The Third Branch
You have met Congress and the president. This is the branch with no army and no purse — and the last word. First the machine below is live — play it, tap it, watch it move. Then three sets of questions turn what you saw into evidence: the basics, how cases move, and the power with its checks.
No score is kept. No points, no streak, no ranking — the only number anyone writes down is the one your teacher writes down, standing next to you.
The machine at a glance
Ten stops — play them like a film, or tap through. The picture moves: chairs light up, a case climbs the ladder, nine justices hand down a ruling, a law is struck down. None of it is a test. Every stop ends at the set of questions where that idea is practiced for real.
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.
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 — this is the quiz, practiced. At the bottom, write the one sentence: who writes the laws, who carries them out, who decides what they mean.
- 1Three branches share the government's work. Which branch decides what a law MEANS when people disagree about it?
- 2What is the highest court in the United States?
- 3The judicial branch's whole job, said in one line:
- 4How many justices sit on the Supreme Court today?
- 5Who leads the Supreme Court?
- 6A seat opens on the Supreme Court. How is it filled?
- 7How long does a federal judge serve?
- 8The Supreme Court rules that a law violates the Constitution. What happens to that law?
There is no right answer here. It only tells your teacher where to start next time.
The third branch, held in one hand.
Notice what every wrong answer had in common: it put a job in the wrong branch's hands. Sort the three jobs — write, execute, interpret — and the quiz becomes a sorting exercise you have already done twenty-four times.
The stretch is a choice. Taking it — or leaving it for another day — are both strong moves.
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 judicial 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
- —
Built for a judicial-branch quiz, with the two quizzes already taken folded in: items 1–5 are the court itself; 6–8 are the three branches working on each other, so legislative and executive stay warm. Set 1 is the basics, Set 2 courts and cases (Marbury, Marshall), Set 3 the power and its meaning (judicial review, precedent, Dred Scott). Every wrong option's feedback names the branch that answer really belongs to — the miss is the review. The machine at a glance up top is instruction, never a trial: it records nothing and changes no probe number, and every stop's Practice link lands on the set where that idea is asked for real — play it whole for the student who needs to watch first, hand the buttons to the student who needs to act on it, and let the last stops carry the tension question for the student who needs one more hill.
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.