An Interactive Activity for Teaching the Supreme Court of the United States

If you are looking for an activity that isn't just test prep, but an interactive civics experience, this Supreme Court of the United States virtual field trip is a great option.

This activity moves beyond memorization and instead has your students connect with how the Supreme Court of the United States shapes everyday life. From understanding how laws are interpreted to seeing the human stories beyond court decisions, your students build the kind of civic literacy that lasts.

This is an interactive virtual field trip that is designed to support critical thinking. All of the content, interactive links, and response questions are built into the slides to make it an easy-to-implement lesson.

In this SCOTUS activity, your students will virtually step inside the iconic hallways, learn how justices decide cases, and engage with landmark decisions that have shaped the nation's laws and rights. This activity starts with the basics to help demystify how the Court works.

This virtual field trip covers:

:: Where is the Supreme Court Building?

:: What is the Importance?

:: The Marble Palace

:: Exterior Features

:: SCOTUS Membership

:: Qualifications

:: Indefinite Tenure

:: Appointing a New Justice

:: The Bronze Doors

:: The Great Hall

:: Case Selection

:: Court Chamber

:: Photos Are Forbidden

:: Deciding a Case

:: Majority v. Dissenting Opinion

:: Judicial Review (Marbury v. Madison)

:: Civil Rights Cases (Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education)

:: Equal Protection & Due Process (Loving v. Virginia, Obergefell v. Hodges)

:: Interpretation of the Law

:: Supreme Court Staff

:: The Basketball Court

:: Supreme Court Library

:: Retirement

This virtual field trip can be conducted teacher-led or shared with students through Google Classroom (or your school LMS) as an independent assignment. Everything is set up for you.

Student directions are found within the lesson, and direct links are included to specific Google Earth™ locations for your students to explore virtually. Within the slides are links to short YouTube videos. These videos are designed to present information in a concise and meaningful way.

This virtual field trip is structured. This means that the informational text and links are meaningful and are meant to lead students to think critically as they respond to the questions throughout the virtual field trip. This lesson is designed to build essential civics knowledge.

The response questions are also a great way to keep students accountable as they learn and explore. All response questions are editable, so you can tailor to your class needs.

The landmark cases included in this lesson are designed to open the door for students to think critically about how legal interpretation evolves over time and affects real people.

This lesson includes a grading rubric to assess student responses for accuracy, thoroughness, validity, and writing conventions.

This activity is standards-aligned. It is designed to meet the Washington State Social Studies standards, but can easily crosswalk to other state social studies standards. As well, this is aligned with the Common Core Standards for Reading Informational Text.

You can find this ready-to-go activity here: Supreme Court of the United States Virtual Field Trip