Skip to Main Content | Colorblind Mode: On • Off

Chapter 2: The Founding and the Constitution
Get Involved

How much do you know about the content and the history of the United States Constitution? If your answer is “Not much,” you are not alone. Public opinion surveys, quizzing Americans of all ages, often find many with a low comprehension of the United States government.

A 2005 survey by Harris Interactive, on behalf of the American Bar Association, found that only a narrow majority of Americans could identify the three branches of their government as the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

Fortunately, if you are interested in learning more about the Constitution, and about America’s “Founding Era,” there have never been as many resources available online for you to research.
1. There is no substitute, when studying the United States constitution, for reading the document itself, and other documents of its era. The Avalon Project at Yale University at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/18th.asp has an extensive list of eighteenth-century documents online that accompany the Constitution.

Of special interest are the online notes that James Madison took of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, located at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/debcont.asp, where you can read the actual debates surrounding the Constitution.

What did the “Founding Fathers” in Philadelphia have to say about slavery? Read the discussion on August 22, 1787, and summarize the debate.
1b. What did the “Founding Fathers” say about the possibility of impeaching the executive branch? Read the discussion on July 20, 1787, and summarize the debate.
2. After you have done some research, test your “Constitution IQ” at ConstitutionFacts.com. This website provides several quizzes that test basic facts about the Constitution and American government.

Take the quick, 10-question Constitution I.Q. quiz located at: http://www.constitutionfacts.com/index.cfm?page=quiz.cfm

What is the longest possible time a person can serve as President of the United States? Why?
2b. What does it mean for an accused person to invoke the Fifth Amendment?
2c. How did you score on the quiz? What is your Constitution I.Q. according to the quiz results? What is the average score for people from your state? What is the average score nationally?

Submit to Gradebook:

First Name:
 
Last Name:
 
Your Email Address:
 
Your Professor's Email Address:
 
Section:

Print This Page

In This Chapter

Everyday politicsblog.com is an exciting and unique online forum where students and instructors can see how key ideas and themes from Norton’s American government texts help to explain today’s headlines and political trends.

Norton Ebooks

The ebook version We the People, Seventh Edition, offers the full content of the print version at half the price.

Norton Ebooks

The Norton Gradebook

Instructors and students now have an easy way to track online quiz scores with the Norton Gradebook.

Norton Gradebook


Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to increase civic engagement and political participation.