iCivics Games

What is iCivics?
From the About page:  iCivics (formerly Our Courts) is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. iCivics is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is concerned that students are not getting the information and tools they need for civic participation, and that civics teachers need better materials and support. You can download the handout (.pdf), see What is iCivics in Prezi by Jeff Curley, or visit the iCivics and explore on your own.

A special section for teachers to search or browse curriculum units via games, web quests, lesson plans and by state, grade, and state standards. Below is the brief description of the games with links organized by topic. From the site you can select the topic or time tab.


You can register (with your Facebook account or email) and save your progress, educators can create accounts and share lessons, or you can opt out and just play and explore. You also have an option to make and impact and donate your points to an impact project. 


Citizenship and Participation

Activate
Do you have a great idea about how to make positive change in your community? In Activate, you campaign for an issue of your choice.
Cast Your Vote
What issues do you want to ask candidates about? In Cast Your Vote, you choose the questions in a debate, rate their responses, and vote for the candidate of your choice....
Immigration Nation
Do you know how people become citizens of the United States? In Immigration Nation, you'll find out as you guide newcomers along their path to citizenship. Good luck!
Responsibility Launcher
Have you ever wanted to knock some civic sense into someone? In Responsibility Launcher, you can ...


The Constitution and Bill of Rights
Argument Wars
Ever tried to win a disagreement? In Argument Wars, you will try out your persuasive abilities by arguing a real Supreme Court case.
Do I Have a Right?
You’ll run your own firm of lawyers who specialize in constitutional law.


Budgeting
Counties Work
Do you want to make your community a better place to live? In Counties Work, you decide about the programs and services that affect everyone!
People's Pie
Do you like to control your own money? In People’s Pie, you control the budget of the federal government!


Separation of Powers
Branches of Power
Do you like running things? Branches of Power allows you to do something that no one else can: control all three branches of government!


The Executive Branch
Executive Command
Ever wanted to be President for a day? In Executive Command, you can be President for four years!


The Legislative Branch
LawCraft
Want to make some laws? You can in LawCraft, where you play a member of Congress from the state of your choice.
Represent Me
In Represent Me!, you work as a legislator trying to meet the needs of your constituents.


The Judicial Branch
Argument Wars
Ever tried to win a disagreement? In Argument Wars, you will try out your persuasive abilities by arguing a real Supreme Court case.
Court Quest
In Court Quest, people from around the country need your help to navigate our court system. Listen carefully to each case, so you can guide them to the right place!
Do I Have a Right?
You’ll run your own firm of lawyers who specialize in constitutional law.
Supreme Decision
Ever wondered how the Supreme Court really works? In Supreme Decision, you help cast the deciding vote.


So whether you are an autodidact, celebrating Constitution Day, remembering 9/11 or just like to tinker with games that may enhance your knowledge, check out the iCivics site...there is something for everyone.



Comments, recommendations, +1 and reaction box selections are always welcome.

Farm to School Program Does your school or district participate?

When you look at your local schools can you remember the last time you were in the local school cafeteria? Eaten in one lately? Do you know if and/or how your state is participating in the Farm to School program?


Recently, one of the local news stations (WRDW) featured a story on Healthier eating options for Richmond County School System students. What I find ironic is that according to the Georgia FFA page, "Georgia FFA is the 3rd largest state association with more than 31,000 members. There are 285 chapters and more than 400 agricultural education teachers in Georgia" but when I inquire as to the participation (or lack of) in the Farm to School program only 2 districts and 99 schools in the state of Georgia are participating? 

The GA Farm to School Profile page states, "Georgia is the 6th largest producer of vegetables in the U.S., yet our children rank as the 3rd most obese and overweight".  The CDC Obesity and Overweight site provides a map with obesity rates from 1985-2010 and tools where one can view the statistics for their county.

Today, when more organizations are collaborating for success in education, business, health, welfare or within local communities I wonder why the connection between the FFA and the Farm to School program isn't encouraged, particularly by those who want to gripe and groan about budget cuts rather than recommending possible solutions.

While Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution brought attention to American school lunch programs, he has been educating and helping people make healthy decisions longer than most people in the US are aware, as one can see on his global foundation sites: JamieOliver.com UK, Australia, Nederland, US . Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution site has one page with the latest news from people who are participating in a personal Food Revolution at home, to schools, to districts making a difference. His site also has tools for individuals, schools, teachers, and school districts.


This post allows me to ask those questions that have been previously asked but have gone unanswered or ignored. As another school year starts and budget issues continue in the normal operations...what are you doing to make a difference?


Does your school participate in the Farm to School program? Are students in your district participating in their version of a Food Revolution? How does your state, county, city rate in the CDC Overweight and Obesity trends?


OK...I'll jump off of the 20 questions soap box.
Comments, reaction box checks, or using a shared option are always appreciated.

My Coke Rewards for school and other things YOU can do to help education

One year ago I did a blog post on Coke Rewards for Schools where I listed the Richmond County Schools that were participating in the program and where anyone could donate points to a school whether the school was registered or not. I recently returned to the site to enter my codes and went to the donate to schools section and Butler High School was registered...finally. Hopefully all of my previous donations went to schools that were registered in our area, if not, I am sure some school was happy to receive the additional points.


The school system is still one part of your community, you still pay taxes (in one form or another) to support the system, so why not support it in additional ways that can help those in the system? Whether you donate your time, your points, your soup labels, or whatever your community is doing...invest in our replacements, as the students today will make the decisions about "who rocks your rocking chair"...it is the circle of life.
What if you don't drink participating Coke products (Water, Tea, Soda, Powerade)? Look around...is there a vending machine in your workplace? Set up a box for people to drop off the lids before they recycle the bottle. Does the team purchase the multipacks of Powerade or Dasani? 

There are 4 easy ways to enter codes:

MyCokeRewards.com
My Coke Rewards Mobile - Associate your mobile # with your account
Desktop Widget
Text codes to 2653


There are other ways to use your Coke Rewards from supporting a good cause (USO, Hispanic College Fund, American Cancer Fund, National Parks, Ocean Conservancy, River Network) to selections from the rewards, sweepstakes, instant wins.


What other ways are you helping your local learners and schools?
Encourage, inspire, assist, +1 someone, listen, care
DonorsChoose
DoSomething
BestBuy @15
Lowe's Toolbox for Education
Barnes and Noble at school
Boxtops for Education
Target Take Charge for Education
Office Depot Foundation - Education
Office Depot - Local support
Kroger Earning Plus Learning
Campbell's Labels for Education
America's Promise
UPromise
Google Scholarships


What other ways are you helping those who will eventually replace you in the circle of life?


Previous related posts 
10+ things anyone can do (2008)
$13.4 million shortfall what else can you do? (2008)
Schools worry donations will dwindle (2008)
Two schools will win $10K for their library via Coke Rewards (2011)

Download your Google+ Circles, Contacts and Data Liberation

Google lets you save a backup of your photos, profile information, contacts, circles, stream posts, and Buzz posts to your computer.

– An important note about the Google+ Field Trial –
You're a part of a small group of people who are helping to test Google+. When you share something with people who are not yet able to use Google+, they will receive it via email but won't be able to comment or engage with the content like other Google+ users. They'll be able to join Google+ as we let more users in over time.



Data Liberation - New to you?

Why did you start The Data Liberation Front?
For a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that we heard our CEO, Eric Schmidt, speak out against lock-in time and time again, "How do you be big without being evil?  We don't trap end users. So if you don't like Google, if for whatever reason we do a bad job for you, we make it easy for you to move to our competitor."


We started looking at our products and discovered that while the door to leave wasn't locked, in some cases it was a bit "stuck" and we thought that we could do better. Google products that have been liberated

Do you have a personal data recovery/transition plan? Have you ever implemented the plan? How do you know what you are maintaining or backing up is functional?


Why wait until World Backup Day March 31, 2012? If you consider your data valuable or precious, develop and maintain a personal data recovery and/or transition plan.

What my cousin is doing with his leukemia diagnosis

This post is dedicated to my cousin, Paul. Paul Pavao...you can Google him, friend him on Facebook, purchase his recent book ( Logos ) but I would encourage you to visit his latest blog, Thrilled to Death: Paul Pavao's Leukemia blog: http://yippee-leukemia.blogspot.com/  follow it, subscribe to it, or at least read the post on marrow donation.

Normally I post about something I discovered, learned, found a need to share or just something that is sticking in my craw that is in some way connected to educational technology. Because of technology integration, I can share his latest blog: Thrilled to Death: Paul Pavao's Leukemia blog.


Paul's links:
His informative post on marrow donation:
http://yippee-leukemia.blogspot.com/2011/07/marrow-donation.html
His Google profile https://profiles.google.com/115443870120035597654/posts
Proof of evolution blog
Thrilled to Death: Paul Pavao's Leukemia blog 
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/shammahpavao
Rosecreek Village http://www.rosecreekvillage.com/


This post is for the connections we will make, marrow donations that will be made, and awareness by those who read and share.