Lesson Plans

Polls and Opinion Surveys are Part of Our Daily Lives From responding to surveys on social media to reading results from the latest election poll, we are inundated with information about what the public thinks about a variety of topics and issues. During elections, polls are used to provide information to the general public and for candidates to gain insight into their standing in the race. During the 2016 Presidential election, as many as four polls a day were released in the months…

Overcrowded, Unsanitary and Dangerous Detention Facilities Over the past year, the humanitarian crisis at the border has worsened for migrants and those seeking asylum. The problems now go well beyond the forced family separations and detentions that were highlighted in the summer of 2018. Migrant children are being held in overcrowded, unsanitary and dangerous detention facilities in violation of an agreement which requires that children be moved quickly. Response to Humanitarian…

What is an Algorithm? An algorithm is a detailed set of instructions to reach a result based on given inputs, data or information. An algorithm can be digital or non-digital. In computing, programmers write algorithms that instruct the computer or digital platform how to perform a task. Are Algorithms Biased? Algorithms—as basic as a recipe or as complex as the digital codes that create targeted ads in our social media feeds—are part of our daily lives. Anyone who uses…

Zero-Tolerance Policy for Migrant Families In May 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new, expanded “zero-tolerance policy” for migrant families seeking to cross the border. This policy indicated that all migrants seeking to cross the border without documentation would be referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution of a crime, rendering their children unaccompanied minors. Children accompanying adults would be separated from their parents to be…

Updated June 28, 2019 New Question for the 2020 Census In March 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau released the questions for the upcoming 2020 Census. The data collected by the Census every ten years determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives based on its share of the population. It is also used to distribute billions of dollars in federal funds to local communities. One of the new (and controversial) 2020 Census questions is about citizenship. All U.S…

The Rohingya people are an ethnic minority group (the vast majority of whom are Muslim) in the country of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country. The Rohingya numbered about one million people at the beginning of 2017 and represent the largest percentage of Muslim people in Myanmar; the majority live in the Rakhine state. Since August 2017, about 655,000 Rohingya people have fled into neighboring Bangladesh to escape violent and deadly persecution in Myanmar. This includes discriminatory…

Nearly one in five (19%) people in the United States are living with a disability. Disabilities can be physical or cognitive, visible or invisible, severe or minor. Ableism, which is bias or discrimination against people with disabilities, can take many forms, including: employment, housing and other institutional discrimination; lack of accessibility on streets, buildings and public transportation; stereotyping and ableist language, lack of media portrayals or stereotyped depictions of people…

On August 11 and 12, 2017, ‘Unite the Right’ convened one of the largest and most violent gatherings in the U.S. in decades that brought together white supremacist groups including the alt right, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. The gathering’s stated goal was to save the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, because like other places in the South, there is growing controversy about the symbolism and removal of public monuments celebrating leaders of the Confederacy…

More than 150 years after the Civil War, there is a new drive to remove Confederate monuments. In April and May 2017, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from their city. This decision came on the heels of other cities such as Austin, TX and Louisville, KY, who also voted to remove their statues; additional cities are also considering removing them. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu championed the effort to take down the four Confederate monuments, stating, …