Civic Design Lab
The Civic Design Lab brings together history and civics curriculum units created by Philadelphia-area educators through the “Educating for American Democracy (EAD)” Professional Learning Community. The educators taught across a range of schools, grade levels, and learning needs, but shared a common goal: helping students develop a deep understanding of history and civics and become confident, capable, and engaged participants in constitutional democracy. Each unit includes learning goals, central themes, Pennsylvania standards, and a culminating project that puts learning into practice. The lessons span grades 4–12 and explore history and civic participation through engaging, student-centered experiences.
The EAD Roadmap is a national push to teach American history and civics through inquiry and discussion rather than rote facts, so students grow into engaged, informed citizens.
Media and Democracy
How do news, social media, and advertising shape what people believe about public life?
Youth and the Ballot
Why does voting matter before you are old enough to cast a ballot yourself?
Rivers, Rights, and Responsibility
Who is responsible when a shared resource, like a river, is harmed?
Classroom Constitutions
What rules would you write if your classroom had to govern itself?
Monuments and Memory
Whose stories do public monuments tell, and whose stories are left out?
Budgets and the Common Good
How do communities decide what to pay for when there is not enough money for everything?