Students will launch the podcast inquiry by examining how Enlightenment ideas about power, rights, and government still shape civic life, then define the project challenge, identify their audience, and draft focused inquiry questions grounded in packet evidence.

Students will evaluate Enlightenment source packets, compare how thinkers explained power and rights, and turn their packet evidence into a focused research pathway for the podcast.

Students will test and document how clearly their draft podcast episode explains Enlightenment ideas, connects a thinker to the American Revolution or U.S. government, and uses listener feedback and evidence from packet sources to improve the episode before public sharing.

Students will present the impact of Enlightenment thinking through their podcast work, analyze how their understanding changed across the week, and reflect on how sources such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Machiavelli, Blackstone, Jefferson, and the Enlightenment packet helped them connect past arguments about power to modern civic decisions.

Students will use their packet evidence on Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Machiavelli, Blackstone, Jefferson, and the Enlightenment to exampine the enlightenment thinkers ideas and then use a current event, law, handbook or founding document or law that is affected by these founding ideas. It can be aligned or misaligned. Where can we find it today or where can we.