An Accessible Interdisciplinary Civics Education For All
Psychology
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Status Quo Bias: If It Ain’t Broke, Why Fix It?
Have You Ever?
Ever heard the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? As you probably well know, that saying refers to the idea that if things are fine the way they currently a...
Stanford Prison Experiment: Role-ing With It
Problem
Knock, knock. It’s late, but you open the door anyway and find police officers standing outside. They inform you that you’re under arrest for armed robbery. You try to ins...
The Bobo Doll Experiment: Kids See, Kids Do
Have You Ever?
One day, your uncle has to work late, so your dad volunteers to take care of both you and your younger cousin. All in all, besides the addition of another person, y...
The Asch Conformity Experiments: The Line Between Independence and Conformity
Problem
Your school is having students take their annual vision test, but to save time, they’re having multiple students go at once. In each group of four, students will go down a...
Learned Helplessness Experiment: Doggone Attitudes
Background
Your coach has introduced a new training method: at practice, you’ll jump hurdles while wearing weights on your legs. The idea is that after training for a while, you’l...
Curse of Knowledge: Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Background
It is the first day of your introduction to biology class and the teacher is speaking about microbes and their role in human everyday life. Although this is an introduc...
Zero-Sum Bias: I Win, You Lose
Problem
Why is it so difficult to teach young children to share their toys instead of hogging their playthings all to themselves? Similarly, why does your neighbor’s dog bark so a...
Cognitive Dissonance: Always Believe in What You Do
Have You Ever?
When you have a crush on someone, you typically hope that this person likes you back and that you’ll eventually end up dating. Let’s say that you sent a friend to s...
Backfire Effect: My Mind’s Made Up
Problem
Mara is a typical teenager who happens to think that shark attacks happen relatively frequently to beachgoers, and that these attacks are mostly fatal. However, her marine...
Philosophy
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Parallelism/Chiasmus: Repeat After Me
Background
Here are two famous quotes that you’re probably familiar with. The first is an excerpt from Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, which begins with the ...
Appeal to the Stone: Endorsed by Glass Houses!
Problem
Your school is running its annual activities fair. Every table is occupied by a club or sports team, ready to pitch their hobbies to anyone who might join their preferred ...
If-By-Whiskey: Same Drink, Different Glass
Introduction
Do you think language affects how we view an object or situation? For example, let’s say you ask one hundred individuals randomly selected from all over America what ...
Ad Hominem Argument: Stick It To The Man!
Problem
You’re watching your little cousins play, making sure they don’t get into too much trouble. Nikki, a feisty six-year-old, cries out, “The floor is lava!” and scrambles ont...
Correlation vs Causation: The Missing Link
Background
Congratulations, you’ve become the newest detective on the police force. It’s a bright summer day when you get your first case. There’s been a spike in thefts down by t...
Erotema: Are You Serious Right Now?
Problem
As Caroline’s reading in her room, she hears her phone vibrate. Her grandparents have a house rule of no electronics after dinner, and she should be getting ready for bed ...
Etymological Fallacy: Origin of Change
Background
You’re writing a short story for a class assignment. You switch drafts with your classmate Robert and proofread each other’s work. Upon returning your pages, Robert rem...
False Dilemma: Either Love It or Fear It
Background
Your friend Jamie expresses distaste for another fellow student, Alex. When you suggest that this might be the result of a simple misunderstanding, Jamie indignantly re...
Fallacy of Relative Privation: All Problems Are Relative
Introduction
Isao wants to convince his coworker Tazuki that their company needs to focus on reorganizing their marketing sector. Their ads are played at terrible hours, the graph...
Economics
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The Federal Reserve and Interest Rates
Have You Ever?
You’ve heard it before on the news: “The Federal Reserve lowers interest rates to 0.50 percent” or “The Federal Reserve raises interest rates to 3.0 percent”. All t...
The Role of the Federal Reserve: What is the Fed?
Have You Ever?
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Where does money come from?”, “Who produces it?”, and most importantly, “Who the heck controls it?” These are questions that mos...
Supply and Demand: I Want It, I Got It
Have You Ever?
Have you ever wondered about how companies decide on prices for their products? Well, if you’ve ever gone into a dollar store or a discount party shop, you have pro...
Tragedy of the Commons: All I Want is Everything
Background
Picture this: It’s the 1950s. There are very few regulations in place regarding the hunting of wild animals - it’s a free-for-all. You are a hunter in Kenya, seeking to...
Offsetting Behavior: A Risky Business
Have You Ever?
You’re the goalie on your local soccer team. Whenever you’re on the field, your coach insists that you wear knee pads. “They’ll help prevent your knees from getting...
History
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Montesquieu: The Spirit of Separation – Enlightenment | Academy 4 Social Change
Problem
How do people generate new ideas and theories? How do you come up with good ideas when there are millions of people who probably already came up with better ones? How do y...
Thomas Hobbes: Sign Here, Society
Problem
Why do we have governments? They aren’t strictly necessary for our survival. How are they supposed to interact with their people? Where does their power come from and what...
Voltaire: Candid Creator
Problem
You might be familiar with the question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” It began as a query illustrating the importan...
Greek Democracy: Humble Beginnings
Problem
The year is 510 B.C. in Athens, a Greek city-state. There is conflict between the rich and the poor, and the tyrant Hippias has just been expelled from the city, ending fi...
Seneca Falls Convention: For Women, By Women
Introduction
“I often wonder, when reflecting back on the Seneca Falls Convention, who of us - men and women - would have left our homes, our families, our work to make that journ...
The Federalist Papers: In Defense of the Constitution
Background
In 1783, the Revolutionary War ended: after seven long, hard years, Americans had won their independence from Great Britain and could begin constructing a new nation. T...
Magna Carta: A Major First Step
Introduction
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we...
John Locke: A New Slate for Governing
Background
We all have different experiences and perspectives, but different doesn't necessitate bad. In fact, we're taught to approach unfamiliar situations and people with an op...
U.S. Government
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Presidential Conventions and Delegates: Choose Your Fighter
Problem
What's all the fuss over the presidential conventions? Party candidates fight for a year, campaigning across the country to drum up the most support from voters. At the en...
Wisconsin v Yoder 1972
Case
In 1972, the sixties liberalism was under fire. With President Nixon now in office, he appointed Warren Burger as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court. A case decided the year ...
How Primaries Work vs Caucuses: Two Meetings of the Minds
Problem
Let’s say your family needs to figure out where you're going out for dinner - how would you come to a decision? Does everyone write down their vote on a piece of a paper, ...
How The Supreme Court Works: An Appeal to Justice
Have You Ever?
Let’s say your teacher gave you an unfair grade on an assignment. You talk to your upperclassmen friends and find out that the teacher has a history of assigning st...