Project Citizen

What is Project Citizen?

Program

Project Citizen provides a practical first-hand approach to learning about our complex system of government and how to monitor and influence it. Through our Curriculum, students will work together to research their community to discover problems and then identify solutions in the form of policy that require government involvement. Students also have the opportunity to display their research and policy suggestions through Showcases, a way for students to display their research and present their policy solutions to their classroom and/or community. Showcases are also held at the state and national levels, where classes have the opportunity to participate and share their work with other classes from across their state or nation. To learn more about Project Citizen and Professional Development opportunities, we invite you to explore the website and contact your State Coordinator or Center staff to learn how to get involved.

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Professional Development

The Project Citizen Research Program, a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education, has given the Center for Civic Education and its partners the opportunity to offer free professional development for middle and high school teachers new to the Project Citizen curriculum

Curriculum

The curriculum enhances instruction by providing tips from Project Citizen teachers and emphasizes the fundamentals of the public policymaking process. The teacher’s guide features detailed instruction and sample worksheets for conducting a simulated public hearing on students’ project portfolios, the curriculum’s culminating activity.

"They're learning by doing. This is giving them a perspective on government that they would never get from a book."
—Teacher June Natola, The Daily Item, Lynn, MA, 6/8/02, Fecteau-Leary Middle School

Showcases

Entire classes of students or members of youth or adult organizations work cooperatively to identify a public policy problem in their community. Using the curriculum, they research the problem, evaluate alternative solutions, develop their own solution in the form of public policy, and create a political action plan. Participants develop a portfolio of their work and present their project in a public hearing showcase before a panel of civic-minded community members.