September 17 marks the 220th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The Bill of Rights, which comprises the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, is the current focus of many national events, policies, laws and the issues that arise from them.

Students are very familiar with many of these issues and their relationship to the Bill of Rights because they have been well-publicized in newspaper and TV special reports:

• Mass Killings by a Virginia Tech student: gun control (2nd Amendment)
• The Patriot Act and unreasonable search and seizure (4th Amendment)
• Child pornography as freedom of speech (1st Amendment)
• The automatic legal citizenship of children born in the United States (14th Amendment)
• Freedom of religion and new funding support for religious schools and charities (1st Amendment)
• Treatment of prisoners -- Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay (6th and 8th Amendments)

Activity: Assign one of these issues (or add to the list), selecting from the list of Leading Issues associated most closely to the issues above. SIRS Researcher offers teachers a unique five-step process to study and learn and then four unique models for their students to present their learning through reasoned conclusions.

These models integrate 21st-century skills and critical thinking in the process. The models recommended for this research are ones that require two or three days to complete. Each model integrates the five-step research process that helps students and teachers use minimum time to develop maximum learning.

Click the Educators' Resources link at the top of the Search page. Look for these unique models correlated with the content and process steps of Leading Issues. They include two teacher management versions to support the four student models and guides:

• Guide to Writing a Research Paper
• Guide to Writing a Mini-Research Paper; also a correlated teacher guide
• Guide to Creating a Mini-Debate; also a correlated Teacher guide
• Guide to Creating a PowerPoint Presentation