Social+Studies+-+7th

Jason Eschelman, Tim Murphy, and Kevin Convery met today.

We discussed the fact that each of us has finished our Constitution Unit and moved on - Tim and Jason to Ch 9 sec 1, Kevin to a small unit expanding the study of the 3 Branches of Government and How a Bill Becomes a Law to then be followed by Ch 9 sec 1.

Kevin mentioned that he was concerned that the kids might not understand enough about the cabinet departments in the executive branch of government. We discussed a new project idea wherein students could research basic info on each of the 15 (executive branch) cabinet departments and then do more in-depth research on one department which is of greatest interest to them. We did a rough sketch of a final product wherein the students would label a small poster with the name of the department, have a picture of the seal in the center, and dividing the poster into four sections, address each section as follows: 1) A picture and description (name, years in office) of the first and current people to hold this office; 2) 5 "Fascinating Facts" about the department; 3) 3 Posssible careers within this department; and 4) a summary of a current event focusing on this department.

Kevin agreed to work on directions and a rubric and forward to the other 7th grade Social Studies teachers.

7th Grade Social Studies Meeting Summaries