Congressional Simulator in AP Gov
January 24, 2025 2025-11-16 0:30Congressional Simulator in AP Gov
by: Samanyu Bhupalam
With the news giving a constant stream of updates into the politics of America, there always seems to be some confusion as to why politicians act the way they do. To help demystify Congress, especially the House of Representatives, AP Government does a congressional simulator each year as a part of the Congressional unit.
The project consists of each student being assigned a Congressional district randomly with varying political leanings. Then, each student is responsible for creating a presentation detailing research they’ve done about their district, like major industries and demographics as well as a campaign strategy. Then, students are responsible for drafting bills that reflect the needs of their districts which are then debated over and voted on in the mock House of Representatives. The House will, like in real life, have leadership roles like the Speaker of the House and majority and minority leaders.
For those who have done this project in the past, this may seem a little different to the project in the past. For starters, this project now only consists the length of the unit rather than the semester and students are only tasked with one bill rather than two. Mr. McGillicuddy stated that each year he’s tried this, he’s done something different to see which iteration yields the best results.
Each year, he finds the simulator to be the best part, watching students really get into the roles they have to play and seriously debating and representing the districts they were assigned. He hopes that the experience of the simulation will be a better way of understanding Congress rather than just lecture, fitting into the spirit of project-based learning.
