Celebrated on September 17, Constitution Day and Citizenship Day commemorates the 1787 signing of the US Constitution and honors all citizens, including naturalized ones. It promotes civic education regarding the document’s history and rights, while highlighting the responsibilities of American citizenship and encouraging community engagement.
The education team at KQED, the public media station serving the San Francisco Bay Area, has introduced Podcasting Democracy: Understanding the Constitution to Inspire Civic Change, a free, standards-aligned curriculum created to help middle school and high school students connect constitutional principles to issues that matter in their lives today by creating civic commentary podcasts.
Podcasting Democracy covers the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and gives students a fresh look at democracy’s fundamental principles. After studying these foundational documents, students use what they’ve learned to create their own commentary podcasts, advocating for an issue they care about and applying constitutional principles as the foundation of their argument. It’s a student-centric, content-focused way to boost students’ voices and engage them in civic discourse.
With separate curriculum units for middle school and high school American history, civics, and government classes, Podcasting Democracy combines civic inquiry, media literacy, and audio storytelling in a flexible format designed for classroom practice. Students engage in hands-on learning experiences using the media techniques and skills required for podcasting and audio production.
When students share their podcasts on the KQED Youth Media Challenge Showcase, their work joins more than 12,000 submissions from students who have created media projects to amplify their opinions and ideas about topics that matter to youth across the US and the world.
Members of KQED’s education team developed the curriculum in partnership with experienced social studies educators. Twenty teachers across the US piloted the curriculum in the fall of the 2025–26 school year.