Step 1
	Brainstorm about the role of the vice president. In groups or individually discuss the importance of the position of the vice president. How would you write a job description for a vice president? What governing or political tasks should be the part of the vice presidency? Make a list of your ideas and share them with the class.

Step 2
	Consider how vice presidents in history and others have viewed their role. Click on the links below to read and hear a variety of views on the vice presidency. Explain what you think the quotes and the video clips tell you about the perceived role of the vice president.   John Adams:  "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived" More about John Adams! Harry Truman: "Look at all the vice presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow's fifth teat." More about Harry Truman!  Historian Nathan Miller on Theodore Roosevelt Historian David McCullough on Harry S. Truman President George H.W. Bush on C-SPAN's American Presidents

Step 3
	Trace the impact various amendments to the Constitution and congressional acts altered the role of the vice presidency. In the Constitution, the framers outlined the responsibilities and secession of a vice president. However, amendments and congressional acts have altered both. Click on the timeline of events to gain an understanding of those changes. Which changes do you think are the most important?

Step 4
	Evaluate the ways the vice presidency has changed. Drawing on the quotes, video clips, Constitution and congressional acts, evaluate how time and events have changed the vice presidency. Try this: Write up your evaluation in the form of a classified ad for the job of vice president.