The Senate Sandbox: Teaching Legislative Politics through Open-ended, Multi-week Simulations

Political science educators must take innovative approaches to respond to twenty-first-century classroom challenges. Simulation-based pedagogy can foster deep student engagement while developing strong peer relationships, encouraging empathy, and improving professional skills. There are many ways, however, to conduct simulations in political science courses. We argue that open-ended, multi-week simulations in which students participate as relative equals may be especially beneficial for effective learning. Although this sandbox-style approach to simulation learning is portable to other settings, we have used it in legislative politics courses focused on the US Senate. Drawing from our experiences and student reviews, we argue that simulations in which students can immerse themselves in a role for an extended period, focus on issues they care about, and learn from their mistakes and successes along the way create a uniquely valuable learning experience. Our approach can present challenges for instructors, but we believe it is flexible enough to be deployed in a variety of institutional settings and that any trade-offs are more than worth it.