Gerrymandering Activity
This activity will help students understand the power possessed in voting
districts and how it can be controlled by one party in order to gain an unfair
advantage. Students will be asked to use an interactive approach to learn how
gerrymandering works.
Supplies:
Red and Green Notecards (or construction paper cut to the same size)
Two Skeins of Yarn (colors matching the cards)
Tape (any easily removable type will do)
Bowls/napkins
Popcorn (two types, enough of each for entire class)
Setup:
Have students space desks evenly throughout the room.
The Game:
Hand out one of each color card to each student. Ask the students which type of
popcorn they want (e.g. white chedder=red and caramel=green). If the choices
are good, hopefully the class will split somewhere around the middle. You can do
some research and ask these questions the week before to make sure that you
have an even split in preference.
Collect the cards that the students did not choose and have them tape their
choice to their desk. Then, without moving desks or cards, have the students get
together with the others who made the same choice, each on one side of the
room.
Tell the students that this class is going to have 5 political districts, each electing a
representative to go to the General Popcorn Assembly.
In these groups students should look at the “political landscape” (the popcorn
decisions being made) of the class and determine how they should divide the
class into 5 contiguous and equal (e.g. if you have 30 desks, each group must
contain 6 desks) districts. Students are to trace each district around the desks
using their yarn (taped to the floor). As there are two plans being developed the
different colored yarns may cross each other.
Hopefully at least one student will figure out that they can manipulate the
districts in order to give themselves the advantage. If not, give the students the
challenge of trying to do this the second time they play.
Clean up:
Have students tie the yarn back together into one large piece and return all cards
to the front.
Discussion:
Use an inclusive questioning strategy to ask the following questions. Involve as
many students as possible in the discussion. Consider using “Cold Calling:” ask a
question and then choose a student and random to answer. If they say “I don’t
know” ask another student. Then revert to the first student and ask the question
again, expecting them to repeat the answer given by the other student.
1. Where does the decision making power in this exercise come from?
2. How can that power be controlled?
3. If politics are important wouldn’t people try to do this?
4. How can you stop it?