Political data literacy / Evidence and public questions · V2.2
The Complaints Department
Answer the question. Show what the evidence supports.
A fictional department has replied to real public questions. Check the values, keep the supported finding, and write the reply the evidence permits.
One-file lesson · plan 50 minutes
Created by Yoav Duman
Your desk is ready.
Answer the question. Show what the evidence supports. In The Complaints Department, audit a department’s reply to a resident: check the question, pin relevant values, retain supported findings, and request suitable evidence for what remains open. Assign earnings, women’s representation, opinion of Congress, or the housing source audit as an individual file, or follow a selected sequence. First responses remain visible beside later replies; optional fresh cases test the same reasoning in invented settings. Created by Yoav Duman.
What you will do
Choose an individual file or an assigned sequence: earnings, women’s representation, opinion of Congress, or the housing source audit. Pin values, check comparisons, request evidence, and file a reasoned reply.
What you will keep
Your first reading, later account, writing and assistance remain visible in the report. Optional fresh situations preserve a first response before feedback. Save a checkpoint to continue elsewhere; use the readable report for course submission.
How to begin
Choose a single file at the desk or open your instructor’s class link. Single-file assignments open directly; selected sequences follow their assigned order. Plan one file for a 50-minute class and adjust after your first group.
Read the graph. Question the reply.
No separate game account needed. Device saving, checkpoint restoration, online recovery and instructor tools are available in this website edition.
For instructors
Give the reasoning
somewhere to go.
Use the files in American Politics, Comparative Politics, methods or quantitative literacy. Assess how students connect a resident’s question to the right measure, retain a supported finding, and request suitable evidence for what remains open.
The guide includes a timed lesson, preparation, discussion prompts, a reasoning rubric, source cautions, and saving and submission instructions. Timing is a planning recommendation; adjust after your first class.
Classroom notes
Created by Yoav Duman. Single-file assignments open directly; selected sequences follow their assigned order. Completion and reports reflect the assigned files. Keep supported findings separate from claims that need more evidence. Download a checkpoint to move progress between websites; online recovery copies belong to their original website. These activities share evidence-reading habits but give students different responsibilities. Complaints audits whether a reply answers a resident’s question and what its evidence supports. Name the Problem develops a political interpretation, makes a value or benchmark explicit, and defends a next step. Use either independently. To pair them, assign the earnings file in Complaints first, then congressional representation in US Government or democracy in Comparative Politics in a later class. Bridge the activities with two questions: what kind of claim is this, and what supports it? Assess accurate comparisons and justified reasoning; retaining a sound answer, investigating, acting, and monitoring can all be defensible.
Already started on the separate game site? Download your checkpoint there and restore it here. Browser saves and online recovery copies belong to the website where you created them. Printing, downloading and online saving do not submit work to Canvas.
For instructors / A companion activity
Audit an answer. Then defend a priority.
These activities share evidence-reading habits but give students different responsibilities. Complaints audits whether a reply answers a resident’s question and what its evidence supports. Name the Problem develops a political interpretation, makes a value or benchmark explicit, and defends a next step. Use either independently. To pair them, assign the earnings file in Complaints first, then congressional representation in US Government or democracy in Comparative Politics in a later class. Bridge the activities with two questions: what kind of claim is this, and what supports it? Assess accurate comparisons and justified reasoning; retaining a sound answer, investigating, acting, and monitoring can all be defensible.
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