Constitutional Amendment Timeline¶
Learning Objective¶
Students will identify (Bloom L1 — Remember) the amendments covered in this course and explain (Bloom L2 — Understand) the historical context that drove each amendment's ratification.
- Bloom Level: Understand (L2)
- Bloom Verb: Identify, Explain
- Library: vis-timeline
Specification¶
The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 2: "Chapter 2: The Constitution and Bill of Rights".
Type: timeline
**sim-id:** constitutional-amendments-timeline<br/>
**Library:** vis-timeline<br/>
**Status:** Specified
**Learning objective:** Students will *identify* (Bloom L1 — Remember) the amendments covered in this course and *explain* (Bloom L2 — Understand) the historical context that drove each amendment's ratification.
**Design:**
- Horizontal timeline spanning 1791 to present
- Each of the 27 amendments is a clickable dot; clicking reveals: amendment number, ratification year, one-sentence summary, and a "historical driver" field explaining the crisis or political movement that produced it
- Color-coded by era: Bill of Rights (blue), Civil War amendments (red), Progressive Era (green), 20th-century expansions (orange), other (gray)
- The amendments covered in this chapter (1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 26th) are highlighted with a star icon
- A "Filter by Era" dropdown lets students view only amendments from a selected historical period
- Responsive: collapses to vertical scrolling list on mobile
**Key era groupings:**
- 1791: Bill of Rights (amendments 1–10)
- 1865–1870: Civil War amendments (13th, 14th, 15th)
- 1913–1919: Progressive Era (16th income tax, 17th direct election of senators, 18th Prohibition, 19th women's suffrage)
- 1933–1971: New Deal / Civil Rights Era (20th, 21st repeal of Prohibition, 22nd presidential term limits, 24th poll tax abolished, 25th presidential succession, 26th voting age 18)
- 1992: 27th (congressional pay raises, originally proposed 1789)