The Consitution

Gr 4–8—Kids Discover continues to engineer their award-winning print magazines into well-designed apps. This one provides history aficionados with a thorough introduction to the idiosyncratic state politics leading up to the drafting of the Constitution. Also highlighted are the role of James Madison and his Virginia plan in instigating not only a revision of the Articles of Confederation, but a drafting of a new document. One of the outstanding interactive features of the app is an historical map of U.S. expansion. Upon tapping a year, the states fly into a map, giving viewers an animated experience of the growing territories, underlying the need for a central government despite well-founded fears.The content-a mixture of live video, cartoon drawings, animation, sliding captions, question-and-answer flip-cards, scrolling introductory text, and a virtual tour of the Supreme Court-will keep youngsters engaged. Most of the information is in paragraph-length captions to photos, archival images, or well-rendered watercolors. The succinct descriptions of the amendments will be useful in the classroom, as will the discussion of ratification, judicial review, and the debate between originalists, and those who deem the document as "living," flexible enough to respond to unforeseen social and technological changes. The recent refusal to hear a case regarding surveillance as unconstitutional is a timely example of judicial review. The "Constitution gone Crazy" game where viewers swipe selected red words of the Preamble until they get the right one is like a multiple choice mad-lib game and not to be missed. For more in-depth information, consider some of the free, text-heavy apps that cover aspects such as Constitution and Federalist Papers (Multieducator Inc.; in-app purchases).—Sara Lissa Paulson, PS 347—"47." The American Sign Language & English Lower School