Constitutional Civic Inquiries
GRADES 9–12: WE THE PEOPLE, LEVEL 3
Compelling Question: Should Congress regulate social media for teens?
Time Required: Two class periods, plus one summative assessment
Overview
Congressional committee work is where most legislation is actually researched, debated, and shaped — and it is the part of the process students see least. This lesson opens that work up through an issue students live inside daily. Using the Senate Commerce Subcommittee's hearings on social media and teen well-being as the case study, students examine how committees investigate, question witnesses, and build the record that legislation rests on, while wrestling with whether Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate a platform at all.
What Students Will Do
Students decode a provocative quotation about children and digital life, then study how congressional committees and subcommittees function. They analyze authentic hearing material — whistleblower testimony before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee, contemporaneous news coverage, and the enumerated powers that would have to support any regulation — building a research organizer on the documented effects of social media on teens. The lesson culminates in a full simulated congressional hearing in which students defend a position on regulation and respond to questions from the committee, followed by structured self-reflection.
Student Outcomes
By completing this lesson, students will be able to examine the role of committees and subcommittees within the legislative process, analyze whether Congress's enumerated powers extend to regulating social media, appraise evidence on both sides of the question of social media's impact on teenagers, and defend a reasoned position under questioning in a simulated hearing. Students will also strengthen source analysis, consensus building, and responsible decision-making.