Great Compromise — The Two-Chamber Solution¶
Learning Objective¶
Students will explain (Bloom L2 — Understand) how the Great Compromise resolved the conflict between large-state and small-state interests by creating a bicameral legislature.
- Bloom Level: Understand (L2)
- Bloom Verb: Explain
- Library: p5.js
TODO¶
Fix the spacing in the control region
Specification¶
The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 1: "Chapter 1: Foundations of American Democracy".
Type: interactive infographic
**sim-id:** great-compromise-representation<br/>
**Library:** p5.js<br/>
**Status:** Specified
**Learning objective:** Students will *explain* (Bloom L2 — Understand) how the Great Compromise resolved the conflict between large-state and small-state interests by creating a bicameral legislature.
**Design:**
- Two side-by-side panels: House of Representatives (left) and Senate (right)
- House panel: Shows a bar chart of representative counts for 10 selected states (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Rhode Island). Bars proportional to population. Clicking a bar shows the state's current seat count and population.
- Senate panel: Shows all 50 states as equal-sized circles (two per state). Clicking a circle opens an infobox: "Every state sends exactly 2 senators — from California (39M people) to Wyoming (576K people)."
- Below both panels, a slider lets students select a hypothetical state population (100K to 40M) and see what their House seat count would be.
- A "Why This Still Matters" toggle at the bottom shows: "A senator from Wyoming represents ~288K people. A senator from California represents ~19.5 million. Is this fair? AP FRQ 4 often asks students to evaluate this trade-off."
- Color scheme: House = warm orange tones; Senate = cool blue tones; matching the two chambers' traditional representations
- Responsive: stacks vertically on narrow screens