Pinning Down the Constitution: Interactively Teaching Congress's Power, Federalism, and Constitutional Interpretation

“Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Constitution” is an engaged-learning activity that has been conducted in 26 classes over the past four years. The activity teaches multiple themes commonly included in a variety of courses on American politics such as federalism, congressional powers, the role of the federal courts, and the relevance of the commerce clause. There are no complicated roles for students to adopt, and the activity can be completed in less than a full class session even if little preactivity preparation time is provided. This article (1) describes the simulation to allow immediate adoption by instructors teaching a variety of American politics courses, (2) explains the process of devising an engaged-learning activity, thus providing a narrative to help instructors devise their own, and (3) reports on student survey data that indicates a dramatic increase in student knowledge and understanding from participation in this activity.