PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania community can participate in the Sept. 15 observance of National Constitution Day through selected video and online events.

MAGPI, Penn's Internet2 hub, together with the National Constitution Center, will facilitate the videoconference,  "America Reads the Constitution," from 1 to 2:35 p.m., Friday, Sept. 15, followed by a 25-minute "open mic" session. Students from Philadelphia's Constitution High School will read selected portions of the Constitution onsite from MAGPI's videoconferencing facilities at 3401 Walnut St., Philadelphia, joined via Internet2 by students from 42 other schools across the country.   This event will be live-streamed on the Internet and can be found at www.magpi.net/programs/constitutionday.html#webstream.

Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center, through its Justice Learning Constitution Day program, has made available a variety of resources to help schools commemorate the day.  The most recent is "A Conversation on the Constitution: Judicial Independence," in which current and former Supreme Court justices Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor join high school students from California and Pennsylvania to discuss the independent judiciary.  Taped in May, Breyer, Kennedy and O'Connor take questions from the students and discuss the ways that the Constitution safeguards the role of judges so they in turn can safeguard the rights of minorities and those with unpopular viewpoints.

The Penn Video Network will air this video at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, and from noon to 6 p.m. on both Sunday and Monday, Sept. 17-18, on the network's special events Channel 24.  The video and other constitution day media materials can be found on  http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/.