American Government Simulation

The Game of Politics^© American government simulations use role playing to make American politics come alive. These national government classroom and online simulations create an active learning experience, and are appropriate for secondary or higher education government classes, continuing education courses, civic education conferences, community organizations or elder hostel.

Click here to see recent research on the simulation's dramatic impact on student learning of traditional course content. These gains are in addition to the simulation's impact of greater student involvement with the subject matter.

“As a former student and participant in the American government simulation, I can attest to its realism, educational value and its ability to engage students in an active learning process. It provides eye-opening insights into the culture and process of the American political system. Both the critical thinking skills and the increased understanding of the political process gained through this experience served to equip me with the necessary ability and knowledge to excel in both my undergraduate and graduate public policy courses. The abilities to debate, think critically and clearly articulate were skills applicable to all my coursework. It has been by far my most useful academic experience.”

Jason Shewell

Click the navigation buttons to examine materials from both the macro and micro simulations. Read evaluations from participants and coordinators, take the simulations on a test drive, get answers to frequently asked questions, contact the author or find out how to place an order.

Set a few years in the future, The Game of Politics^© macro simulation (3-12 sessions) is a comprehensive and cost-effective simulation of American government that includes all three branches of the national government. This macro simulation brings the subject matter to life and enables the 15-75 participants to gain an insider’s view of our political process. This simulation game has been carefully designed and tested to produce an effective active-learning experience.

A typical session of The Game of Politics^© macro simulation begins with a media report on events from the previous session. This is followed by press conferences from participants and “outsiders” who give a human face to the Story Lines. Then participants divide into legislative, executive and judicial work groups to generate policy decisions. During work sessions participants receive material from Story Lines reflecting a volatile political environment. Then, the participants make decisions based on their best assessment of the situation.

The micro simulation alternatives to the macro simulation use material from the original game and are full-featured, but allow users to run even smaller and shorter simulations. These five micro simulations focus on committee decision-making (for 4-12 players), the overall legislative process (19-52) the dynamics of presidential decision-making (5-8) the politics of Supreme Court decision-making (8-16) and the national budgetary process (7-12). Yet, even these micro simulations place activities within a larger context of public policy debates through Story Lines and an active media role. Participants never lose sight of the big picture.

The Game of Politics^© macro simulation is best suited to survey courses or conferences (15-75 participants) where you wish to be more comprehensive, have plenty of interaction between branches, plus have the possibility of up to 12 sessions. The micro simulations are best suited to upper level or highly specialized classes or focused introductory courses with generally smaller enrollments (most are in the 4-16 range) and can be accomplished in fewer sessions.

All simulations have been class tested to ensure that effective learning takes place and they can be “plug and play” experiences for the simulation coordinator. Classroom versions (whether on paper or CD-Rom) come complete with all manuals, a liberal site license and two sets of Story Lines. Online versions include all manuals a liberal site license and Story Lines that are organized for easy uploading to a web platform or email accounts.

The Game of Politics^© is being used at undergraduate, graduate and secondary educational institutions in the United States and abroad (from Japan and Viet Nam to Bahrain). It has also been selected for presentation before the (1) American Political Science Association, (2) International Civic Education Research Organization, (3) APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, (4) Midwest Political Science Association, (5) National Center For Political Engagement, (6) Northeastern Political Science Association, (7) Southwestern Political Science Association and (8) Eastern Community College Social Science Association.

THE GAME OF POLITICS SIMULATION: A REPLICATION

-by Kathleen M. Perez and Melvin A. Kahn, Wichita State University (2008 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association)

ABSTRACT: This paper is a replication of an exploratory study which sought to evaluate Professor Don Jansiewicz’s GAME OF POLITICS (The Game) simulation as a learning tool for better understanding the legislative-executive process. Our original study used legislative-executive process questions as part of two separate examinations. The midterm examination was given after using the traditional lecture-discussion method and a widely-used American Politics textbook. The final examination was administered after a series of five simulation class sessions. Both examinations utilized the same two essays and 25 open-ended questions although the students were not aware that this would occur. The original 2007 findings showed that students, on average, scored much higher on the two essay questions and the 25 additional items on the final examination when compared to the midterm results. Means increased in value while standard deviations decreased in size. A limitation to the original study, however, was the small number of cases. Only 19 students took both the midterm and the and the final examinations at the scheduled times.

Given this limitation, the study was replicated one year later using another American Politics course taught by the same instructor who used the exact same course structure. In the second course, 23 students took the midterm and final exam at the scheduled times, and the findings were extremely similar to those in the original study. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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