Constitution Day Materials

K12 Handhelds is once again offering free curriculum materials. This time it's for September 18th's Constitution Day. The materials can be used on Palm and Windows Mobile handhelds as well as desktops and laptops! The materials includes:

• Constitution quiz (in Quizzler format)
• Recordings of the constitution and amendments (in MP3 format)
• Web pages about the Constitution (in Plucker/FlingIt format)
• Interactive eBooks about the making and text of the Constitution (in Mobipocket format, which downloading for Palm OS on a Mac was impossible for me-I had to do use a Windows machine to install Mobipocket)

There are lots of goodies to be had, so K12 Handhelds provides a one-page handout with ways you can use their free resources. Some of the suggested activities include:

• Have students create their own quiz about the Constitution in Quizzler. Then have them beam each other their quizzes. (This is a good way to reinforce key concepts that is fun for kids.)
• Have students use the highlighting function in MobiPocket to highlight the main ideas in the “Making of the Constitution” ebook. (To highlight text in MobiPocket, just select it and hold. Then select highlight from the pop-up menu.)
• Have students identify a current events issue that has Constitutional implications (for example, immigration or issues related to terrorism or the war in Iraq). Give them resources to research this issue (online articles, newspapers, etc.; Plucker works well for this on the handhelds). Then have them produce a final product that identifies the Constitutional issues, takes a position, and gives support for that position. The final product can be a written paper, a PowerPoint presentation, or a podcast.

It's so nice that K12 Handhelds makes these resources freely available. Thanks K12 Handhelds! I know a lot of educators will put these materials to good use!

Comments

[Karen Fasimpaur]

Fyi, if you're not running a Windows desktop, you can install the raw pdb files for MobiPocket from this link:

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/DownloadReaderNonWindows.asp

[Tony Vincent]

Thanks Karen! I looked for a link for a non-Windows installer, but couldn't find it.

[Instructor-Wendy Gallagher]

Thanks Tony for finding and sharing these resources! It is always great to visit your web site because you update it frequently...(: