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Politics in Action: Wolves, Snowmobiles, and Bison and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Soleiman Kiasatpour  and
Christopher Whitfield
Soleiman Kiasatpour
Affiliation:
Western Kentucky University
Christopher Whitfield
Affiliation:
Western Kentucky University
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Extract

Faculty are always grappling with how to get their students to actively participate in learning about politics. Interest in active learning, service learning, and other pedagogical approaches demonstrate this concern. At the same time we are witnessing a parallel and related mission promoting civic engagement. For example, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' American Democracy Project has a civic engagement series in which it collaborates with campuses across the United States to encourage increased political participation and civic awareness of topics such as the stewardship of public lands and jury service, to name a few. What can instructors do in the classroom to bring these learning methods together and accomplish these goals? We suggest that outlining and describing the political dynamics of interest group activity in an interesting issue area, and then requiring students to advocate on behalf of these interests in class role-play scenarios and other exercises, help to accomplish active learning, which may lead to greater civic engagement.The authors thank Michael J. Yochim for his insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and George L. Mehaffy, vice president for Academic Leadership and Change at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the founder of the American Democracy Project, for organizing our visit to Yellowstone National Park.

Type
THE TEACHER
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 193 - 206
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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