Courseware Designed To Engage American Government Students (2024)

Now with all 15 missions in Connect!

What is Connect?

Connect for Political Science is a complete course platform that enables instructors to build deeper connections with their students through the assignment of digital content and tools, creating engaging learning experiences. Political scientists have reported that students display stronger critical thinking skills and improved academic performance as a result of using Connect.

SmartBook

Available within Connect, SmartBook 2.0 personalizes learning to individual student needs, continually adapting to pinpoint knowledge gaps and focus learning on concepts requiring additional study. For instructors, SmartBook tracks student progress and provides insights that guide teaching strategies and advanced instruction, for a more dynamic class experience.

NewsFlash

NewsFlash answers the challenge of helping students see the relevance of the American Government course through scaffolded activities and assessment questions that integrate the news (updated monthly) with relevant course content. Key government concepts and learning objectives are applied to analyze up-to-date articles, videos, TedTalks, and other media through assignments in Connect. After interacting with a contemporary news story, students are assessed on their ability to make the connection between real-life events and course content.

Click on the image to the right to watch a short video about this feature.

Podcasts

Freshen classes and gain increased flexibility to design a dynamic learning environment, with available bi-annual podcast episodes. Deepen students’ understanding of real-life politics with over 100 assignable discussions and debate through the storytelling power of actual podcasts.

Practice: Government

Practice: Government, McGraw Hill’s educational game focused on the American political system, can now be played inside Connect! Fifteen “missions” that capture the arc of a legislator’s professional life (running for office; introducing and passing legislation; fundraising) pair with auto-graded and open-ended critical-thinking questions to harness the power of "learning by doing," all conveniently delivered within Connect.

Click on the image at right to watch a short video about this feature.

Concept Clips

Concept clips are brief, clear, and engaging videos using easy-to-understand narration, animations, and visual cues that walk students through the more difficult concepts in the American government course (e.g., the Electoral College; Supreme Court procedures). Videos also teach valuable skills to deploy—in life as well as in social science classes!—such as how to evaluate a public opinion poll, and how to evaluate news sources.

Click on the image at right to watch a short video about this feature.

Interactive Data

Connect’s Interactive Data activities provide valuable scaffolding to support political data visualizations that help students gain insight into factors that shape our political process. Learners can review electoral turnout over time or contemplate how demographic shifts in the American population will impact future elections. These interactive charts and maps are paired with auto-graded and critical-thinking questions to assess students’ mastery of the content.