Examine the transformation of Medellín, Colombia, as it moved from a period of high levels of violence to one where the city was recognized for its urban development efforts. Medellín offers a case study in the role of public goods – investments in services like transportation and education that can benefit everyone, including individuals who might not be able to afford them.
Andrew McGill
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: For Private Prisons, Detaining Immigrants Is Big Business
An inmate population surge in the 1980s led to the rise of for-profit prisons. This Retro Report short doc examines how private companies have expanded into immigrant detention, raising concerns about whether profit motives contribute to poor conditions and lack of oversight. The film offers a real-world example of how market failures, externalities and government contracts can shape outcomes in systems meant to serve the public interest.
Posted inLesson Plan
Lesson Plan: Testing the Future of Water
Students will learn how the country of Namibia has tapped an unlikely source of water to combat shortages, and experiment with water filtration materials and strategies.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: The Birth of Free Agency
What determines where someone works? For most people, the answer involves choice. But for decades, professional baseball players had little say: Team owners controlled their careers, backed by a legal framework that treated baseball not as a business, but as a game. That changed when Curt Flood, a former major league center fielder, challenged the system. In taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court, Flood risked his career to fight for players’ rights. Though he lost in court, his stand laid the groundwork for free agency and reshaped the economics of professional sports.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Understanding the Dangers of Lead
Students will examine the effects of lead exposure on children and determine how different levels of government have attempted to address the problems associated with this toxin.
Posted inLesson Plan
Lesson Plan: The Surprising Legacy of the Boy in the Bubble
Students will learn about the life of David Vetter and examine his impact on medical advancements and medical understanding of rare diseases.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Lessons From the Challenger Tragedy
Students will examine the causes of the Challenger and Columbia accidents and the responses to the disasters by NASA.
Posted inU.S. History
Lesson Plan: AIDS: From Ryan White to Today’s Silent Epidemic
Students will learn the historical context of the AIDS crisis in the United States in the 1980s, and where it stands today.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Black Activism – M.L.K., the Olympics and the N.F.L.
Students will learn about the raised fist protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympic Games and the 2016 activism of Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback, as a way of examining nonviolent protest.
Posted inLesson Plan
Lesson Plan: Online All the Time? Researchers Predicted It.
Students will learn about behaviorism and the method of learning called operant conditioning that was developed by B.F. Skinner in the 1960s, and will explore why social media psychology makes that work highly relevant today.
