Answers -- Fun, Facts, and Trivia
January 2002 Issue

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.

Although a one-person executive was accepted at the Convention, delegates debated how the president should be elected, either by Congress or the people. The president's term of office was also debated. The Electoral College was the solution. Electors were selected by the legislatures of each state that were equal to their total number of representatives in Congress. The electors then voted for two people. One of these two people could not be from their state. The person with the most votes became president and the individual with the next highest total became vice president. The House of Representatives decided the election with each state having one vote in the event of a tie. To help your students learn more about the president's qualifications and powers, have them register on our new site for kids - Congress for Kids -- http://www.congressforkids.net/. "The Executive Branch -- Presidency" -- http://www.congressforkids.net/executivebranch.htm offers a printable true or false quiz, or they can "Play More" to link to numerous online activities related to the presidency.

Compromise Connection

1. Which one was adopted to help settle the Constitutional Convention's debate over slavery?

A. The New Jersey Plan
B. The Great Compromise
C. The Virginia Plan
D. The Connecticut Compromise
E. The Three-Fifths Compromise

2. Proportional representation is a system in which parties receive seats in a legislative body roughly equal to their share of the votes. (Link to answer and definition: http://www.congresslink.org/glossary.html#P.)

A. Commensurable depiction
B. Proportional representation
C. Equivalent delineation
D. Symmetrical portraiture

True or False: Forty-five delegates from 13 states, including Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia in May 1787 to develop a new structure for the government
Answer: False -- (fifty-five delegates met)

Answers to December' s issue of Fun, Facts, and Trivia link here: http://www.webcommunicator.org/funfactstrivia1201ans.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 .