This article outlines a series of lessons the author led to help students understand gerrymandering, which is the practice of drawing district boundaries to favor a particular group or party and which undermines the fairness of a representative democracy. These lessons were developed to capture student interest and engagement by linking mathematics to an understanding of citizenship and to reinforce geometric content standards while giving students an opportunity to practice the modeling process. The overall design of the lessons reviewed basic geometry, developed group norms, encouraged communication, and required students to evaluate the reasonableness of their work. The ultimate goal of the lessons was to empower students to understand that mathematics helps them understand complex topics that impact their lives and to practice reasoned discourse.