How to teach checks and balances

Why this matters

A student can name the three branches and still think the judges are the ones who say no to new laws. A fill-in chart doesn't show which branch she thinks can stop which, so the teacher has to wait for quiz day to find out.

Maya's chat: who can stop whom?

Maya plays soccer after school. She knows the three branches by name. She thinks the Supreme Court vetoes laws, because the judges decide whether a law is fair.

The whole class gets the same activity: the same greeting, the same whiteboard with photos of the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court, and three word cards: "veto a law", "strike down a law" and "approve judges". Each student draws their own arrows and types a card's words on each one. Sparky's next message depends on what that student drew and wrote.

Sparky reads the student's board and messageSparky sends the student back to a photo on her own boardA right answer gets a harder question

M

Maya

Interest: Playing soccer after schoolStarting point: Thinks the Supreme Court vetoes laws

Sparky

Hi! Our government has three branches, and each one can stop the others from getting too powerful. Open the whiteboard below. For each word card, draw an arrow from the branch that does it to the branch it checks. Then double-click the arrow and type the card's words on it. Send the board to me, and tell me one thing you like to do after school.

Maya

i like playing soccer after school. here is my board. the supreme court vetoes laws because the judges decide if a law is fair

Sparky

Soccer is a great sport! You wrote that the Supreme Court vetoes laws. Which branch do you think signs a bill or says no to it before it becomes a law? Look at the White House photo on your board.

Maya

oh the president. he can say no to a bill. i switched the words so veto goes from the white house and strike down a law goes from the court

Understanding check

Yes! The President says no to a bill, and that is a veto. All three arrows are in the right place now. Here is a harder question: the President vetoed a law that Congress still wants. What can Congress do next? Draw a new arrow and write the words on it.

Maya

congress can vote on it again. if enough of them say yes it becomes a law anyway. i drew vote again from the capitol to the white house

Sparky

That is exactly right! Congress can vote again and override the veto. Is half of Congress enough to override a veto, or does it take more votes than that?

Maya

more than half. like 51 senators

Sparky

More than half is close, but it takes even more. Is 51 out of 100 senators enough, or would Congress need a bigger group?

Maya

a bigger group. maybe 2 out of every 3 of them?

Sparky

Exactly right! Two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate must vote yes to override a veto. Your board shows that each branch has a power that can stop another, so no branch gets too strong.

Moved her veto arrow to the White House, drew an override arrow on her own, then worked out that it takes two-thirds of each house

Maya wrote her idea right on her board: "veto a law" on the arrow from the Supreme Court. Sparky didn't tell her the arrow was wrong. It asked who signs or rejects a bill and pointed her to the White House photo she already had, and she switched the words herself. When she guessed 51 senators, Sparky asked whether that was enough instead of giving her the number.

Sparky reads the words on every board a student sends. It sometimes mixes up which words sit on the two arrows between the Capitol and the Supreme Court, so the activity tells Sparky to act on what the student writes in the chat too, and never to tell a student an arrow is missing.

Maya is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened.

What Flint did for Maya

• The greeting opened a whiteboard with the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court in Maya's chat, so she drew each check herself instead of matching words in a list.
• Sparky read Maya's board and her message, and asked who signs or rejects a bill instead of correcting her veto arrow.
• Once her three arrows were right, Sparky asked what Congress can do after a veto, and Maya drew a fourth arrow on her own.
• When Maya guessed 51 senators, Sparky asked whether that was enough, and she worked out two out of every three.

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

Which students still give the veto to the Court

While students work, Needs attention lists each student who is stuck and the message that showed it. Once three or more students submit, activity analytics sums up what the class understood, which mistake came up most, and what to practice next.

Set up the activity for free

The three branches activity is in Flint's public library, with the starter whiteboard, Sparky's guidelines and the greeting already set up. Open it, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and move it to a class. The whiteboard opens next to each student's chat, and the student sends it with a message when their arrows are done. In the activity's Preview tab, select Try session myself to test it as a student before you assign it.

For more social studies activities, see Flint for social studies.