I recently taught a lesson on quadratic voting to my middle school students. Understanding non-traditional political and economic systems is important to me, because I think it creates better world citizens. These topics should be baked into lessons throughout K-12.

In this lesson, each student was given 10 votes that they could use to vote on a virtual field trip destination. The voting was conducted using the quadratic voting method, which allows individuals to assign more weight to their votes by using more votes. Here is an awesome tool – https://quadraticvote.co/ – to quickly run a quadratic vote, but I recommend going in-depth with your students on various voting methods if you have time.

One of the virtues of learning quadratic voting is that it allows for a more nuanced representation of individual preferences. Rather than simply stating a preference for one option over another, individuals can express the intensity of their preference by using more votes. This is lauded as allowing for a more accurate representation of the collective will of the group. I love it because it causes voters to see multiple sides of an issue: you aren’t always for or against something, but rather have a gradient of pros and cons to consider within yourself. (Sidenote, this is what I love about calculus, it improves your ability to make decisions weighing in your various emotions and time values).

Politically, quadratic voting can help to mitigate the influence of “swing voters” who may hold disproportionate power in traditional voting systems. By requiring individuals to use more votes in order to exert greater influence, quadratic voting helps to ensure that the outcome of the vote reflects the preferences of the majority rather than a small number of individuals.

Overall, the lesson on quadratic voting was a valuable learning experience for my students, as it taught them the importance of accurately expressing their preferences and the value of considering the preferences of others.

references:

• Vitalik explaining quadratic funding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssr0CHg6YSE
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_voting
• A simple tool to conduct a vote: https://quadraticvote.co/ (though personally I made a shared excel file so we could all see the entire process)

credits:

• Words: M. James on the keyboard
• Image: R. Thufir jamming with Diffusion Bee for the image