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ICivics
iCivics, Inc. (formerly Our Courts) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States that provides educational online games and lesson plans to promote civics education and encourage students to become active citizens. iCivics was founded in 2009 by retired Supreme Court of the United States Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. iCivics's stated mission is to “ensure every student receives a high-quality civic education, and becomes engaged in – and beyond – the classroom.” iCivics, inc. is supported by private donations and grants and had annual expenses of $2.2 million in 2015. Among the top contributors were the Gates Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.iCivics, Inc. (2016). ''iCivics Annual Report 2015''. Retrieved from https://www.icivics.org/sites/default/files/annual_report_2015.pdf In the same year, iCivics served more than 85,000 educators and 3 million students, including half of all middle school social studies classrooms in America. History Justice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and the first confirmed to the court. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered the swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first five months of the Roberts Court. Prior to O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was a judge and an elected official in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. On July 1, 2005, she announced her intention to retire effective upon the confirmation of a successor. Samuel Alito was nominated to take her seat in October 2005 and joined the Court on January 31, 2006. O'Connor most frequently sided with the Court's conservative bloc but dem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filament Games
Filament Games is an American educational video game developer based in Madison, Wisconsin and founded in 2005 by partners Daniel White, Daniel Norton, and Alexander Stone. They are a design and production studio specializing in the creation of authentic gameplay mechanics that are also accurate representations of educational content. By actively embedding learning objectives within game activities, Filament's games help players transform their play experience into real world knowledge. Philosophy Filament's design philosophy is closely based on the scholarship of Kurt Squire, Constance Steinkuehler, and James Paul Gee, who pioneered much of the research about the value of games as teaching tools. Filament is also a close affiliate of the annual Games Learning and Society Conference. History The company received national recognition for their series of civics games launched by Sandra Day O'Connor for iCivics, her civics-education initiative. These games include ''Do I Have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civics
Civics is the study of the rights and obligations of citizens in society. The term derives from the Latin word ''civicus'', meaning "relating to a citizen". The term relates to behavior affecting other citizens, particularly in the context of urban development. Civic education is the study of the theoretical, political and practical aspects of citizenship, as well as its rights and duties. It includes the study of civil law and civil codes, and the study of government with attention to the role of citizens―as opposed to external factors―in the operation and oversight of government. The term can also refer to a ''corona civica'', a garland of oak leaves worn about the head like a crown, a practice in ancient Rome wherein someone who saved another Roman citizen from death in war was rewarded with a ''corona civica'' and the right to wear it. Philosophical views Ancient Sparta Archidamus In his '' History of the Peloponnesian War'', Thucydides ascribes a speech to Arc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Various researchers emphasize the role of critical thinking in order to distinguish education from indoctrination. Some theorists require that education results in an improvement of the student while others prefer a value-neutral definition of the term. In a slightly different sense, education may also refer, not to the process, but to the product of this process: the mental states and dispositions possessed by educated people. Education originated as the transmission of cultural heritage from one generation to the next. Today, educational goals increasingly encompass new ideas such as the liberation of learners, skills needed for modern society, empathy, and complex vocational skills. Types of education are commonly divided int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boys & Girls Clubs Of America
Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization, which holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, has its headquarters in Atlanta, with regional offices in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, New York City and Los Angeles. BGCA is tax-exempt and partially funded by the federal government. History The first Boys' Club was founded in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, by three women, Elizabeth Hamersley and sisters Mary and Alice Goodwin. In 1906, 53 independent Boys' Clubs came together in Boston to form a national organization, the Federated Boys' Clubs. In 1931, the organization renamed itself Boys' Clubs of America, and in 1990, to Boys & Girls Clubs of America. As of 2010, there are over 4,000 autonomous local clubs, which are affiliates of the national organization. In total these clubs serve more than four million boys and girls. Clubs can be fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitutional Convention (United States)
The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new Frame of Government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington of Virginia, former commanding general of the Continental Army in the late American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and proponent of a stronger national government, to become President of the convention. The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States, placing the Convention among the most significant events in American history. The convention took place in the old Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. At the time, the convention ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State Of The Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current condition of the nation. The State of the Union Address generally includes reports on the nation's budget, economy, news, agenda, achievements and the president's priorities and legislative proposals. The address fulfills the requirement in Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution for the president to periodically "give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." During most of the country's first century, the president primarily submitted only a written report to Congress. After 1913, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, began the regular practice of delivering the address to Congress in person as a way to rally sup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Bill Of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and Magna Carta (1215). Largely because of the efforts of Representative James Madison, who studied the deficiencies of the Constitution pointed out by ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Security Council
A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a national security advisor and staffed with senior-level officials from military, diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement and other governmental bodies. The functions and responsibilities of an NSC at the strategic state level are different from those of the United Nations Security Council, which is more of a diplomatic forum. Occasionally a nation will be ruled by a similarly named body, such as "the National Security Committee" or "Council for National Security". These bodies are often a result of the establishment or preservation of a military dictatorship (or some other national crisis), do not always have statutory approval, and are usually intended to have transitory or provisional powers. See also: coup d'état. Some nations may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persuasive Writing
Persuasive writing is any written communication with the intention to convince or influence readers to believe in an idea or opinion and to do an action. Many writings such as criticisms, reviews, reaction papers, editorials, proposals, advertisements, and brochures use different ways of persuasion to influence readers. Persuasive writing can also be used in indoctrination. It is a form of non-fiction writing the writer uses to develop logical arguments, making use of carefully chosen words and phrases. But, it's believed that some literature rooted in a fiction genre could also be intended as persuasive writings. Common techniques in persuasive writing Presenting strong evidence, such as facts and statistics, statements of expert authorities, and research findings, establishes credibility and authenticity. Readers will more likely be convinced to side with the writer's position or agree with their opinion if it is backed up by verifiable evidence. Concrete, relevant, and reasona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Paul Gee
James Gee (; born April 15, 1948) is a retired American researcher who has worked in psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, and literacy. Gee most recently held the position as the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University, originally appointed there in the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education. Gee has previously been a faculty affiliate of the Games, Learning, and Society group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a member of the National Academy of Education. Biography James Paul Gee was born in San Jose, California. He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara and both his M.A. and Ph.D in linguistics from Stanford University. He started his career in theoretical linguistics, working in syntactic and semantic theory, and taught initially at Stanford University and later in the School of Language and Communication at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals could improve individual outcomes in education. The Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills. To receive federal school funding, states had to give these assessments to all students at select grade levels. The act did not assert a national achievement standard—each state developed its own standards. NCLB expanded the federal role in public education through further emphasis on annual testing, annual academic progress, report cards, and teacher qualifications, as well as significant changes in funding. While the bill faced challenges from both Democrats and Republicans, it passed in both chambers of the legislature with signific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
