Activities - Election 2008

buttons from Ronald Reagan's various campaigns

Campaign buttons and promotional material generated throughout Ronald Reagan's political career. (Image source. More about the photograph)

Online activities

Against All Odds: Inside Statistics (The Annenberg Foundation)

This video series, appropriate for high school students, is available online at no charge from the Annenberg/CPB website. “With an emphasis on ‘doing’ statistics, this series goes on location to help uncover statistical solutions to the puzzles of everyday life. Learn how data collection and manipulation — paired with intelligent judgment and common sense — can lead to more informed decision-making.” The associated web resources, “Statistics: Cast Your Vote,” can be used with or without the video series to explore polling, create your own random sample, and discover how random “random” really is.

Scholastic Election 2008

Scholastic provides online activities for students relating to the election and the presidency. Some highlights include:

You’re the Candidate - a game for up to 2 players
Scholastic’s own kid reporters who cover the election
A joint timeline of the presidential candidates’ lives

NBC Learn (NBC)

Social networking meets social studies in this online learning environment built by NBC News. Learn around the network’s archive of political coverage. Students create profiles and compile stacks of material for viewing and group activities. Registration is required but free.

For the classroom

Mathline: Elections and Voting (PBS): These activities for grades 4–11 use mathematical concepts to examine various methods of voting and of counting and analyzing votes. Each type of voting requires a different level of mathematics to explain and analyze, and so each activity is not appropriate for all grade levels. However, a grade 8 teacher could do all of them, and others might be able to adapt some.
Winning the Vote (The Smithsonian Institution): Activities include objects from the Smithsonian collections and encourage students to consider the powers of the presidency as well as the informal methods that have evolved to select candidates for America’s highest elected office. (Grade 10)