The Dirksen Center wants to help teachers teach better by giving them the opportunity to use technology to create, customize, and share online learning activities in their classrooms. The Center wants to help students learn more by bringing educational resources together in one place that provide new ways to learn about Congress interactively.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CONSTITUTION & TRIVIA

This section of Congress for Kids covers the history of the Constitution of the United States. It includes information about the writing the Constitution, the Great Compromise, the Constitution’s signers, the Bill of Rights, the Amendments to the Constitution and what they mean to Americans, and much more. Let's get started...click on Learn About The Constitution at: http://www.congressforkids.net/Constitution_index.htm

* Celebrate the Constitution *

Do you know your rights? After starting the game, drag each statement that appears on your screen to the document where it belongs.  Place one correct statement in each of the four documents.  Get all four right and you’re a Constitution Whiz Kid!  If you don’t want to play, click on any of the links on the page to learn more about the Constitution.

Find Celebrate the Constitution at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/signingconstitution/2_signingconstitution.htm

* Trivia *

Thanks to a legal "fiction" developed by courts in response to the breadth of the state sovereign immunity doctrine, many suits which might otherwise be barred by the Eleventh Amendment are allowed in federal court. Generally, what feature do these cases share that allows them to avoid the immunity problem?

1. They are based entirely on state law
2. They only ask for injunctive relief [Answer: The so-called "stripping fiction" allows suits to proceed against state officials in their official capacity, which is generally prohibited by the Eleventh Amendment. However, the fiction reasons that when a state officer acts unconstitutionally, she is no longer authorized by the state (the state can't legally authorize an officer to violate the Constitution because the Constitution always supersedes any state law), so she is not acting as an officer of the state. However, the fiction only extends to suits for injunctive relief - that is, suits asking the officer to do or stop doing something based on the Constitution or federal law.]
3. They seek more than $75,000 in damages
4. They are filed by corporations

*Find the answer in next month's issue.

Answer to August 2009’s Fun, Facts, and Trivia: http://www.webcommunicator.org/classroomresources/funfactstrivia_ans0809.htm

Do you have or know of an online activity you would like The Dirksen Congressional Center to feature on its new Web site for students -- Congress for Kids? The Center is currently seeking online activities that provide new ways to learn about Congress and the workings of the federal government interactively.

If you have questions or suggestions for online activities, contact Cindy Koeppel.