Polco Knowledgebase

Using Balancing Act as a Teaching Tool

Written by Polco Product Team | Sep 17, 2024 8:30:15 PM

Balancing Act is an excellent tool for teachers to provide students an interactive way to learn about government and civics by letting them experience what it is like to build a budget. Hundreds of thousands of students have used Balancing Act simulations, both online and in person, synchronously and asynchronously. 

Here are a two features that might be useful in your teaching: 

  1. Meeting Mode: Meeting Mode will allow you to create a link to distribute to students, who can then go through the simulation either alone or in a group. Their aggregated responses will be visible in real-time on a facilitator screen. This feature is great for reviewing results and discussing them as a group. 
  2. Save and Share Progress: If a student wants to continue working on their simulation beyond the class period, they can save their progress with a unique URL. This feature can also be used for group projects, allowing one student to share their budget choices with others who can then add new input.  

Note: The URL created through the Save Progress button is a snapshot of actions taken on the simulation when the button is clicked. If you use the save progress URL to access the simulation and want to share any additional changes, click the button again to capture new changes on a new URL. This can be done as many times as you wish.


External Resources

Here are some external resources that may be useful as you plan how to use Balancing Act in your class:

  1. Lesson plan produced by PBS Newshour Extra for high school teachers that provides useful context and links simulation content with national standards. 
  2. Blog article describing the classroom experiences of Nicholas Lind, a high school teacher in Rochester, New York.
  3. Video presentation of a case study developed by Professor Kurt Thurmaier, Northern Illinois University, intended for use in public administration classes. This is a portion of a  video presentation on cutback budgeting presented by Government Finance Officers Association. 

Teacher Account

Balancing Act offers a special teacher account that allows teachers to make their own simulations, including starting from templates. This is most useful for graduate students studying public administration. Teachers who simply want to use a public simulation in their class do not need teacher account. Teacher Account is offered for a nominal annual subscription fee and is for classroom use only.
View full post