Apportionment Major Lab
Introduction:
Apportionment is the act of dividing items between different groups according to some plan, especially to make a proportionate distribution. The problem of apportionment is one which each sovereign nation must deal with, should it choose to use some form of representative leadership. There are many different ways, though, that countries could use in order to accomplish the task of apportionment.
In this lab, you will look into the United States of America and do some research to learn about its method of apportionment and then apply the existing methods that you have studied in class to this country to see if there are big differences.
Goal:
Students will demonstrate the ability to:
- Analyze methods of apportionment and their effects on representation.
Part 1: Collect data
1. Find a listing of all the states in the US with their most recent populations and record that data in the Excel sheet provided by me. Wikipedia and statoids.com may be helpful.
2. Research the name and description of our country’s legislative body that would be apportioned based on population. Typically, this is the lower house of the legislature, if there happens to be more than one. (Try to choose a website where information is readily available. You may want to start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legislatures_by_country.) In your own words, write a short paragraph giving the name of your country’s legislative body together with a description of its makeup and how its members are currently selected. In addition, include the number of representatives that comprise our country’s legislative body. There is a textbox on Sheet 1 of your Excel document for this paragraph.
Part 2: Apportionment
1. Determine the standard divisor for your country.
2. Determine the standard quotas for each state. Include this as a column in the tables on each sheet.
3. Apportion the appropriate number of seats to each state according to each of the following apportionment methods (Hamilton, Jefferson, Webster, & Hill-Huntington). Record this information in the tables on each sheet.
4. The Jefferson, Webster, and Hill-Huntington methods all require a modified divisor. You may need to guess many times to find which divisor will give the correct number of representatives. For Hill-Huntington’s method, any state that is showing #NUM or any sort of error in the last column, replace that error with a 1 ONLY in the last column. These are the only cells that you will manually change in Hill-Huntington’s method. This will then allow you to change the modified divisor so that the rest of the seats can update appropriately.
Part 3: Conclusions
In a short paragraph, comment on any differences you notice between the four apportionment methods (ex: did one method disproportionately favor certain states? If so, explain which method(s) and which states). In addition, explain which of the four methods you would choose to fairly apportion members to a house of legislature? Explain your answer. There is a text box on Sheet 4 of your Excel Sheet for this paragraph.
General Instructions:
This project should be done entirely in Excel. All calculations must use cell references and the appropriate Excel formulas. No credit may be given for hand calculations. This means that if you divide something, you need to do it in the cell on the Excel Sheet, not in your calculator.
This activity originally contributed to NCCCS Math-CIP – modified by WTCC instructors.
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