Monday, November 26, 2007 The Most and Least Representatives in Congress

The Capital Building in Washington, DC. The home of the legislative branch of government.



Inside view of the House of Representatives.

• The House of Representatives is one of the two bodies that make up what we call Congress.
  



• The framers of our Constitution wanted one body of Congress to stay in close touch with the people back home—and respond to their desires and wishes.
  



• Throughout our history, many of the key laws were proposed by members of the House of Representatives.
  



• Each state gets to elect a number of representatives based on its population. Some big states, like California, have a lot of Representatives, while small states, like Vermont, have only 1 or 2.
  



• Representatives face elections every two years back home in their states. This means that they must pay very close attention to what the voters in their states think and want—or they may find themselves voted out!
  
  In this activity you will identify the 10 states with the most representatives (called congressmen, congresswomen or congressperson) and the ten states with the least representatives.
  
  You will need to sign onto your blog and begin a new post. Copy and paste the above title into the title area of your new post.
  
  You will also need to open the Paint program and copy/paste the following map into Paint:
  
  
  

Use the data table (the link is further down this page) to determine the 10 states with the most representatives.

Then use the paint bucket tool in Paint to fill the 10 states with the most representatives with the color blue.

Repeat this process to determine the 10 states with the least representatives (Alphabetically). Fill these states in red.

Save the map to your folder. Filename: (Your Last Name) Most and Least Representatives By State Map

Ask Me how to Add an Image to your blog.

After adding the image, type the following list

The 10 States with the Most Representatives

1. State - # of Representatives

Then type the following:

The 10 States with the Least Representatives

1. State - # of Representatives

Here is an example of what your post should look like:



The Ten States with the Most Representatives

1. California - 53

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

The Ten States with the Least Representatives

1. Alaska - 1

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Here is the link to the table:

http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/tab01.txt

Here is a map to help you locate the states:

http://www.maps.com/ref_map.aspx?nav=RM&cid=680,747,1303&pid=11467