Edutopia – Taylor Hausburg and Sarah Gudenkauf 
Imagine that you’ve restructured your classroom as a mock state legislature. You have tasked your students with writing and passing a new law regarding the use of a forest located on state-owned land. While some groups of students run branches of the state government, others represent interest groups—for example, an environmental advocacy group, local businesses, and concerned residents. Your students are so engrossed in their goal and roles that they’re no longer aware that they are, in fact, learning a lot about how laws are passed and how conflicts can be resolved. (more)