Checks and Balances

Standards

This WebQuest aligns with the Washington State Social studies standard for 8th grade US history.
Component 1.2: Understands the purposes, organization, and function of
governments, laws, and political systems.
1.2.1 Understands and analyzes the structure and powers of government at the
national level.
1.2.2 Evaluates the effectiveness of the system of checks and balances in the United
States based on an event.

The WebQuest also aligns with the following Common Core standards for 8th grade ELA:
1.Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports
an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
4.Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they
are used in a text, including figurative, connotative,
and technical meanings; analyze the impact of
specific word choices on meaning and tone,
including analogies or allusions to other texts.
7.Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using
different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video,
multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.

Credits

Credit for images used in the WebQuest go to Peter Griffin (Capitol Building and White house), Karen Arnold (Presidents), Bobbie Jones Jones(Fireworks on Lakefront), Alex Borland (American Flag), Sokyun Moeesyugyouchu (Alien drawing titled "boss"). All from www.publicdomainpictures.net. The checks and balances graphic has a creative commons license, but requires proper credit to use on the web. Here is the required credit:
By Viva La France! Support Our Revolution! [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASeparation_of_Powers.jpg

Additionally the idea for this WebQuest came from a Classroom Based Assessment done in 8th grade US history by Mr. Dunham and Mr. Furth's classes at Rainier Middle School in Auburn, Washington. Thank you both for the inspiration and the excellent examples of how to teach.

Other

Be sure to check all the links before using this WebQuest, if you use it you are responsible for ensuring all links are still valid. They are valid and working at the time of creation, but things change over time. It was created for an undergraduate assignment, so maintenance may be sporadic.
IMPORTANT Note: Ben's game (activity on Monday) does not seem to load in the Chrome web browser at the time of creating this WebQuest, but it is such a valuable learning game, I did not want to leave it out. It works with Edge and Internet Explorer, but I did not test it with any other browsers, so I would recommend testing it with your browser before you have students use it.