Education Media

Our innovative discourse-based approach to civics has granted us exciting opportunities to accelerate our impact. Check out the links below to learn more about our impact.

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Unit 7: Civic Participation

This is our capstone unit, featuring a long-term project that has students apply the teachings from proceeding units to create a tangible product showcasing civic engagement.

Unit 6: Extent of Civil Liberties

This unit discusses various stances on civil liberties, touching upon topics such as tech privacy and vaccines.

Unit 5: Environmental Policy

This unit discusses the role of government in regulating environmental practices, as well as the historical contexts for current stances on environmental policy.

Unit 4: Foreign Affairs

This unit touches upon the United States’ relationships with other countries and how those relationships have evolved over the history of America.

Unit 3: Social Services

This unit dives into social welfare programs and their impact on society, as well as how social service programs have evolved over American history.

Unit 2: Economic Policy

This unit focuses on economic and fiscal policy, as well as the role of government on the economy’s function.

Unit 1: Positions, Argumentation, and Discourse

The focus of this unit is the role of government in our day to day lives. The three branches of government, as well as aspects of the Constitution and our founding documents, are discussed.

Unit 0: Foundational Unit

This unit prepares students with essential discourse and argumentation skills to hold productive, evidence-backed conversations on difficult subjects.

The Impact of Discourse-Based Learning on Student Civic Engagement, Polarization, and Topic Comprehension Data Study Abstract

School often serves as the first opportunity for students to learn about civics. However, current systems of civics education may not be adequately preparing students to become actively engaged citizens. Given the growing discontent and polarization in American politics, there is a need for educational solutions to stimulate civic engagement and unity. While previous studies have shown that “interactive civic activities” can increase students’ interest in American civics, less is known about the efficacy ofnon-partisan, discourse-based learning techniques in fostering open-mindedness and a comprehensive understanding of political issues. These prompted researchersat the Institute for Youth in Policy (YIP) to study this topic. Researchers analyzed pre-and post-workshop data from a virtual workshop (n=36) and found that discourse-based civics programs are effective in decreasing polarization levels, increasing topic comprehension, and promoting civic engagement among youth.

Israel-Palestine Curriculum Results

This infographic summarizes the impact of YIP’s Israel-Palestine activities on several metrics, including level of understanding, comfortability expressing true opinion, and belief that the opposing position has merit in regards.

Student Opinions on The Electoral College Visual Report

At the Institute for Youth in Policy (YIP), we acknowledge the importance of educating and engaging students in this ongoing debate. Because of this, YIP has conducted discourse-based workshops on the Electoral College to raise high school students' awareness and ability to engage in the Electoral College debate. By distributing pre- and post-workshop surveys, YIP aimed to gather insights into students' perspectives on the Electoral College, including their understanding of the Electoral College, familiarity with different voting mechanisms, awareness of the importance of protecting small states' rights, willingness to accept opposing viewpoints, and comfort in debating the topic.

Student-Created Curriculum: Bridging the Divide in Civics Education

Read about our presentation, speakers, and work at the 2023 AP Annual Conference.

YIP Education at College Board’s 2023 AP Annual Conference

Read about our 2023 AP Annual Conference presentation, “Engaging Youth in Politics in Discourse-Based Civics Education.”

Teaching Controversial Topics in English and Social Studies Classes

Watch our webinar co-hosted with Marco Learning CEO John Moscatiello on Teaching Controversial Topics in English and Social Studies Classes.

College Board's BigFuture Live: Career Night

Hear our team speak on BigFuture Live’s Career Night panel about career exploration, paths in policy, and YIP’s engagement with students.

There is More Than One Answer to Career Exploration

Read the recap about our BigFuture Live’s Career Night panel about career exploration, paths in policy, and YIP’s engagement with students.

2024 International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference

Watch Mollie Guba and Isabel Epistelomogi present at the International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference hosted by the University of Central Florida.

March 2024 Feature on “The Kids Are Alright”

Check out this article from one of our partners at the CivXNow Coalition about our curriculum and civics education research.

2024 Civic Learning Week Bridging Differences for Collective Impact Event

YIP is a proud participant of the 2024 Civic Learning Week Event Bridging Differences for Collective Impact, where our Israel-Palestine Resources were featured as a lesson plan for attendees during the event to take away and use in classroom settings.

Israel-Palestine Handouts

This lesson will equip students with the tools necessary to have civil and informed conversations about the Israel-Palestine conflict through two activities: (1) an activity helping students recognize bias and misinformation on social media, and (2) an activity helping students thoughtfully express their viewpoints on the Israel-Hamas War and listen to the ideas of their peers.

Polarizing Topics Resource

Our Guide to Teaching Polarizing Topics contains topic briefs and guided activities on polarizing issues, including abortion, immigration, affirmative action, environmental issues, and gun control. It also includes guidance for students on constructing arguments surrounding these issues, which can be implemented alongside a wide range of topics being discussed in the classroom. Our goal is for students to develop a thorough understanding of controversial topics so that they become equipped to hold productive discourse and ideate solutions.

2024 Election Resource

Our 2024 Election Guide contains informational resources on the upcoming election that serve as a basis for further exploration, and these can be implemented alongside topics being discussed in the classroom. We have also included guided activities that give students the opportunity to construct their own arguments through analyzing media, legislation, and the areas of difference and commonality among different politicians’ views.

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DNI - 2024 Civic Learning Week Bridging Differences for Collective Impact Event

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2024 National Civic Learning Week

Our core goal is to encourage students to debate, challenge, and engage with current political matters. With this in mind, we have developed a discourse-based approach where each curriculum unit specificall

2024 International Society for the Social Studies

Watch Mollie Guba, Senior Vice President of Education, and Isabel Epistelomogi, Vice President of Education Research and Analytics, present at the International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference hosted by UCF.

Implementation Approaches

Given the flexibility of our units, we provide several different options for implementing our curriculum, including the following: Implement the curriculum as a complete course: With 500+ pages of core content, our curriculum can be implemented as a year-long elective civics course.Integrate individual units into existing courses: Because our units stand independently, they can be added individually to fit existing courses. Our Foundational Unit is particularly flexible in the range of social sciences and history courses it applies to.Incorporate individual activities into existing courses: Our various discussion-based activities can be added individually to supplement existing courses. Depending on the course, an activity’s content, structure, or both might be relevant.Use in conjunction with after-school activities: Our debates and discussions can serve as enrichment tools for after-school activities, such as Model U.N., to enable students to continue developing their civic skills. Units 1-7 also cover common political topics debated today.
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A note from the team

Thank you for engaging with our "By Students, For Students" curriculum! Our team is committed to actively working with schools to keep improving our resources to meet their needs. Please feel free to reach out to us with any suggestions you have. We sincerely appreciate your continued support and hope to work closely with you soon.