This activity emphasizes content and demonstrates how Robert Stahl’s rank-order approach can support decision-making about historical events with limited information and evaluation. As government officials in East Berlin, students can choose different strategies to reduce the number of citizens crossing into West Berlin. The students’ choices and class discussions about Cold War activities indicate that they are considering the potential strengths and weaknesses highlighted by the East German government during the buildup to the Berlin Wall’s construction.
Byford et al. (Sat,) studied this question.