Chontel,
I am expecting students to argue several points in this "too simplified" yes-no question.

What definition did you get when you put 
define:conservative
into Google?

It gave me this:
holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.

So, in this forum, students must be sure they know what conservative (and its opposite, radical, mean).

Then, you can argue the merits/facts of the revolution itself (simple stuff... leaders before were leader afterwards... in this example, the revolution can be seen as more conservative than liberal or revolutionary…

But what about Professor Maier (class video), your textbook authors, and the reading by Professor Gordon Wood?  Maier said the republican form of government, had never really existed for long in history.  There were always more kings, queens, caesars.  I gave you a quote from the textbook where they used this term “revolutionary” to describe the war and its aftermath.  In these cases, the experts are arguing that the revolution was much more radical than it was conservative.

In order to argue, based on the reading, whether the American Revolution was conservative or radical, it is crucial for us to have a common understanding of those two politically charged terms.  Moreover, since either expert will (or has) undoubtedly expressed a particular bias, it is imperative to know what THEY mean when they say conservative or radical.

You mention Federalists, and I’m not sure where you are going with that term.  Certainly, Federalists WANTED a strong central government, and supported the ratification of the Constitution (a new, and somewhat more radical governmental change than the Articles of Confederation government had offered).  They succeeded in getting that new government enacted, but ran into opposition by the Anti-Federalists such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry.   But I think that may be another matter, only slightly related to Forum 3.

Some group members have already posted in the forum, so be sure you don’t miss the initial post/reply deadline and get something submitted.  Hopefully the above will help get you started.

Since we never got to meet after class on Thursday, let me know whether you’d like to try again.