Richard Byrne has discovered yet another gem is his long list of exceptional online finds (which is why you should subscribe to his blog if you haven’t already done so)– Constitute.

It’s been created by the University of Texas at Austin and funded by Google, and provides an easily searchable database of the constitutions from 160 countries. The really extraordinary feature is the ability to search for common themes (click “browse topics”). I’ve embedded a screenshot of what that page looks like below, just to give you a taste of the site’s possiblities:

constitute

If you, like many other teachers, have used a version of the well-known Rethinking Schools lesson on the constitution and the Bill of Rights (I provide students excerpts of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the South African Bill of Rights, have students compare them our own, and then students develop one for their own imaginary country — with justifications), then you can see how valuable a site like Constitute could be. It’s ability to easily search can enhance that lesson, as well as others, by letting students do a much more in-depth comparison to multiple nations.

Here’s a video Richard found on Constitute:

I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For “Bill Of Rights Day.”