Given the low turnout among younger voters, it is important to seek innovative ways of engaging students in the electoral process, and a presidential year like this one offers exciting opportunities for doing so. In this article, the author describes her experiences with a schoolwide project designed by herself and colleagues that simulates the…

Teachers live for the "teachable moments"--those opportunities to connect their subject content to events taking place beyond the classroom. They can occur spontaneously, lucky occasions to bring the curriculum to life grabbed on the fly. In other instances, a teachable moment looms large. In hundreds of thousands of classrooms nationwide,…

All evening on election night 2000, candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore were deadlocked in the tightest-ever race for the office of President of the United States. As the numbers were reported from each state, the battle for votes in the electoral college swung back and forth from Republicans to Democrats. The next morning, the issue was still…

The Woodbury materials center around a mock election in a hypothetical community. Students are given background data of the sort astute and active political campaign personnel would ferret out. A statistical outcome rpovides the students a means of evaluating the effectiveness of their strategy as the game progresses. (JB)

A simulation for the classroom consisting of three elections. This article presents its objectives, participants, duties of participants, how to prepare voter profile cards, sample subjects for voter profiles, how to play the game, and follow-up activities. See SO 504 023 for address of journal. (ND)

A model involving: (1) identification of objectives; (2) identification of the significant parts of a game; (3) selection and use of evaluation criteria for each part; (4) analysis of the interrelation of the parts. (SE)

Electing the U.S. President and Vice President is a basic right and responsibility of every citizen of voting age. Even though it occurs every 4 years, the complexities of electing the president is not a concept that every person understands. This resource book aims to fill the gap in understanding by providing students with a learning-by-doing…

Guidelines for a school-wide simulated election on the state, county, or local level to be conducted by high school social studies or political science classes are provided. The objective is to prepare students for observation of and participation in a real political campaign in the community. Details for the election, establishing political…

In this lesson plan, students are assigned a member of the California Assembly to research and a political faction to represent. Students examine representative bills voted on by the California Assembly to determine if their member's voting record coincides with the views of their political faction. Ultimately, students must decide whether, and…

A game designed to introduce elementary and middle school students to the primary election process and its operational elements through simulation and role playing activities is presented in this document. A hypothetical town of Notae which has been controlled by one political party for years without resulting change is described. Issues in the…

One of a series of teacher-developed curriculum guides intended to encourage active student participation and involvement in important social issues, this elementary level guide provides children with an age-appropriate understanding of the process of political elections. Students are encouraged to become aware of what is happening around them…

Eleven activity sets for students in grades 8 through 12 are designed to supplement courses in citizenship and U.S. history and government. "The Civil War That Could Have Been" creates a hypothetical situation which requires the participant to analyze the causes of the Civil War. In "History on TV -- Enemy or Ally of the Social…

One of a series of teacher-developed curriculum guides designed to encourage student participation and involvement in important social issues, this secondary level guide helps 7th through 12th grade English and social studies educators teach about the election process. An introductory section suggests practical considerations, means of enlisting…

This teacher's guide is designed to accompany a series of sixteen 15-minute television programs titled "By the People." The program's objective is to motivate high school students to appreciate the role they can play in their nation's political process. Content of the 16 lesson plans parallels the television material and includes the following…

In order to increase students' awareness of their place in the nation's political life, this unit introduces young children to the electoral process. Each lesson includes objectives, materials, procedures, and supplementary materials that can be duplicated for student use. The first five lessons are designed to improve student awareness of…