The "International Society for the Social Studies (ISSS) Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2015 proceedings: (1) Local History and Local Culture at the Core of Elementary Social Studies Curriculum (C.…

A paramount duty of education is to prepare young people for their role as citizens in a democratic society. Voting is one of the important responsibilities of a citizen but statistics indicate that young people often don't vote and don't believe they have a stake in the outcome of the presidential election. Storypath is a teaching strategy that…

Teachers live for the "teachable moments"--those opportunities to connect their subject content to events taking place beyond the classroom. They can occur spontaneously, lucky occasions to bring the curriculum to life grabbed on the fly. In other instances, a teachable moment looms large. In hundreds of thousands of classrooms nationwide,…

Students need to learn about the real-world issues our nation faces. They need to understand how concerned individuals gather information, consider opposing opinions, come to conclusions, and act on their beliefs. Background information, resources, and classroom activities are provided to help students understand the importance of voting. (DF)

One technology for education whose adoption is currently expanding rapidly in UK higher education is that of electronic voting systems (EVS). As with all educational technology, whether learning benefits are achieved depends not on the technology but on whether an improved teaching method is introduced with it. EVS inherently relies on the…

Discusses challenges facing secondary social studies teachers in attempting to develop in learning disabled students an awareness of civic rights and responsibilities. Summarizes research on adolescents with learning problems into demands of work habits, knowledge acquisition, and expression. Describes the strategies intervention model for…

The use of a voting list to ascertain what concerns the sixth grade student and as a means of teaching parliamentary procedure and values is described. (DB)

The 12 lessons on practical politics have been designed to help high school classroom teachers in Ohio develop and implement educational programs on citizen participation and, specifically, on voting. Objectives are to familiarize students with Ohio voting and registration laws and procedures, to introduce them to voting equipment, to acquaint…

Voter apathy is at an all-time high in the United States. Important decisions and policies are being determined through disappointing turnouts at the voting polls. In a democratic society, this is unconscionable! Voter turnout needs to improve, but what part can teachers play, besides voting, in helping to change voter apathy? Today's students…

Research and practice in the use of electronic voting systems has developed over the last five years. Electronic voting systems, also known as personal response systems, audience response systems or classroom communication systems, use handsets to elicit responses from students as part of structured teaching sessions, typically lectures. The use…

Describes a unit on voting conducted by high school seniors for first graders in Bangor, Maine. Lists learning goals for both groups, describing how high school teacher and students collaborated with first-grade teacher to develop the unit and construct teaching aids. Details the unit's components, including a voting game, democracy, voting…

How can teachers get today's students--and tomorrow's voters--really interested in the presidential election? At Moorestown Friends School, a coed Quaker preK-12 day school in Moorestown, New Jersey, the students participate in a simulated presidential selection process that leaves them energized and informed about the candidates and the issues.…

An overview of the experience of the opening two years of an institution-wide project in introducing electronic voting equipment for lectures is presented. Eight different departments and a wide range of group size (up to 300) saw some use. An important aspect of this is the organizational one of addressing the whole institution, rather than a…

The Woodbury materials center around a mock election in a hypothetical community. Students are given background data of the sort astute and active political campaign personnel would ferret out. A statistical outcome rpovides the students a means of evaluating the effectiveness of their strategy as the game progresses. (JB)