Humanities – Inquiry Teaching https://www.inquiry-teaching.com Lesson Plans for Inquiry Based Teaching Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:01:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.inquiry-teaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/cropped-inquiry-home-v2-1-32x32.jpg Humanities – Inquiry Teaching https://www.inquiry-teaching.com 32 32 A Simulation of Congress https://www.inquiry-teaching.com/lesson/a-simulation-of-congress/ Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:25:31 +0000 https://www.inquiry-teaching.com/?post_type=product&p=5750 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: Calendar of lessons to be used with the Simulation of Congress]]> 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:

Calendar of lessons to be used with the Simulation of Congress

]]> Teaching Guide for Using the Concept Attainment Strategy https://www.inquiry-teaching.com/lesson/teaching-guide-for-concept-attainment-strategy/ Wed, 23 Aug 2017 20:28:12 +0000 http://www.inquiry-teaching.com/?post_type=product&p=278
How many times do we teach a lesson which hinges on the understanding of what adults consider basic concepts only to discover too late that our students have not grasped this "basic" item? Concepts are often difficult for middle and high school students to grasp. Cognitively, students this age just have not always developed the ability to think conceptively without help. Studies show that the true skill of thinking and articulating concepts doesn't develop in most humans until age 16 to 18. This free teaching guide includes a description of this teaching strategy, a couple of sample lessons, and a planning form for you to use with your own lesson development.
  • Subject Area: Any
  • Materials Required: Whiteboard or display
  • Time Needed: Typically an entire class period, or less.
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How many times do we teach a lesson which hinges on the understanding of what adults consider basic concepts only to discover too late that our students have not grasped this “basic” item?

Concepts are often difficult for middle and high school students to grasp. Cognitively, students this age just have not always developed the ability to think conceptively without help. Studies show that the true skill of thinking and articulating concepts doesn’t develop in most humans until age 16 to 18.

This free teaching guide includes a description of this teaching strategy, a couple of sample lessons, and a planning form for you to use with your own lesson development.

  • Subject Area: Any
  • Materials Required: Whiteboard or display
  • Time Needed: Typically an entire class period, or less.
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