How It’s Used

Within the game, students take on the role as a legislative aide to a virtual elected official; through working with their peers, teacher, and characters within the game, students gain new insight into local issues that affect their constituents, and they learn how to research these issues and ultimately propose solutions. Legislative Aide has activities and materials that meet the learning objectives of American government classes while also helping students develop civic skills and learn about the importance of civic participation.

To play Legislative Aide in a classroom, each student needs access to a computer with a standard Web browser and an Internet connection. While it is possible to play parts of the game with students sharing a computer, the game has been designed with most activities requiring each student have his or her own computer.

Here’s how the game works. When students first log in to the Legislative Aide game online portal, they are welcomed by the virtual district office manager. This is one of several nonplayer characters within the game that help guide students in performing their legislative aide duties. These nonplayer characters are mostly automated, but teachers can manage them, too. In this way, students’ learning is scaffolded and they receive just-in-time feedback on their performance.

Throughout the game, players receive emails from nonplayer characters. These messages are from their legislator’s district office manager and assistant office manager that direct them to perform certain tasks. In order to simulate what happens within a real legislative office, students can also reply to these emails, to which teachers can then respond as well. It’s important to note that these emails are only exchanged within the game portal, and students cannot send or receive messages to or from outside of the game. As student collect and analyze their data, they engage in various writing activities as well.

Before conducting interviews with real-life community members, students work in small groups to generate a list of questions. Then during the interviews themselves, students take notes; these notes are entered into the Youth Map tool so they can be easily referenced later on. These interviews are critical in allowing students to explore local resources and connect with key community members; through using Youth Map, students can then visualize the links between people, resources, and pressing issues within their community.

Towards the end of the game, students will collaborate with their peers to write a press release about their findings. The culminating activity will involve creating an action plan where they need to synthesize their research, create a plan to address key issues of concern, and support their recommendations with multiple data sources. Teachers are provided with rubrics to help them assess students on both the process and the products that happen within Legislative Aide over the 23 class periods that it runs. This way, teachers can provide students with timely feedback on their performance of tasks as well as on their final products.

In taking on the role of a legislative aide, students are able to develop the cognitive skills and communicative skills of a professional. But because the game doesn’t overwhelm students with too much information and too many tasks all at once, their learning is effectively scaffolded. Through playing Legislative Aide and using the Youth Map tool, students can visualize the links between individuals, organizations, and problems within their community - and in the end, this process is what makes service learning real, tangible, and meaningful.