INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
Aims:
• You need to investigate the composition of BOTH chambers in the 116th Congress.
• You need to;
find and analyse statistics
assess if Congress is representative
examine whether Congress
should be a microcosm of society
• You can work individually or collaboratively.
• You should present your findings in a visually appealing manner on a single document (see example on reverse for 115th Congress).
Categories:
• Socio-economic background
• Age
• Race and ethnicity
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Disabilities
• Gender
Learning Objectives
To identify the shared and exclusive powers of the Senate and the House of Representatives
To analyse the examples of these
To evaluate the extent to which the chambers of Congress are equal
Learning Objectives
To describe the legislative process
To explain the complexities of the legislative process and the factors that can affect it, including partisanship and bipartisanship
To evaluate the extent to which the filibuster is still a useful legislative tool
A lesson and set of resources introducing constitutional and areas of constitutional reform in the UK - can be divided among pupils to study and feedback to class or compiled as a revision resource or used as flashcards.
Lesson introducing the constitutional amendments with examples of amendments approved by Congress and not approved by Congress - could be used in conjunction with articles on a wedge issue e.g. flag burning
Lesson examining the roles and functions of Congress, and how well Congress fulfils them - encouraging analysis of the efficacy of the US legislative brance
Lesson examining the powers of the president, range of notes/articles can be used to support a more in depth understanding of the powers of the president.
Hunt for example activity has been completed in this version, however can not show pupils and have them construct their own example bank from independent research.
Lesson examining the roles, functions and significance of the US cabinet and Executive Office of the President. *May need to be updated to keep up to date with cabinet changes!*