MEDIA ALERT: K-12 EDUCATORS CAN ACCESS A VARIETY OF NEW RESOURCES TO TEACH ELECTIONS, COUNTERACT MISINFORMATION

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Oct 01, 2024, 12:12 ET

The nation's leading civic education nonprofit, iCivics, provides a suite of resources to help educators and students navigate the 2024 election landscape, including the new Civic Digital Literacy collection, critical thinking games, lesson plans, and other content in its Election Headquarters

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- With the election closing in, iCivics, the nation's leading civic education nonprofit, is providing free, nonpartisan digital teaching resources, videos, and games that will help millions of students, K–12 teachers, and families understand how this election works and navigate its complexities. These tools can also provide expertise for media into how this election is playing out in classrooms.

iCivics digital games and content are used by more than 145,000 teachers and 9 million students per year. Each election cycle, teachers rely on iCivics to help engage young people in this country's most important civic moment and build confidence to believe in this country's future and their role in it.

With polarization, misinformation, and other trends putting strain on citizens and our democracy, the 2024 presidential election presents unique challenges and opportunities for teachers and learners in the classroom. iCivics provides trusted resources that help teachers work through this difficult atmosphere and teach essential skills, including:

Digital Literacy: iCivics' new collection of short-form videos and lesson plans equip middle and high school students with digital literacy skills integral to our democracy. Civic Digital Literacy covers a range of topics, including who's behind cloaked websites, how to evaluate political claims on social media, and whether online content is clickbait or legitimate. Civic Digital Literacy was built with the digital literacy and curriculum expertise of the Digital Inquiry Group, an independent nonprofit established by the team behind the Stanford History Education Group.
Games and digital content that teach the election: The iCivics Election Headquarters is an online portal with dozens of games, lesson plans, infographics and videos that teach the fundamentals and processes of the election by putting students in the driver's seat of our democracy. Games such as Win the White House and Cast Your Vote have been played nearly 200 million times since they were created. These educational games dig deep into how to choose a candidate for whom to vote and the intricacies of how an election works, from building a platform to fundraising and deciding when and where to place political advertisements.
Resources for K–5 students: For our youngest learners, iCivics has partnered with Nickelodeon and ATTN: to create Well Versed, a series of music videos that teach the basics of democracy. Well Versed—launched last October by Paramount Chair Shari Redstone and First Ladies Jill Biden and Laura Bush—has been likened to a modern Schoolhouse Rock. In addition, resources such as Private i History Detectives, an inquiry-based supplementary curriculum, and Uncovering Loyalties, an educational game created with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, teach the building blocks of democracy to K–5 students.
For journalists: Over 15 years of working with hundreds of thousands of teachers, iCivics has built unparalleled insight into how the current climate is affecting classrooms in school districts and communities across the nation. iCivics can also provide perspective through CivxNow—a coalition founded by iCivics that includes more than 350 organizations working to advance civic education as a nationwide priority.

iCivics can provide expert voices and access to educators across the country to help in any stories journalists are pursuing, including why and how digital literacy must be a part of a modern civic education, how teachers are working together to face the challenge of this election, and how parents and their kids can talk to each other about the election.

And we invite you to play Win the White House.

For more information visit www.icivics.org and for media requests and interviews, contact [email protected]

ABOUT iCIVICS
Founded in 2009 by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, iCivics is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civic learning by providing educators and students with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to embrace and engage in our civic life together. iCivics empowers educators and leads the movement to make civic education a nationwide priority so all young people have the confidence to shape the world around them and believe in our country's future.

SOURCE iCivics