Elections

=Sites with Election Lesson Plans= = =
 * [|Lesson Plans 4 Teachers]
 * [|Education World]
 * [|TeacherVision]
 * [|The Lesson Plans Page]
 * [|NEA]
 * [|Math Forum]
 * [|PBS Kids: The Democracy Project]

=Specific lesson plans that contain math content= = = [|Budget Hero] Play this fun, animated game to see how fiscal decisions we make today might affect our personal and national future. Control spending in defense, education, health care, the environment and other areas. Read about the pros and cons of your decisions.

[|NewsHour/NPR Election Map & You Predict Game] See election results, voter polls and links to state-by-state news items as your pointer hovers over different areas of the map. Students can easily connect to local issues and stats. The "You Predict" button allows users to change the map to predict winners as they assign states' electoral votes. [|The ReDistricting Game] A fun game about gerrymandering that makes an important and complicated concept accessible to students. This site helps students understand exactly how their votes count. It includes links for activism and provides information about how gerrymandering works in your own state.

[|All Aboard the Campaign Trail] Plan a "whistle stop" campaign train trip across the United States. Create slogans, songs, speeches. Use measurements of time and distance.

[|Budget Making] Introduce students to budgets, expenses and savings; learn about government services and basic expenses; and create pie charts representing government spending priorities.

[|Graphically Speaking] Students will explore the relationship between state population and federal congressional representation. Using Web site data or almanacs, students will graph state population, state size, and number of congressional representatives. Students will then infer the relationship between the three figures. Historical extensions allow students to discover why congressional representation was set up in this fashion.

[|To Vote or Not to Vote] Examine the history of voting rights in America, explore the current-day problem of low voter turnout, and create community surveys to evaluate different ways to improve voter registration and voter participation.

[|Campaign Finance Reform] Students can analyze the role that campaign donations may or may not play in helping a candidate win and affecting his or her vote once in office.

[|The History and Use of Sampling Methods] Students learn about sampling by tracing improvements in sampling procedures over the twentieth century. Scientific inquiries involving flawed sampling are illustrated and discussed using the Literary Digest poll in 1936 and the Gallup presidential poll of 1948.

[|Election Day Chart] Track Election Day results using [|this chart.] Before Election Day, fill in the first two columns-record the number of electoral votes at stake in each state and predict a winner. On Election Day, use a variety of media outlets to track state by state results beginning at 6pm ET when the first polls close (Indiana and Kentucky). Record the electoral and popular votes for each state on the chart as the results are confirmed. (Some of the data cells may remain blank.) Lastly, add up the total electoral votes and popular votes for each candidate. Who will be the next president of the United States? Were your predictions correct? The given chart is for the 2004 election. C-Span might publish a new chart for 2008, or you can white-out the candidate names and use this one.

Use the [|Senate] and [|House] race charts to track results and determine which party will control the House and which party will control the Senate in the next Congress. The party with the MOST members holds the leadership positions and the committee chairs, thereby controlling the agenda and work of the Congress. [|Senate Race Chart] (Excel) [|House Race Chart] (Excel)

[|The Presidential Election Process] Students will:
 * understand that elections are decided by the electoral college.
 * see that each state has a number of electors, and understand how this number is determined.
 * examine election trends.

[|Election Poll] A handout which gives your child an overview of how to write and execute a poll, and analyze the results. Use with the Election Project [|lesson plan] and [|student polling tips][|.](This is from [|TeacherVision]. They are a subscription based site, but they do offer free trials.)

[|The Electoral College] Students learn about the Electoral College's role in the election process. They learn about an election (1876) when the Electoral College played a deciding role in the election. They use a resource to determine which other elections were decided by the Electoral College.

[|Presidents and Inauguration Graph: How Old Were They?]Students graph the presidents' ages at inauguration. Who was the youngest president? the oldest? (K-8)

[|I.O.U. An Introduction to the National Debt] Students will be exposed to the causes, the consequences, the amount and the history of the national debt. After research and discussion, students will pose their own solutions for overcoming the debt.

[|Public Opinion Polls] Examine this popular method for gauging the viewpoints of American. Several lessons at this site.

[|Capitol Gains: Using the Internet to Investigate Presidential Campaign Finance] This lesson allows students to investigate the importance of campaign finances in elections in the United States. Students use a variety of Web sites to obtain specific information about the campaign finances of different Presidential hopefuls. Students then create graphs that illustrate all of the aspects of campaign finances researched and analyze what each graph indicates about this candidate and his or her campaign.

[|Magnetic Polls: Exploring the Results and Effects of the New Hampshire Primaries: A Math and Civics Lesson] In this lesson, students will explore the New Hampshire primaries and the polling process by analyzing polling information, examining the effects of polls, and creating graphs that represent polling data.

[|Election Results Map] Students analyze vote counts from each state to determine which candidate got the most popular votes in each state. They create maps with a color key to show the popular vote results. Older students use the maps and a chart to determine how many electoral votes each candidate received. 