U.S. Government On-line

History & Social Studies Lesson Plans

The National Endowment for the Humanities has assembled 426 different lesson plans covering everything from A Raisin in the Sun and Common Sense to Angkor Wat and What Was Columbus Thinking? to Women's Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs.

Lesson plans can be selected by grade level, number of class periods to complete, topic and the inclusion of worksheets.

USA.gov Web Portal

USA.gov is the federal government's online guide to government information and services. Pick the topic and you can get information on it here.

FedStats

FedStats, online since 1997, provides access to the full range of official statistical information produced by the Federal Government without having to know in advance which Federal agency produces which particular statistic.

FedStats has set up convenient searching and linking capablilties to more than 100 agencies that provide data and trend information on such topics as economic and population trends, crime, education, health care, aviation safety, energy use, farm production and more.

Congressional Budget Office

Since 1975, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process. Each year, this nonpartisan agency produces dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates for proposed legislation.

The CBO data is available for download. Each report and cost estimate includes a summary of the methodology underlying the analysis.

Talk about "real world" data...

Federal Election Commission

The Federal Election Commission tracks campaign contributions. Most are broken out by state and some by smaller divisions.

Can be the source of real-world math lessons in election years.

Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia is a non-partisan, online encyclopedia of American politics. They provide objective information about politics, influencers, and present & past elections. The cover not only national politics, but state and many local jurisdictions as well.

Polling Report

For raw data and to learn about polling questions and procedures, check out Polling Report.

World's Smallest Politcal Quiz

The World's Smallest Political Quiz (10 questions) lets students deduce their inclinations and, more importantly, let them start to understand what the labels - Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Statist and Centrist - might really mean.