The institute is divided into three levels, as follows:

101: This 40-hour training begins with an in-depth study of the Declaration of Independence. Participants will then be taken through the ancient and European origins of the U.S. Constitution, followed by the American origins. The training will continue with a famous Federalist debating a famous Anti-Federalist over whether a New York State convention should vote to ratify the Constitution in 1788.

Then attending teachers will be taken on a walk through the seven articles of the Constitution. The remainder of the time will be spent studying the First Amendment and famous Supreme Court cases on the First Amendment, including the current term cases.

The agenda is divided into blocks of time spent with scholars, followed by break-out sessions where activities are demonstrated on the curriculum covered in the scholar sessions.

201: Available to those teachers who have completed the 101 session, the advanced session begins with a look at the "Ladder of the Bill of Rights." The remainder of the three-day, 18-hour institute is spent studying Amendments Two through 10, along with Supreme Court cases decided under each of these amendments. Break-out sessions follow each scholar session with activities on the Bill of Rights.

301: The one-day, seven-hour Update Session is available to those teachers who have previously attended both 101 and 201. Participants will spend most of the time discussing Supreme Court cases that have been decided during the past few years with the scholars. They will also receive a new activity guide, which includes lessons on Federalism and writing.

Participants in this program will learn to integrate field research activities into their classroom curricula using the Schoodic Education Adventure program. The two-day institute investigates opportunities to collect field data, apply it to classroom lessons across the curricula, and connect it to real world applications in America's national parks.

Participants will create schoolyard investigation kits to take back to their classrooms; be introduced to outdoor, field-based activities that can be reproduced in a number of settings; learn classroom-based activities relating to science, social studies, technology, math, language arts, small group communication, public speaking, art, health, and citizenship; use GPS units and computers to create digital maps of study sites; and qualify for student scholarships and transportation assistance to take their students to the Schoodic Education Adventure program.

Workshop activities highlight studying forest community structure, marine biodiversity, geology, soil development, and New England history.

This workshop will consider the myths and realities of four themes central to the figure of Abraham Lincoln. First, participants will examine Lincoln and American Nationalism. To more fully understand this theme, they will examine how historians have portrayed Lincoln over time. A starting point for this examination will be reading from primary sources including Lincoln's Message to Congress in Special Session (July 4, 1861), followed by selected sections from secondary sources: James McPherson's Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, and Barry Schwartz's Lincoln at the Millennium. Central to this examination is the question of how Lincoln used history, especially the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers, to develop his rhetorical defense of the Union and justification for action. Second, participants will consider Lincoln and power. The examination of this theme centers on the dilemma of how to fight a civil war and preserve civil liberties. Lincoln scholars will provide participants with opportunities to discuss how Lincoln attempted to preserve the Union without sacrificing the Constitution. The investigation begins with required reading of selections from David Donald's Lincoln and David Potter's Jefferson Davis and the Political Factors in Confederate Defeat. Participants will probe critical issues such as suspension of habeas corpus, censorship of the press, and declaration of martial law through reading Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. Third, participants will consider Lincoln and freedom. It has been argued that Lincoln changed the meaning of the Constitution. Participants will investigate this theme by first reading the Gettysburg Address and selected letters in which Lincoln describes his vision of equality. Then, they will analyze selections from Garry Wills's 1992 The Words that Remade America, which suggests that the change went beyond the relationship between the federal government and the states to the relationship between the federal government and the individual. How might Lincoln's words, "a new birth of freedom" suggest change in the vision of equality? Finally, participants will consider Lincoln and race. They will examine the Emancipation Proclamation and the complex issue of race in America. Readings for this theme draw on selections from the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Emancipation Proclamation and selected Lincoln letters, and readings from Lerone Bennet's Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist? and Philip Shaw Paludan's Emancipating the Republic: Lincoln and the Means and Ends of Antislavery. Much of Lincoln's position of honor in American history rests upon his action to free the slaves. Yet, some view the proclamation as an empty gesture or even a conservative attempt to forestall more radical action. These discussions will provide participants with an opportunity to explore the evolution of Lincoln's attitude toward emancipation that culminated in his support for the 13th Amendment.

Designed for high school social studies teachers who teach United States history and government, this intensive week-long workshop will immerse participants in early American history "on location" in Williamsburg, the restored capital city of 18th-century Virginia, and nearby Jamestown and Yorktown. 25 teachers and a returning mentor teacher will be selected for each session. Participants will be involved in an interdisciplinary approach to teaching social studies with colonial American history as the focus. Teachers will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with noted historians, meet character interpreters, and take part in reenactments of 18th-century events. They will review various interactive teaching techniques with a mentor teacher and with each other. Instructional materials in a variety of media will be provided to participants to use in their classrooms. Together with Colonial Williamsburg staff, teachers will prepare new instructional materials for use in their own classrooms.

How did World War I affect politics in the United States? Why did the prestige and power of American business dramatically increase in the 1920s? What explains the remarkable cultural ferment of this period? What place did religious and spiritual values assume in the United States during the 1920s? How did concepts of citizenship and national identity change in the decade after World War I? How did women and African Americans struggle to advance social equality? How did modernizing and traditional forces clash during the decade?

This institute will explore these and other questions through history, literature, and art. Under the direction of leading scholars, participants will examine such issues as immigration, prohibition, radicalism, changing moral standards, and evolution to discover how the forces of modernity and traditionalism made the 1920s both liberating and repressive. Participants will assist National Humanities Center staff in identifying texts and defining lines of inquiry for a new addition to the Center's Toolbox Library, which provides online resources for teacher professional development and classroom instruction.

Participants in this workshop will travel throughout the Delta as they visit sites where significant events occurred. They will discuss and learn about issues involving civil rights and political leadership, immigrants' experiences in the Delta, the Blues, the great migration, agriculture, and the Mississippi River, among other things. They will sample Delta foods, visit local museums, and listen to the Blues. Field trips will roam as far as Greenville, Greenwood, and Memphis, with stops in between.