Government

Students take part in a three day simulation of a cold war-era international crisis to experience the challenges of nuclear weapons decision-making and better understand the history of the Cold War. Goals: To give students a better appreciation for four...

Students learn about the effectiveness of sanctions and a pressing international conflict through a simulation of a National Security Council meeting. Goals: To enliven learning about an academic area of research: the effectiveness of unilateral and...

In this short warm up activity, students share current events with the class and briefly discuss the issue. The activity promotes student engagement in the classroom and encourages students to be informed on current international affairs. Goals: (1) To...

In this class simulation of a crisis event, students role play as different actors of the US government. They have to collaborate with different actors to formulate an optimal response strategy that is made public in a press conference. Goals: (1) Learn...

Students simulate the Vienna Convention of 1985 to gain a visceral experience of political negotiations. Goals: (1) Students will have the opportunity to apply and reinforce their knowledge in an experiential setting. (2) Students will gain a better...

Students imagine themselves to be policy advisers and write a policy memorandum on government transparency and secrecy to the imagined Transparency Reform Council. Goal/s: (1) To familiarize students with a new writing genre. Students with significant...

Students conduct a mock congressional hearing on the dilemma of state secrecy and experience the challenges of policymaking. Goal/s: (1) Understanding the Dilemma of State Secrecy. Students will gain a keener understanding of the dilemma of state secrecy...

This debate about whether judicial review is compatible with democracy is meant to get students thinking about what sort of ideal democracy is, and to see both its procedural and substantive components. Prior to class, students had read Dworkin (1997), pp...

This activity created was by Benjamin Schneer, a graduate teaching fellow for GOV30, to help students understand methods in public opinion polling. Schneer provided a dilemma for students to resolve using information about public opinion polling found in...

In EMR 13, "Analyzing Politics," students participate in various type of experiments that appear in the class textbook to give a sense of strategic interactions among students. One such experiment regards voting on committees according to an ideal point...