Using an inquiry based approach, Michigan high school students will learn about the foundations of American government by studying the Constitution and exploring how it works today.

This two-day lesson centers around a project that is designed to help students demonstrate knowledge of the key concepts and issues that they learned in this unit of study. They will be comparing and contrasting laws passed in the United States and South Africa regarding segregation and apartheid, respectively.This lesson was developed by Carolin Bethea-Brown as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

In this two-day lesson, students will analyze the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as laws passed at the state and federal levels that were used to systematically deny African Americans of their constitutional rights. Throughout the lesson students will draw comparisons between laws made in the United States with laws made by the apartheid government of South Africa.This lesson was developed by Caroline Bethea-Brown as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This lesson is to be conducted over a two-day (90 minute block schedule) period. The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the role the federal government played in overturning laws that systematically undermined the 14th and 15th Amendments. During this process students will gain a better understanding of federalism, checks and balances, and judicial review. In addition, they will have the opportunity to compare and contrast laws passed in the United States with laws passed by the South Africa's apartheid government.This lesson was developed by Caroline Bethea-Brown as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

In this lesson, students will examine the role of precedent in Supreme Court decisions -- why precedents are usually followed and what justices take into consideration when they overturn precedents.