If killing one person for his organs saves two dying patients in need of organ transplants, it is worth doing? Thought experiments like this can be used during lecture to teach political theory.
This activity asks students to take quotations from authors and pin the tail on the donkey: Which author said what? The discussion that follows can be illuminating.
Are people predisposed to favor their own groups at the expense of others, even when the group distinction is completely arbitrary? This activity replicates, more or less, the exact experiment used by Henri Tajfel to demonstrate the "minimal group paradigm" used in Social Identity Theory.
There has been an outbreak of an unusual Asian disease. Which policy is best based on the scientific estimations of how many people will be saved? This activity uses this example with poll everywhere (polleverywhere.com) technology to demonstrate framing and prospect theory.
Assigned debates work well for weeks where several competing theoretical approaches are covered. This debate involves competing theories on approaches to explaining political attitudes.
This group discussion format can be used in a week that covers several big concepts, each of which can be discussed along a similar ("parallel") sequence of discussion questions. The concepts in this particular class are: Wisdom of crowds, Heuristic decision-making, Groupthink, and Cooperation.
This activity, created by Justin Gest, involves learning through "speed dating." The activity focuses on how to craft excellent topic sentences while considering the application of the course's theoretical ideas.
Revolutions require collective action. This simple activity, used during the week on revolutions, demonstrates the difficulty of carrying out collective action.
John Maynard Keynes classic "Beauty Contest" had people choose from a set of faces which they thought would be considered the six most beautiful. Winners were chosen from those who chose the most popular face. This easy task replicates the experiment with a simple numbers game.