DM Games, Booths, & Quizzes

Have fun while learning and talking about politics!

It’s a great way to do effective outreach and build coalitions!

Always have DM flyers, contacts, and information to distribute.

Tips for Success!

  • ‍ ‍Table in a high traffic area with interactive educational games.

  • Offer to bring your game to meeting of a different club.

  • Contact RAs to bring your game to dorm meetings.

  • Join with campus fairs or festivals with your DM games. 

  • Decorate with balloons, posters etc. to create a festive, fun space.

  • Play a game during your other DM or campus events like watching political debates, showing films etc.

‍ DM Games (or create your own)!

  • Icebreakers -A good icebreaker at the beginning of a meeting is fun and relaxes everyone. Ask anything from favorite movies or bands in middle school, or the most delicious ice cream ever or least favoite food, to what great thing happened to you last week or last summer. Two especially good icebreakers at the beginning of the semester are Snowball Fight or Speed Dating. Snowball Fight - ‍ Hand out pieces of paper to everyone. Ask them to write on what they think is the most important problem, or what issue they care amost about etc. Then each person scrunches their paper into a ball and you start a 2 minute "snowball fight"- everyone throws (gently) their balls around at others. Then each person picks up a ball near them and reads what's on it. FollowUp Options:1)have people call out the issue on the paper they picked up and eveyone discuss why that issue is important and whether or how DM could be working on it. OR 2) divide everyone into groups of 2, 3 or 4 ( depending on the number of participants) and give them 5 minutes to talk with one another about the issues written on the ppaper balls they picked up! This can then be a transition to a general discussion of what issues are most important to students. ‍ ‍Speed Dating - Everyone stands. Half the students make a circle and then the other half make a circle inside facing students in the outside circle. The two people facing each other are on a “date” for 2 or 3 minutes. They talk about who they are, why they joined DM, what they care about. Then the facilitateor yells “Switch!” and the inside circle moves to the right to talk to their next “date” - a new person in the outside circle. This continues until the outside and inside students reach one another again. Depending on your numbers, you can decide how long each “date”should last.

  • Kahoot

  • Bingo

  • Pin the “Democracy Award” on the Politician - On a large piece of brown paper make and label 4 drawings: 3 politicians who take big money from lobbyists (e.g. labeled big oil, big pharma, big banks), and one who politician who supports democracy by limiting campaign contributions. Blindfold each participant to see if they can pin the “Democracy Award” on the democracy candidate. Those who succeed get a prize ( a piece of candy etc).

  • Adressing the Issues: The example below is about the environmment, but the game works for any important political issue, e.g. educational funding, health care; private prisons; gun control; transgender rights; taxes etc.

  • How to play:

    • Have everyone stand in a circle to represent the “public.”

    • Choose 2 volunteers, one to represent Big Oil, and the other Renewable Energy (give them signs to hold up). They then tell the “public” (the circle) 1) about their legislative goals (tax breaks for Big Oil; replacing polluting oil with renewables) and 2) how much money they contributue to political campaigns each year ($40 million for Big Oil; $800,000 for renewables).

    • Choose 2 volunteers represent politicians, one supporting Big Oil and the other Clean Energy (renewables). They then explain why their position is great for the country.

    •  Ask the circle to discuss U.S. environmental and climate change legislation and its consequences.

  • Balloon Darts: - Get 25 balloons plus one smaller balloon. Inside most of the balloons put facts about big social problems. A few have facts about what YOU can do. the small one has the DM logo or name. Blow up the balloons and pin the ends (without breaking the balloons) to a bulletin board. Have participants throw darts at the balloons and, if they break any, read the fact inside to everyone. The one who breaks the small balloon is the winner.

  • Jeopardy - Create a jeopardy game (or other popular guessing games) but with questions about politics, porblem, solutions.

CREATE YOUR OWN INTERACTIVE DM GAME!!