View All Lesson Plans – Inquiry Teaching

A Simulation of Congress

Drew Story — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:25:31 +0000

Regarding Current Events: We recognize that our democracy is under incredible stress today, and that the majority of Americans think Congress is a broken institution. With the release of this product, we hope that teachers can show students how the Legislative Branch is supposed to function. With this inquiry based learning, students will also be better equipped to consider what reforms might improve and enhance this part of our government.

We have spent decades working on our Simulation of Congress. This set of materials provides teachers with directions, resources, and guides to run a complete simulation of the House of Representatives. Our students have often considered this simulation to be one of the highlights of their school year! The learning is deep, and often quite meaningful to students. As teachers, we also enjoyed this unit more than any other.

Way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we created Version 1 of this simulation using Apple’s HyperCard program. Our Simulation of Congress Version 1 had 100+ fictitious Members of Congress for students to portray, a tool for writing bills, the ability to randomly select the Members to be assigned, and other features that only a software program could provide. We sold a great many licenses for this software. However, when teaching US Government classes ourselves, we found having our students portray the real members of Congress was better and as online resources became readily available for researching Members and their districts, students learned additional skills. All of the materials you will find in Version 2 of our product are improvements we’ve made over the past 25.

The Simulation of Congress Version 2 comes with our Analyzing Congress Database Activity which should be used as one of the preliminary lessons. There’s no need to purchase this additional lesson plan separately.

Subject Areas: Government, Civics, Social Sciences, Humanities
Materials Required: Printed copies of the materials we provide, recordings of CSPAN segments or Internet access to stream them. For the Analyzing Congress activity: A virtual classroom or other screen sharing tool, or a large screen display with a computer.
Time Needed: Typically 5 to 7 weeks with five hour long class periods per week or a similar block schedule.

Below is an image showing the suggested scheduling of lessons and activities one could use with this unit:

Propaganda Techniques – Concept Attainment

Drew Story — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 23:51:50 +0000

This lesson is intended to teach students how to differentiate between ten different propaganda techniques:

Bandwagon
Repetition
Transfer
Testimonial
Exigency
Glittering Generality
Card-Stacking
Innuendo
Snob Appeal
Just Plain Folks

This is useful instruction in most Social Studies and we use it with current events and a review of political speeches like the State of the Union address. Be sure to read our Teaching Guide for the Concept Attainment Strategy first as it provides the methodology and process behind this lesson's format.

Subject Areas: Social Sciences, History, Humanities, Government
Materials Required: Advertisements (easily found on YouTube) are the suggested main data set, but historical posters would work, too. Optional – whiteboard or display for posting prompts, copies of provided handout
Time Needed: Typically an entire class period

Team Building – Survival Test Role Play

Drew Story — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:05:20 +0000

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to role play two different survival tests; one being lost on the moon, the other surviving a plane crash in the desert. (We liked to use one test for one grade, and the other for another grade level.) Students attempt to rank a list of items individually, then within a team.

The ranking of these lists are then scored against an experts ranking. Teachers may then use the individual and team scoring for discussing the strengths (or weaknesses) they found in their respective teams. Good teams listen to everyone’s ideas and will (nearly) always score better than an individual alone.

These role plays are always a big hit and fun lessons for students.

Subject Areas: Any
Materials Required: Copies of handouts in packet (or means of displaying them), paper for students.
Time Needed: Typically an entire class period.

The Writing Process

Drew Story — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 19:37:51 +0000

This is a free resource and just a simple listing of “the writing process.” It is useful for introducing and reminding students that when writing, revisions and re-writing are expected and desired outcomes. Striving to have a “perfect” or final written piece is not expected but often what students first think is being asked of them.

We found this handout very useful and think you will, too. The handout is an outline of the writing process to be used with a directed discussion.

Subject Areas: All
Materials Required: Copies of provided handout, or a digital copy displayed
Time Needed: 15 – 20 minutes.

The Power of Ideas – Database Project

Drew Story — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 21:19:32 +0000

Spreadsheets are perhaps the simplest form of a database and are excellent tools for introducing students to using technology for analysis. This lesson plan provides an introduction to using databases for a research project about “idea creators” from history; famous artists, scientists, politicians, etc.

While doing research about these individuals, students will learn about filtering, sorting, and other spreadsheet commands.

Subject Areas: Any really, but ideal for History and Social Studies.
Materials Required: Virtual classroom or other screen sharing tool, or a large screen display with a computer, plus either printed or digital copies of the provided handouts.
Time Needed: Typically two to three class periods.

We’ve included everything you’ll need in a single zip archive.

Spreadsheet Basics – Learning to Analyze with Databases

Drew Story — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:09:56 +0000

Spreadsheets are perhaps the simplest form of a database and are excellent tools for introducing students to using technology for analysis. This lesson plan provides an introduction to using databases with a very simple spreadsheet that provides data about homes sold in a given area. Students will learn about filtering, sorting, and other spreadsheet commands.

Subject Areas: Any
Materials Required: Virtual classroom or other screen sharing tool, or a large screen display with a computer.
Time Needed: Typically an entire class period.

We've included everything you'll need in a single zip archive.

Analyzing Congress – Database Activity

Drew Story — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:23:13 +0000

Newly updated!

Spreadsheets are perhaps the simplest form of a database and are excellent tools for introducing students to using technology for analysis. This lesson plan centers around analysis of the current House of Representatives.

How representative of the average American is Congress?
What traits are common for current members?
What does this analysis tell us about what it takes to be a Member of the House of Representatives?

This teaching guide and lesson plan provides you with the resources to do a deep dive on current Members of the House of Representatives.

Subject Areas: Government, Civics, Social Sciences, Humanities
Materials Required: Virtual classroom or other screen sharing tool, or a large screen display with a computer.
Time Needed: Typically two to three class periods.

Special Note: This product comes with our Simulation of Congress. Buy one or the other, but not both perhaps.

(Semester) Final Projects

Drew Story — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 17:14:20 +0000

This handout is geared towards Social Studies and provides a list of six research based projects that students can choose from to create a culminating final project, working as individuals, pairs, or groups. We always let students decide how they wanted to approach this task letting them choose if they wished to work in a group or individually.

These project ideas allow for various learning styles your students have to be utilized. Additionally, the projects themselves provide good review materials for the entire class.

Subject Areas: History, Social Sciences
Materials Required: Printed handouts, other materials may be provided by the students themselves.
Time Needed: At least two full class periods, plus homework, or more in-class work days as desired.

Postcards From History

Drew Story — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 16:53:37 +0000

Sometimes a simple writing and art project can act as a closure activity for any unit. We had students create a “postcard from history” with attention to details including the drawing of the stamp, who was the card written to and/or by, in addition to what was written and drawn on the card itself. This lesson always worked well and pairs well with a quick read-around follow up. See our free Teacher’s Guide for Read Arounds if you wish to add that feature to your lesson.

This handout is created to work with any history class and includes directions for students.

Subject Areas: History, Social Sciences
Materials Required: Printed copies of the handout, colored pencils/pens/crayons.
Time Needed: Usually a full class period or as homework.

Writing Prompts – Learning Logs

Drew Story — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 15:27:15 +0000

We like to begin or end a lesson with a simple writing prompt. If at the end of the lesson, often the prompt was “What was learned today?” Having students focus their thoughts and put them into written words always aids retention and the follow up discussions were insightful and sometimes led to entire other lessons. We would refer to these writings as “Learning Logs.”

This list of over 80 writing prompts will also help stimulate lesson ideas for you. Please consider downloading our free Teacher’s Guide to Open Ended Discussions, too. It pairs well with this list.

Subject Areas: ALL, but many fit best with Social Studies
Materials Required: Optional, but a display of the prompt is helpful.
Time Needed: 15-20 minutes usually.