Blue Keystone
Pennsylvania Projects - Who represents you? My Government in Pennsylvania Project

Our government is composed of many different representative bodies. Most interesting is the fact that the governmental bodies who represent and control your life vary, depending on where your home is located.

For example, not all citizens are represented by a mayor. Some offices have more than one elected official. Townships may have multiple people who serve as equals. Officials may represent a defined district or they may serve "at-large". These people make the important decisions and set policies that impact your life every day. It is important to know who they are.

Discover who represents you at each level of government. Begin with the governmental bodies closest to your home. Identify only the elected officials. Work up through the governmental organizations to the Commonwealth's Chief Executive.

Helpful resources: the Internet, the library, the phonebook, the local newspaper.

I. Use a table in a word processing document or a spreadsheet doc. like this one to organize the information you collect.

Body of Government
Name of office / Name of Current holder
Term / Year for reelection
Example - United States President / Joe Biden
4 years/ 2024

 

II. In the most recent election, who was the largest contributor to your state representative and to your state senator?
Followthemoney.org

 

 

III. Which one of these elected offices would you consider running for and why?

 

Extra Credit:

Identify who represents you at the Federal level. (You may actually find this easier than the local part of the project!)

 

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."- Theodore Roosevelt

Extend you investigations:

Citizen's Guide to Pennsylvania Local Government Government of Pennsylvania by the Numbers
Pennsylvania County Government Project Citizen Rights of Pennsylvania and the United States Activity
Running for Office - how to project Examine your Government's Demographic Statistics
Government by the People - Initiative and Referendum Elections & Voting
Pennsylvania Ballot Access Evaluate Government web site
A Citizens' Guide to a Modern Constitutional Convention in PA.  

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Posted 2/12/2006 by Cynthia J. O'Hora, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Aligned with the National Standards for Civics and Government
Aligned with the following Pennsylvania Academic Standards - Civics and Government - 5.3. How Government Works

A. Identify the elected representative bodies responsible for making local, Pennsylvania and United States laws.
A. Compare the structure, organization and operation of local, state and national governments.
B. Describe the responsibilities and powers of the three branches of government.
E. Identify major leaders of local, state and national governments, their primary duties and their political party affiliation.

tree icon How to use a Digital Answer Sheet: Save frequently as you work. I do not like losing my work. You will not like it either. Put a title, your name and the date in a document header. Bad things happen. Retain a copy of your work on your computer. Submit your assignment via a class electronic drop box or email attachment.

Proof your responses. It is funny how speling errors and typeos sneak in to the bets work. smiling icon Make Your Own Printed answer sheet

Tech Tip: Working in a group or in two different places like the library & home? You do not have to be physically together to work together.
gold starWatch Google Docs video TAI - How could you use free, Google Docs to do a project? How would this facilitate group projects?