What is a Citizen?

Lesson Plan Title: What is a Citizen?
Objectives: Students will learn through experiential knowledge, prior experience, and research what it is to be a citizen and how education plays a role in this. They will also explore the role of education and the citizen in democracy and politics.
Supplies: None
Description:
Field trips-
Field trip 1-->Students will travel to the local capital building and see how the government was founded, how it evolved over time, what it took to establish the state, what the people were like who started it, how the current government functions, and what role they can play in this

Field Trip 2--> Students will travel to a variety of local cultural centers that represent the local population (examples are native american musuems, mexican american centers, chinese cultural centers, etc.) where they will learn about these various cultures. Within these trips they should be lerning about how these people have contributed to the local area, how they have evolved socially over time, and what cultural practices they retain.

Field Trip 3--> Students will travel a few local educational institutions of higher learning such as Universities or Colleges. The trip should involve an example of the types of education available to them as well as how they can attend and the cost of education.

Purpose of Trips- Through these trips the students should be trying to connect them to each other, and the uinstructor will hold the final connection to the end. At the end of the trips have the students get into small groups and define: Democracy- what it is, how it works, and what our role is; Citizen- who is one, how do you become one, what is your responsibility, and what is the governments responsibility to the citizen; Education- what is education, why is it important in our society, and what type of education is more important to a democracy vocational or liberal studies.

Closure- The teacher then should have the students share their thoughts on each of these areas. This should lead them to the connection that these three areas are connected. Education is required to create citizens and citizens are required for a functioning democracy.

Final essay- With all the information they have seen and heard write a 1500 word essay on the importance of culture in a society and to a democracy. They should address how culture is transferred and whether they feel that the US has a common culture.