Every lesson we teach, free to take.

Who sits on a city council and how they decide what a city builds. Students pool a budget they cannot stretch, then argue a real problem in front of a student council.

Grades 3–5~35 minThe Great Budget Debate · Council Pass

What a mayor actually does, and why two cities the same size can be run completely differently. Compares the strong-mayor and city-manager systems.

Grades 3–5~35 minCity problem cards · Design your own city

The board that sets the rules of a student's own school — what it controls, who serves on it, and why its members aren't teachers.

Grades 3–5~35 minWrite a policy · Rapid-fire review

The two public spaces students already use, and the departments that keep them open. Sorts fact from fiction about what a library is allowed to do.

Grades 3–5~35 minFiction or Non-Fiction · Design a park

The agencies that run buses and trains, and who depends on them. Students act out the same trip twice — once with an agency, once without.

Grades 3–5~35 minDesign a transit agency · With and without

What first responders do and how the two roles differ. Students sort real scenarios into police, firefighter, or both — and find out how often the answer is both.

Grades 3–5~35 minDraw a first responder · Scenario sort

Students research a real committee in their own state legislature, find a bill it is considering, and argue for or against it in front of the class.

Grades 3–5~40 minCommittee research · Propose and vote

Who enforces a state's laws, and who decides what they mean. Opens with a genuinely hard question: would you prosecute your own friend?

Grades 3–5~35 minSAG Says · Courtroom roles

The DMV, the health department, the transportation department — the bodies that carry out state law and touch daily life more often than the legislature does.

Grades 3–5~35 minMatch the agency · Run your own

Our fullest unit. Students draw their own districts, put bills in a hat, and run a mock Congress through the House, the Senate, and a presidential signature — then do it again at state level.

Grades 3–5Multi-week seriesDraw your district · Mock Congress · State budget

Why Congress splits itself into small groups before it votes. Students match real bills to the committee that would study them, then sit as the committee themselves.

Grades 3–5~35 minBill-to-committee match · Committee vote

The fifteen departments that advise the president and run the executive branch, covering the five students are most likely to hear about.

Grades 3–5~35 minDepartment Freeze · Advise the president

What the federal education department does — and, just as usefully, what it doesn't. Students sort decisions between Washington, the district, and their own principal.

Grades 3–5~35 minWho decides? · Principal for a day

The department behind disease tracking, food and medicine safety, and medical research, introduced through the sub-agencies students have already heard of.

Grades 3–5~35 minAgency match · Outbreak response

Why the person with the most votes doesn't automatically win. Walks through electors, the 270 threshold, and what happens in a 269–269 tie.

Grades 3–5~35 minMock electoral map · Tiebreaker

Direct democracy: the questions voters decide themselves, without going through a legislature. Opens with a class vote on who really makes the decisions.

Grades 3–5~35 minWrite a ballot measure · Class referendum

Where campaign money comes from, what it buys, and the rules around it — starting from the donation ads students have already scrolled past.

Grades 3–5~35 minCampaign Signals · The Coin Clapper Election