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Space Colony Election

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Grades 6-860-75 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Teams design a voting system for a fictional space colony choosing how to allocate scarce resources, then stress-test it for fairness when factions disagree.

Budget levels

Amazon prices checked Oct 9-10, 2026 and may change

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Quick Start

Digital downloads only.

$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.

Student time: one class period, one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one class period on a single day.

Scale back: Fit it into a shorter period, use fewer effects, or run a demo instead of a build.

Scale up: Add one extra effect, or spread the share-out across another day.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

  • model templatePrintinguse what you have

Full Experience

Required materials for the class.

$67.63 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups). Exceeds $25 per class.

Classroom cardboard or boxes can lower the cost.

Student time: one day.

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one school day.

Scale back: Fit the build into one period with fewer effects.

Scale up: Spread the work across days, or add more effects.

  • Clear plastic bottlesRequired3 x 2 bottles2 bottles$7.99Amazon
  • potting soilRequired1 x 2 x 8 qt2 x 8 qt$10.69Amazon
  • small plantsRequired1 x 6 plants6 plants$16.59Amazon
  • pill bugs or wormsRequired1 x 50 worms50 worms$16.38Amazon

Total Transformation

The bigger kit, with every optional item included.

$67.63 per class (class of about 30, 6 groups).

Student time: one day (one session, one-day event).

Teacher prep / build-ahead: separate from student time.

Scale it

The default plan is one session, a one-day event.

Scale back: Shorten the event, or run a demo for a smaller audience.

Scale up: Spread the build and the event across days, or invite a bigger audience.

Choose your version

Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Student time: 30 min, one class periodTeacher prep / build-ahead: 10 min$0 to buy. Printing noted separately.One table or a clear section of floorBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or hand-copy the essential prompt for Space Colony Election, then set out only paper, pencils, and the common or recycled items needed for one test. Use a tabletop representation whenever the original version mentions a room, specialized device, or digital tool; the learning comes from the decisions and evidence, not elaborate scenery.

Activity

  1. Read the colony's resource scenario and predict which voting system — majority rule, ranked choice, or weighted votes — will feel fairest to the most colonists.
  2. Design the chosen voting system's rules and ballots for the colony's resource-allocation decision.
  3. Run the vote with classmates role-playing colony factions, find a faction feels the outcome is unfair, and adjust the system's rules to address it.
  4. Debate the final resource allocation as a colony council, explaining how the voting system shaped the outcome.

Ambiance video

Ambiance video coming soon from Creative Dad Studio

Done when: The group has completed Space Colony Election when it can debate the final resource allocation as a colony council, explaining how the voting system shaped the outcome and point to the observation, measurement, comparison, or trial that supports its conclusion.

Materials

ballots or index cards, voting box, poster board, markers, poker chips as resource tokens; Clear plastic bottles; potting soil; small plants; pill bugs or worms; model template

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Materials links go to Amazon. Prices are estimates and may change.

As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases.

Steps

  1. Read the colony scenario: a sealed dome with a greenhouse, colonists, compost, and solar lamps. Predict which living or nonliving part matters most to keep everyone alive.
  2. Build a sealed bottle ecosystem (soil, a small plant, water, and a few pill bugs or worms) as a mini colony to observe for the project.
  3. Draw a model of the colony: arrows showing how carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and nutrients cycle among plants, colonists, decomposers, air, and soil, and a separate arrow chain showing energy flowing from the lamps to plants to colonists and out as heat.
  4. Observe the bottle each session (water droplets, plant growth, decomposition) and add evidence from the bottle to the model.
  5. Run a resource vote: factions propose cutting greenhouse space, compost, or decomposers to make room for other needs. Use the model to predict what happens to the cycles under each proposal.
  6. Adjust the voting rules if a faction feels the outcome was unfair, and revote.
  7. Debate the final allocation as a colony council, explaining with the model how the choice affects matter cycling and energy flow.

Standards mapped

  • NGSS · MS-LS2-3

    Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.