What is Civics Inquiry?

Our Civics Inquiry series features ready-to-use, high-quality lessons rooted in the inquiry-based curriculum model. Inquiry is a learning process that engages students by making real-world connections through discovery, exploration, and high-level questioning. Inquiry encourages students to engage in problem-solving and experiential learning.

Our Civics Inquiry Lessons follow a 5E model as educators facilitate student-centered learning through activities that ask the young scholars to engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Each lesson aligns with our We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution curriculum, the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies, and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap.

At the heart of the Center’s inquiry approach is the recognition that inquiry is the primary mode of instruction in the civic education classroom and drives the most equitable practices. Civic education is not confined to the pages of a curriculum. It unfolds in dynamic spaces where students drive the questions. They investigate constitutional history, experience democratic principles firsthand, and engage in civil dialogue. They channel their new knowledge, skills, and dispositions toward informed engagement with the world around them.