This guide takes users through 10 step-by-step activities on FRED®, the free online economic database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, to show how quickly and easily it is to find and graph economic data and save and share them as a custom graph. The FRED database includes more than 390,000 economic data time series from dozens of national, international, public, and private sources. FRED allows users to combine and display data with an easy-to-master mix of tools. With just a few minutes of practice, anyone can use FRED to tell a story using data. The dataset used for these activities is real gross domestic product (GDP).

This resource provides terms to know related to the concepts found in the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution.

Students will work individually or in pairs to design 3D-printed visual representations of one or more individual rights found in the Bill of Rights.

Student teams will work together both inside and outside the classroom to complete a “GooseChase” scavenger hunt.  Students will demonstrate mastery of the basic principles of international trade.

Student teams will work together both inside and outside the classroom to complete a “GooseChase” scavenger hunt.  Students will demonstrate mastery of the principles of supply and demand.

In this lesson, students will learn that the profit-maximization rules for the monopoly are the same as they are for a perfectly competitive firm but the monopoly will produce a smaller output than society would like it to produce. This lesson supports the Theory of the Firm section of the Advanced Placement Microeconomics curriculum.

In this lesson, students understand the conditions under which a competitive market fails to produce the socially-optimal quantity of a good or service. They also need to know what steps a government can take to correct a negative externality. This lesson supports the Market Failure and the Role of Government section of the Advanced Placement Microeconomics curriculum.

This lesson traces Lincoln’s political life during a time of constitutional crisis. It examines Lincoln’s ideas and decisions regarding slavery and the use of presidential power to preserve the Federal Union during the Civil War. When students have completed this lesson, they should be able to analyze and evaluate President Lincoln’s decisions in response to the critical constitutional issues of his time.

In this lesson, students examine the historical development, implementation, and opposition to affirmative action, with emphasis placed on a specific Supreme Court cases. A set of discussion questions is provided. In an associated activity, the class will review several affirmative action programs and make a list for each program. Then they will examine these reasons and decide whether they are "compelling" enough to be constitutional.

In this activity, students are asked to write a one page report analyzing the effect of changes in underlying economic factors on airline revenues. The exercise is based on a current economic event. The student can be given a diagram representing the initial equilibrium. The completed diagram and explanation are presented in the one-page report.

By the end of the lesson the students should be able to understand how it feels to be a minority, to be different, and to be discriminated against in any way.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of youth voting practices. By investigating the compelling question of whether or not they will vote, students consider the ways in which the voting habits of youth provide a unique opportunity to reflect on their own voting preferences.

In this lesson, students will learn about the origins of law, trace the development of law in America, and differentiate between the different types of laws. Students will also learn the different steps in civil and criminal judicial proceedings. To culminate their understanding of the judicial process, students will create posters noting the different steps a particular criminal or civil case would go through in the judicial system.

In this lesson, students will explore the movement of the colonies towards self-government by examining the choices made by the Second Continental Congress, noting how American delegates were influenced by philosophers such as John Locke. Students will participate in an activity in which they assume the role of a Congressional member in the year 1775 and devise a plan for America after the onset of war. This lesson can optionally end with a Socratic Seminar or translation activity on the Declaration of Independence.

In this lesson, students will learn about China's modern history through the fascinating story of Sidney Rittenberg, one of the most famous Americans expatriates. Before learning about Rittenberg's life, students will examine major events in China's history since 1949 through a timeline activity. Next, students will participate in a jigsaw activity that revolves around Sidney Rittenberg's life, from his time as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, to his job with the US Army in China, to his time as a translator for Mao Zedong, to his two lengthy prison sentences, and more. This lesson culminates with an activity where students have to design a movie poster for a documentary about Sindey's life.

This online activity shows how to use FRED, the Federal Reserve's free online economic data website, to analyze changes in real gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP makeup over time. Following simple instructions, students will locate spending data for the individual components of real GDP, and then combine them into a highly informative area graph. They will also use FRED's ability to stack data and see how trade imports and exports contributes to GDP. The resulting customized graph will let them see how economic output varies from year to year.

With this digital collection, the student will explore conflicts over the exercise of State power at three important junctures in U.S. history: the Revolution and national founding, the Civil War, and World War II. At each of these formative moments in national history, some Americans challenged—while others defended—the authority of the federal government over individual citizens and states. It is important to note that, in these documents, anti-statism does not emerge as a coherent ideology. Rather it includes many different forms of opposition to centralized authority, from reasoned debate to organized rebellion to mob violence. What does emerge is a long and varied history of American anti-statist thought and sentiment.

In this lesson, students explore the controversial issue of religion (prayer, bible study, etc.) in public schools through an analysis of serveral court cases. Discussion questions are provided. In an associated activity, students will review and discuss the Supreme Court's theory that the government should remain neutral on this issue.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of students’ rights and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. By investigating the compelling question, students consider the ways in which their rights provide a unique perspective on learning about the First Amendment and the extent to which schools are “special areas,” in which various courts have made rulings that may be seen as limiting students’ First Amendment rights.

This lesson is designed to educate students on the actual platforms of the major political parties. Students will discuss how political beliefs are formed and how party affiliation affects political behavior. The lesson incorporates brief writing assignments, online party affiliation quizzes, and Internet research of the 2016 state and national party platforms.