School Government Projects

Students should understand how the government in their own country works, in addition to that of other countries.

Learning about the government and how it works is a very important part of a student's education. Not only should students know about how their own country works, but also how other countries function on a state level and what this means for interactions between countries. Develop projects to execute with your students to help them understand government on a deeper level.

Using Drama

Use drama in your classroom to help students learn about governments. Have your students pretend that they are the founding fathers and write a script to stage about the founding of the United States. You can also have your students act out how laws are passed in the United States, using a mix of scripted and impromptu work.

Model Conferences

Model conferences are a great way to help students learn about the interaction between countries, states or regions. Break students up into groups and ask them to pretend to be a specific region, state or country. Ask students to study the interests of that particular country or region and give the students issues to debate and agree upon. This will challenge students to think from another point of view as well as mimic the way countries interact.

Research Projects

Give students a country or state to research or have them pick the one they are most interested in researching. Ask students to use the library and the Internet to give a short oral report on the current political climate in the country and what has influenced it to be that way. How does this affect the daily lives of citizens? More advanced students can go more in depth with longer and more complex histories.

Making a Government

Divide students into groups and ask them to create their own governments. Beforehand, type out small histories of the countries and ask students to develop a government system based on the history of the country or region. Encourage other students to ask questions and challenge the ideas the students have come up with. If you'd like, have students from all of the pretend countries come together to form an alliance to solve a "global" issue.

References

• Kids.gov: Government Projects, 2011