The following interactive projects were developed by a number of organizations and supported by grants from the Library of Congress. Each project is intended to provide engaging and meaningful opportunities to learn about Congress and civic participation using primary sources from the Library’s online collections. Read more about this program

Primary sources have tremendous educational power and can be used effectively in many different ways with students at all grade levels. The projects below reflect different organizations’ varied approaches to teaching civics using primary sources, and each has much to offer.

For more on effective strategies for teaching with primary sources, see the Library of Congress Using Primary Sources page.  Use this writable Primary Resource Tool that can populate to individual student drive accounts. 

Congress, Civic Participation & Primary Sources Projects
  • DBQuest New from iCivics, DBQuest teaches history and civics through the use of primary source documents and evidence-based learning. It offers a platform, accessible with mobile devices, that reinforces evidence-based reasoning and Document Based Questioning to identify and evaluate evidence, contextualize information, and write sound supporting arguments.

  • Case Maker Case Maker is a customizable system for inquiry-based learning using primary sources from the Library of Congress. Case Maker guides students to challenge a question, collect evidence, and make a case.

  • Engaging Congress Eagle Eye Citizen engages students in solving and creating interactive challenges on American history, civics, and government with Library of Congress primary sources in order to develop civic understanding and historical thinking skills.

  • KidCitizen KidCitizen engages students with history through primary sources. In KidCitizen’s nine interactive episodes, student’s explore civics and government concepts by investigating primary source photographs from the Library of Congress. They also connect what they find with their daily lives.

 

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