Government Smackdown: Federalism

This lesson plan has to deal with the concept of federalism, specifically looking at Ohio’s Issue 3. The Origins article that we chose to use was an article that dealt with federalism on a different level. The article compared the history of alcohol prohibition back in the early 1900’s to the legalization of Marijuana today. We decided to use this article because it specifically hits upon the concepts of state rights and federal rights. The article also does a great job of comparing the past prohibition of alcohol with that of marijuana today. After introducing the Origins article, we will provide the students with a general overview of Ohio’s Issue 3. They will also have time to go to ballotpedia.org and research the Issue more in-depth. After researching and learning about Issue 3 they will complete a handout called, “Is It Legal?” They will have to contemplate whether or not the action is legal or illegal within state and/or federal law. The students will then move onto the last part of class, which will be to discuss as small groups and then as a class whether or not federalism actually works or does it do the opposite, and make the government more complicated. Again students will discuss as a small group and class and then they will decide for their own on an exit slip to hand in before leaving the classroom. Students will have to back up their argument with examples from the Origins article and Ohio’s Issue 3.