Architecture of Grace
Social Studies · A More Perfect Union

The Interior — Social Studies

A More Perfect Union · Activity 10 — The First Branch. Congress, practiced kindly — or print it and use a pencil, both count.

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Social Studies · Activity 10

The First Branch

Article I comes first because the founders expected this branch to lead: two rooms, one pen, and the purse. The two rooms below are live — play them, tap them, watch a bill walk. Then three sets: the basics, the road a bill travels, and the powers at work in this era.

Show me one first

This one is nobody's answer — it is only here to show the moves before you touch yours. Watching it is instruction, never a trial, and it counts toward nothing.

A town wants a new speed-limit law. Who can actually write it into law — the mayor's police, a judge, or the town council?
Sort the jobs: police ENFORCE — that is executive work. A judge INTERPRETS — judicial work. Neither holds the pen.
The council — the town's little legislature. The pen always belongs to the branch that represents; scale it up and you have Congress.

Now number 1 is yours. The hint button is there the whole time, and using it is part of the lesson.

Answer in your own words. At the bottom, draw the road a bill travels: committee → both houses → the president's desk — and mark where a veto can turn it back.

  1. 1Which branch writes the nation's laws?
  2. 2Congress has two houses. What are they called?
  3. 3In which house does a state's number of seats depend on its population?
  4. 4How many senators does each state send, and for how long?
  5. 5Besides writing laws, which of these powers belongs to Congress?
  6. 6The president vetoes a bill Congress passed. What can Congress do?
  7. 7A president signs a treaty and nominates a judge. Who must say yes before either counts?
  8. 8A president or judge is accused of serious misconduct. Which branch can remove them — and how?
How confident are you with this skill?

There is no right answer here. It only tells your teacher where to start next time.

For the teacher — this device only

One probe row, built from what happened on this screen. Nothing is sent anywhere — copy it into the Goal Builder yourself, or print this page. Independent means answered with no hints; supported means answered after a hint. Both are real evidence and neither is a grade.

Date
—
Skill
Explain the legislative branch and its checks on — and from — the other branches
Measure
Trials (x of y)
Independent
0 of 8
Supported
0 of 8
Hints used
0
Confidence
—

Review for the legislative-branch quiz already taken, kept warm beside the judicial one: items 1–5 are Congress itself; 6–8 are the branches working on each other. Set 1 the basics, Set 2 how a bill becomes law, Set 3 the powers and the era (enumerated powers, the elastic clause, the compromises as Congress's craft). Wrong-answer feedback always names the branch the answer really belongs to. The two-rooms panel up top is the h9 machine seam cloned for Congress: ten stops, three scenes (the Capitol's two rooms, the bill road WITH the committee stage this page's own item teaches — h14's packet-aligned simulation deliberately omits it, a different page on purpose — and the powers), each stop's Practice link landing on the right set. It records nothing and changes no probe number.

Three doors on this page: Show me one first is a worked example and counts toward nothing; the eight items are the walk; and a finished set opens One more, if you want it — a stretch with two tries and the thinking shown warmly either way. Whether each door was used rides along when a probe row is copied or sent — as information, never as a score.

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