JH John B. Holbein

Teaching Activities

Classroom simulations and exercises.

Activities designed for live classroom use in policy, politics, and public leadership courses.

Research Methods Media Effects In Class

The Skim

Ten minutes, one journal article, five stops. Teams enter a number and are routed to one of six landmark media-effects studies, then walked through the order that actually tells you whether a finding is believable — the claim, the design, the number and its units, the figure, and what the authors concede. Each stop shows the relevant passage from the paper itself with the sentence highlighted. Ends with a walkthrough for building the one-slide summary.

Runs in the browser with no login. Short excerpts are reproduced from the assigned articles for classroom instruction; each page links to the paper of record. Built for LPPP 6350, The Politics of Public Policy.

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Media & Politics Political Communication Take-Home

The Run of Show

Students produce a ten-minute comedy-news segment about a policy nobody is watching. They pick an under-covered issue, hunt down the absurd true detail that opens it, build a seven-beat run of show — including the heel turn, where the jokes stop — and audit every line against three tests: is it true, does it teach, and is the target the one with power. Built on Prior’s argument that media choice leaves the least-informed audience the hardest to reach.

Runs in the browser with no login. Nothing is submitted to a server; students copy their run of show out at the end. Built for LPPP 6350, The Politics of Public Policy.

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Bureaucracy Rulemaking Public Comment

The Head Start Comment

Students write a public comment on a rule that is open right now: Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs (91 FR 51248, RIN 0970-AD30, docket ACF-2026-0595). They pick which provisions to contest, read what the research actually says about each one, and draft a comment the agency has to answer on the record. The comment period closes October 6, 2026.

Runs in the browser with no login. Links open the rule on govinfo.gov and the docket on regulations.gov. Built for LPPP 6350, The Politics of Public Policy.

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Cost-Benefit Analysis Regulation Interactive

The Mercury Number

A sensitivity analysis you run in front of the room. EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards cost $9.6 billion a year; five assumptions sit behind what it is worth. Change one and the bottom line moves from −$10 billion to +$100 billion a year — and every value in that range comes out of the same government document.

Runs in the browser with no login. Built for LPPP 6350, The Politics of Public Policy.

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Presidency Budget Politics Classroom Simulation

The President's Budget

A team application activity where students draft an FY2028 presidential budget proposal, weigh fiscal and political tradeoffs, respond to opposition pressure, and test whether the package can survive a vote count.

Backup copy served from johnholbein.org. The activity files are copied from the same static build used for the primary GitHub Pages version.

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