Short Games and Active Learning in Political Science: Beating the Clock

As political science instructors have increasingly turned to games and simulations in the classroom to educate and engage their students, scholars have worked to not only demonstrate their effectiveness, but also to justify their use to occasionally skeptical colleagues. With instructional time always at a premium, this book focuses exclusively on short games and simulations: activities that are limited to one class period. These powerful activities demand less instructional time and deliver substantial pedagogical benefits. Additionally, this book provides ready-to-use activities for teachers to utilize across Political Science subfields. It covers activities that can be categorized in American politics, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Public Policy and Administration, Political Theory, and activities that are not easily categorized into a field.

Derek Glasgow, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Security Studies at Westminster College. His research and teaching interests focus broadly on American Politics and Public Policy with a particular interest in environmental politics. Another major component of his research agenda includes pedagogy and active learning techniques.

Mark Harvey, PhD, is a Professor and Director of the Master of Business Administration program at the University of Saint Mary, Kansas, U.S.A.. Mark has taught for USM since 2012, with previous visiting appointments at the University of Birmingham (UK), the University of Wales-Swansea, and Duke University TIP. His research interests include the pedagogy of games and simulations. With James Fielder and Ryan Gibb, he edited and authored the previous volume to this book, Simulations in the Political Science Classroom: Games without Frontiers. His book, Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion, and Issue-Based Advocacy, explores the impact of celebrities and the global entertainment industry on politics. He has been interviewed in multiple global media sources about his work on games and celebrity political endorsements.

Ryan Gibb holds a PhD in Political Science awarded in 2013 from the University of Kansas. He is currently a Professor of International Studies and Chair of the Humanities Department at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, USA. Ryan conducted fieldwork research in Uganda as a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad recipient and has enjoyed several opportunities to return to East Africa for research. He has published in Electoral Studies, Africa Spectrum, the International Research and Review, and the Political Science Educator. Ryan has co-edited an edition of Annual Editions: Comparative Politics with O. Fiona Yap and Simulations in the Political Science Classroom: Games without Frontiers with James Fielder and Mark Harvey. His current research focuses on research methods, democratization, and innovative pedagogy.

James D. Fielder, PhD, joined CSU as an Instructor after retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and Associate Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is also serving as a Marine Corps University Non-Resident Krulak Fellow, is the Director of Professional and Educational Games for Mobius Worlds Publishing, and consults on organizational wargaming. Pigeon researches interpersonal trust and emergent political processes through tabletop, live-action, and video gaming as natural experiments. He also has almost three decades of experience designing training exercises and wargames, from small-group tabletop discussions to multi-day exercises engaging 5,000+ participants. He is also a managing editor of Active Learning in Political Science, associate editor of Simulation & Gaming, on the editorial board of the MORS Journal of Wargaming, was a TEDxMileHigh speaker on games, and has been interviewed on game-related topics by Reuters, USA Today, and NBC News.

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