Our Courts: 21 st Century Civics July 2009 www.ourcourts.org
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Our Courts: 21st Century CivicsJuly 2009
www.ourcourts.org
National Civics Summit 2
Our Courts Origin
2006 Georgetown Law Conference Hosted by Justice
O’Connor and Justice Breyer
Increase in attacks on the judiciary Jail for Judges
Identified need for broader civics education
National Civics Summit 3
The Need
The more people know about the role of the judiciary, the more they approve of it.
According to the 2006 NAEP Civics Assessment, 22% of 8th graders were proficient in civics.
15%can name the Chief Justice of the United States.
66%can name a judge on American Idol.
36%can name the three branches of government.
21states no longer require civics or government classes.
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The Solution
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Educational Games
Games and effective civics education are both about learning processes
Require little preparation from busy teachers
Opportunity to harness 24 / 7 learning
97%of Americans teenagers play video games.
44average number of hours students spend in front a screen each week.
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Ourcourts.org
Website launched in February 2009 and has received over 100,000 unique visitors to date.
Features include:Curriculum Builder Talk to the Justice message board
Civics in Action Educational Videos Premier Lesson Plans
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Classroom Games
Our Courts will release two classroom games in August 2009
Supreme Decision
Do I have a Right?
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Classroom Games
Supreme Decision: will introduce students to the process of judicial reasoning and allow them to make decisions in the Supreme Court.
Supreme DecisionGame Demo
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Classroom Games
Do I Have A Right?: players will run a constitutional law firm and explore the Bill of Rights to give legal advice to their clients.
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Guardian of Law
Guardian of Law is a single player game designed for use outside of the classroom. The player takes on the role of Guardian who argues individual rights cases by litigants in a futuristic world.
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Moving Forward
We’re expanding! Challenge: how to make the project
sustainable for continued development Recently formed iCivics Inc, a 501(c)(3)
entity, as the operational home for Our Courts Charitable donation-based funding approach Pursuing distribution partnerships
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Getting Involved
To learn more about Our CourtsVisit www.ourcourts.org
Email us at [email protected]
Call us at (202) 661-6527
To get involvedAlert school administrators, social studies coordinators, and teachers about the project
Join our mailing list
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