The story of the relationship between two of America’s Charters of Freedom — the Bill of Rights and the Constitution — is told in “Congress Creates the Bill of Rights,” a free resource for teachers and students consisting of an eBook, a mobile app for tablets and online resources. Each piece provides a distinct way of exploring how the First Congress proposed amendments to the Constitution in 1789, how the ratification of the Constitution necessitated the creation of the Bill of Rights and how the creation of the Bill of Rights, in turn, completed the Constitution.

The eBook is available for download on computers and in the iTunes and the iBook store for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The app is available for download on iPads in the App Store and on Android devices in Google Play.

The .pdf version of “Congress Creates the Bill of Rights” contains all the content of the app divided into four sections: Get the Background; Go inside the First Congress; Amendments in Process; and Join the Debate. Each section contains a hyperlinked table of contents and each page contains a menu box back to the table of contents.

The online resources available for teachers and students present questions, lesson ideas and supporting resources selected to facilitate learning with the app and eBook.

Studying how Congress created the Bill of Rights can teach vital lessons about the timeless principles of American civic life, the history of representative government and strengthen students’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities in civic life today.