Introduction

This webquest was required for a technology course at Pacific University. I choose the United States federal government because I am responsible for teaching it in my 5th grade placement.

Learners

This lesson is attended for fifth grade students and involves social studies, language arts and computer skills. Students should have good understanding of PowerPoint. If they don't, then good word processing skills would definitely be necessary.

Curriculum Standards

Students will learn how to work together as a team while they discover the importance of being involved in the political process. They will understand the importance of all three branches of government and how the designers of our federal government implemented checks and balances to ensure a balance of power between all three branches. Students will realize how their elected president, senator and representative influence who will be appointed to our judicial system.

Oregon Standards

Social Studies
Understand the roles of the three branches of government and explain how their powers are distributed and shared.

Reading
Find, understand and use specific information in a variety of texts across the subject areas to perform a task.

Writing
Pre-write, draft, revise edit, and publish across the subject area.

Speaking and Listening
Communication supported ideas across the subject areas using oral, visual, and multimedia forms in ways appropriate to topic, context, audience, and purpose; organize oral, visual, and multimedia presentations in clear sequence, making connections and transitions among ideas and elements; use language appropriate to topic context, audience and purpose; and demonstrate control of eye contact, speaking rate, volume, enunciation, inflection, gestures, and other non-verbal techniques.

Process

This is a student-guided project where the teacher will assist students. Students will choose their own teams. They should be able to complete the PowerPoint presentation by spending an hour a day in class for ten class days. Within three to five days students should be able to gather all of the information needed to answer all of the questions below on the different branches of the federal government. They should be able to complete the PowerPoint presentation within the remaining time.

Students should have an easy time finding the information on the websites needed for the PowerPoint presentation. They may find the making of the PowerPoint presentation challenging. The teacher may have to provide technical assistance for struggling students.

Students can produce a report instead of a PowerPoint presentation if the teacher is not technically competent in PowerPoint, or if the technical resources are unavailable for students to produce a PowerPoint presentation.

Student Process

Step 1: Students will choose a team of three members.

Step 2: They will decide which member of the team will gather information on the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch.

Step 3: They will use the following websites to gather the needed information to answer the questions:

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/explore/BasicGoverningPrinciples/index.shtml

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774837.html

http://www.congressforkids.net/Legislativebranch_senate.htm

http://www.congressforkids.net/Legislativebranch_house.htm

http://www.house.gov

Step 4: Student's PowerPoint presentation will answer the following questions.
-What are the three branches of United States federal government?
-Which articles of the Constitution make up the three branches of the United States' federal government?

-Legislative Branch
* What is the primary function of the legislative branch?
* How is the legislative branch divided?
* What are the Constitutional qualifications for an United States Senator?
* Who is the head of the United States Senate?
* How many members are in the Senate?
* How were the number of members in the United States Senate decided?
* How long is the term for an United States Senator?
* Who are your United States senators?
* How many members are in the House of Representatives?
* What are the Constitutional qualifications for an United States Representative?
* How are the number of members in the House of Representatives decided?
* How long is the term for a United States Representative?
* Who is your United States Representative?

Executive Branch
* What is the primary function of the executive branch?
* What are the Constitutional qualifications for an United States Representative?
* How long is the term for the United States President?
* Who is the Commander-in-Chief during war?
* Who makes up the executive branch?
* Who is the current United States President?
* Who is the current Vice President of the United States?

Judicial Branch
* What is the primary function of the judicial branch?
* Who is the head of the judicial branch or the highest court in the land?
* How many judges are on the Supreme Court?
* How long is the term for judges?
* Who nominates judges?
* Who approves judges?

Checks and Balances
* Which branch of the United States government has to introduce and votes a bill, and which branch has to sign the bill for it to become law?
* Which branch of the United States government nominates judges, and which branch of the United States government approves the judges?
* Which branch of the United States government makes treaties, and which branch of the United States government approves the treaties?

Step 5: Create your PowerPoint presentation explaining the three different branches of the federal government and how its checks and balances work.

Step 6: Present PowerPoint presentation in front of the class.

Resources Needed

Each team needs to have access to

• Computer with an Internet connection
  
• PowerPoint presentation software package
• Word processing software package

Students will access the following websites to gather information:

http://www.constitutioncenter.org/explore/BasicGoverningPrinciples/index.shtml

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774837.html

http://www.congressforkids.net/Legislativebranch_senate.htm

http://www.congressforkids.net/Legislativebranch_house.htm

http://www.house.gov.

The teacher should be able to assist students with their PowerPoint presentation on the United States' three branches of the federal government.

Evaluation

Conclusion

Students will access the Internet to gather information to create a PowerPoint presentation on the United States' three branches of the federal government and the checks and balances between the executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch.

Credits & References

Pictures:

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/images/symbols/whitehouse_back.jpg

www.havecoffeewillwrite.com/wp-content/congress.jpg

www2.wabash.edu/blog/ images/Supreme-Court.jpg