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Burning Hatred
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20021213friday.html

This lesson is geared towards junior high and high school US History/Government classes. Students evaluate the First Amendment and constitutionality of radical acts such as cross and flag burnings. To start the class, take selected pictures from several websites and projecting them onto a screen. If a SMARTBoard is available, student can write their responses on the board. If not, a chalk/whiteboard will suffice.

There are both positives and negatives to a controversial lesson such as this one. Students are allowed to discuss and debate a hot-button topic in the form of a mock trial. A drawback to this lesson is the time constraints. The lesson is comprised of three significant exercises squeezed into one period. This can prove to be dangerous in lessons of controversy. These types of lessons need more time to develop in order to show multiple sides of an issue in order to exclude extreme bias. These time constraints will also negatively impact the lesson's effectiveness on special needs students who sometimes need a little extra time.

Money Bags
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20030206thursday.html

This lesson is created for junior high and high school history and economics classes. Students learn what a budget is; it also looks at the structure of the US budget. Students use the internet to research several sections of the US budget.

This is a wonderful short lesson on the American economic system. Many students do not receive exposure to the basics of our economy. It also allows them to investigate and discuss how budget allotments affect the students directly by analyzing funds appropriated to education. Unfortunately, it does not give the students an opportunity to analyze other sectors of the budget in depth to give them a clearer picture of the items that our government prioritizes.

A Quest for Peace in the Middle East
http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/mid-east/index.htm

This webquest is designed for a high school world history or current events course. The webquest allows students to use the internet to set up for a presentation/debate on how to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine. It also uses presentation software (such as PowerPoint) and an optional blog to enhance the lesson. 
 
It encompasses many aspects of what a good webquest should. It gives students the opportunity to fit different roles for students with different strengths. Also, it has encompassed all the resources that one would need to complete the project, however, the websites used for the facts and arguments are probably not the best. It is set up with sites for Israeli and Palestinian Perspectives, which is needed for the debate, but especially on this issue, I think more tactful and useful site should have been used. One of its best features is its setup and the many different activities including a debate, blog and others.

World War II: In Defense of Freedom http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/WW2/index.htm

This webquest is based upon the events of WWII and is designed for the US History II course. The webquest requires students to use the internet to look up information for the timeline and essay. Also, students must use a word processor (such as Microsoft Word) to type a persuasive essay. If there is access to concept mapping software (such as Inspiration), the students can create a digital concept map.

This assignment is fantastic for a persuasive essay. It gives a new spin on the typical research paper to allow an enjoyable writing experience for those students who are averse to written assignments. The major issue with this webquest is the lack of opposition against the United States entering WWII. In a persuasive essay students should be able to analyze both sides of an argument, choose a side, and then persuade the reader that his/her side is the right one to be on.

Affluenza
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/map/map.html

This group of assignments is designed as an interdisciplinary approach to teaching a selected topic to high school students. The assignment can be used collectively or individually in Social Studies, Language Arts, Mathematics, Art, Economics, Communications, and Business classes. It uses a video as a prompt for discussion.

The assignment is wonderfully diverse in the topics it covers surrounding the affluence of America. Taking small segments of video allows the technology to be used efficiently to prompt serious questions and discussion on a major issue in American society today. The largest drawback to the assignment is the fact that it revolves solely around the video, which requires its purchase.