Engaging Congress vs Investigation Declaration

Engaging Congress is a game that uses primary source documents, photographs, political cartoons, maps, and other items to explore the challenges of sustaining representative democracy in our complex and diverse nation today. Features: - Introductory Video - Theme-based Stories - Primary Source Gallery - Primary Source Analysis - Trivia Challenge - Assessment Tools - Mini-games... ...More Engaging Congress content is divided into five thematic stories: - More Equal Than Others (Influencing the Political Process) - Laws and Sausages (Separation of Powers) - Vote Early, Vote Often (Voting Rights) - A Balancing Act (The Federal Budget) - Fair is not Always Equal (Federalism and States' Rights) The accompanying Engaging Congress website (engagingcongress.org) contains many additional resources including: - The Teacher Toolbox - Curriculum Guide - Correlation of content with Social Studies standards - Bank of multiple-choice and discussion assessment questions - Links to Library of Congress primary source analysis guides - Downloadable PDFs and PNGs of all primary source documents - And more.

"An international crime of epic proportions has occurred. Members of a global crime ring, Baddies Against Rights & Freedom (B.A.R.F. for short), have hacked the most elite of institutions… the Bureau of Ideas! B.A.R.F. aims to destroy any and all files related to freedom, democracy, and rights. As Secret Agent 6, you will travel across time and the Atlantic world to investigate records that connect Enlightenment to the United States Declaration of Independence and beyond. Find how ideas have spread, track evidence of natural rights, state sovereignty, and the Social Contract, and restore the corrupted files. Game Features: - Multiple paths to completion: track Natural Rights, State Sovereignty, the Social Contract, or complete them all! - Explore 10 locations across the Atlantic world to collect evidence and connect. - Historical scenes enhanced by a narrative and rich material culture. - Mad-lib style activity links locations based on the evidence you collect along the way. For English Language Learners: This game offers a support tool, Spanish translation, English voiceover, and glossary. Teachers: Visit the iCivics """"teach"""" page to check out classroom resources for Investigation Declaration! Learning Objectives: - Track a set of Enlightenment ideas that inspired and followed the Declaration of Independence, particularly between 1750 and 1850. - Draw ideological cause-and-effect connections between historical events. - Identify and define the concepts of natural rights, the Social Contract, and state sovereignty. - Understand the roles of time and geography in the spread of ideas. - Describe methods by which ideas were transmitted during this time period: trade, written communications, migration, and print. - Become familiar with ideas, people, locations, and events that influenced declarations of rights and freedoms during this time period. Made in partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation "