Help me develop a cool U.S. gov project

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have been asked by a teacher to help develop a project for her U.S. government class.
Sections in her class include, of course, executive, legislative, judiciary branches and civil liberties and rights

She asked me to keep these criteria in mind about the assignment:

Her students want to learn something they can use in their daily lives.
The topics or questions must be non-partisan.
The project must be more than a research paper, ideally it will have several components.
The work can be done by groups.

What do you think would interest and is of relevance to a 18 year old?
(I am requesting legitimate ideas, but will tolerate/can’t stop smart-ass answers. :wink: )

For instance, a topic that immediately comes to mind is, “Would an invasion of Iraq be just?” However, if/when we invade Iraq I question how much it will affect me in my daily life. And we may have invaded Iraq before they start working on the project.
I also thought about campaign finance reform & having students use www.followthemoney.org ,
but I really would like thought-provoking creative topics &
any fun, fairly clean relevant web sites.
Inspiration is not striking me, so I’ve come to the board.

I hope this is in the right forum & know that you guys are certainly creative.
Here’s your chance to help educate those youngsters…
All (on the level) suggestions are much appreciated. : p

2

I’d think that file sharing programs would interest the average 18yo, so something along the lines of copyright infringement.

3

I think privacy is a big issue with this age group. Privacy living with family, privacy at schools, privacy with respect to law enforcement, privacy on the Internet, etc. This is a big topic with respect to “homeland security” and national security. *Enemy of the State * is an entertaining movie touching on privacy issues. ACLU has stuff on privacy: http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/PrivacyMain.cfm
Their “bust card” may be of interest to 18 year olds: http://archive.aclu.org/library/bustcard.html

I don’t know how non-partisan this is.

4

I know 18 year olds are fond of using P2P software to download music.

And the Patriot Act may have far reaching consequences on civil liberties.

And if some web sites take a strong position they can always be balanced with web sites supporting the counter position.

Any other topic suggestions?

Thank muchly,
JL