driving issue in the West?

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Cooperation

Ain't I A Woman

When trying to create a more perfect union, is it more important to meet in the middle, or go for the win? In this JAM, students put the Supreme Court decision, Dred Scott v. Sanford, into context with the dual lens of race and gender. Because for some people, at some point, compromise isn't an option.

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Connection

14, 15

After the Civil War, the federal government had to step in to help the South rebuild. Except this wasn’t reconstruction; it was new construction. A chance to connect with our shared humanity, starting with the four cornerstones that support any democratic republic: natural laws, civics and civility, universal education, and entrepreneurship.

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Trust

Compromise of 1877

Reconstruction ended in 1877. Next, Southern states regained their autonomy and began sidestepping the 14th and 15th Amendments by unleashing segregationist laws. This begs the question, how do we live as one nation when we cannot trust every state to abide by the same federal laws, let alone the spirit of the law?

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download
Creativity

Bridges

When the Framers imagined the risks and rewards of constitutional government, they had to know states would buck the federal government when it suited them to do so. But did they imagine a little girl from Louisiana would be the one to show 'em how to tighten the reins?

Read More
  • Grades 4-5
  • 50 Minutes
Download