As promised last week, here is an example of a wicked problem I’ve given to my comparative politics class.
- You are an employee of the The Scowcroft Group.
- Volkswagen wants to expand into a new African market.
- Setting up production facilities and distribution channels will take three years.
- Which sub-Saharan African country should Volkswagen choose to expand into?
- Your task is to compare risk to political stability for two sub-Saharan African nation-states, and choose the one with the least risk.
- Use ≥ 1 quantitative and ≥ 1 non-quantitative indicator.
- Present your recommendation to Volkswagen’s CEO and board of directors.
- You have 15 minutes to create a 3 minute presentation.
I show the instructions, small teams of students work on the problem, and each team presents its solution. I grade the presentations using this rubric:
