AP U.S. Government & Politics / Branching simulation
Inside the Term
Guide a fictional administration through a term. Congress, agencies, and the public respond to your earlier choices.
Four levels · Twelve consequential decisions · Included with educator membership.
Inside the Term
Guide a fictional administration through a term. Congress, agencies, and the public respond to your earlier choices.
Learning goals, teacher guide & model limits
Goal: Explain how competing institutions and interests constrain policy and how implementation can change outcomes.
Supporting course connections: AP Government Unit 2: institutional interactions · Unit 5: participation. These identify practice opportunities, not full standards coverage, guaranteed learning gains, or official AP endorsement. Exact local pacing may differ.
- A governing agenda: consult three authored NPC guides, complete the practical mission, and write a claim, evidence-based explanation, and limitation.
- The legislative bargain: consult three authored NPC guides, complete the practical mission, and write a claim, evidence-based explanation, and limitation.
- Implementation and oversight: consult three authored NPC guides, complete the practical mission, and write a claim, evidence-based explanation, and limitation.
- The public record: consult three authored NPC guides, complete the practical mission, and write a claim, evidence-based explanation, and limitation.
Use approximately one session per level, with time for discussion and revision. Actual playing and writing time has not been measured with students. Students can complete the mechanical actions more quickly; the explanation and comparison are part of the task.
Fictional issues and model indices, no real parties or voters. Congress, agencies, and courts retain distinct roles; popularity never overrides constitutional limits.
Completion checks verify practical requirements and minimum writing length. They do not grade the argument. Review the portfolio for accurate concepts, specific evidence, reasoning, and limits. Downloads do not submit automatically to Google Classroom. A browser save is editable and must not be used as a verified assessment result.
Progress saves locally when available. Students can export and import a campaign file. On shared computers, export and then clear the campaign. No real financial, medical, political-preference, or identifying student information is required.
Compare two campaigns after exporting the first. Ask students to trace an early decision, a delayed effect, a later option, and the ending. The 0–100 resource indices and ending thresholds are invented teaching models. A desirable ending is not evidence that a political or personal viewpoint is correct.