Apple honors John F. Kennedy centenary with educational resources celebrating his legacy

[Jacob Black]

Apple is celebrating the centenary of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy with the release of educational materials and activities for students to learn about Kennedy's legacy, with the collection created in collaboration with the JFK library covering subjects including the establishment of the Peace Corps, political courage, the drive for innovation, and inclusion.
Published on Monday in Apple's Education site, the JFK Centennial Celebration offers teachers a number of resources they can use within the classroom. The collection is divided up into four subject areas, with each linking to speeches by Kennedy and related items, as well as suggesting a class activity relating to the linked material.

For "JFK and Service," the page links readers to his 1961 inaugural address, which features the famous quote "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" and led to the establishment of the U.S. Peace Corps. Apple links to the Peace Corps Community Resources podcast, as well as suggests the use of the JFK Challenge app, which lets students go through a virtual Pace Corps mission to Colombia from an iPad.

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To define political courage, Kennedy's book "Profiles in Courage" is highlighted, with the suggestion for students to read excerpts to identify its characteristics. To help teach the lesson, the site hints that students could then create a Keynote presentation to tell the story of a "current local, national, or international profile in political courage," which could also be submitted to the JFK Library's Profile in Courage Essay Contest.

Based on the 1962 address to Rice University, the Innovation portion asks students "What's your Moonshot?" The page links to a Kennedy speech urging support for innovative programs such as NASA, before linking to the GarageBand app which students can then use to record their own message to Congress on the subject.

Lastly, Kennedy's National Address on Civil Rights in 1963 is used as inspiration for "Teaching Inclusion." A link to the "March: Book One" graphic novel is provided, as well as one for the Comic Strip Comic Maker app that could be used by students to create their own graphic novel, to demonstrate key issues of debate around a local topic of importance.

The page ends with extra links to a curated collection of JFK-related videos, books, apps, and other content in the iTunes store, lesson plans from the JFK Library, and an international digital photo collection of places named after President Kennedy.

The JFK Centennial Celebration is promoted from Apple.com's front page, with CEO Tim Cook also linking to the resources on Twitter, using the Kennedy quote "The human mind is our fundamental resource."

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