Activity Overview
Students will identify trends for different states in awarding their Electoral College votes, and then collect voting data from the Internet on how each state's Electoral College votes were awarded in the last ten presidential elections.
Before the Activity
See the attached Activity PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.
Print the appropriate pages from the Activity for your class.
Install the CellSheet(tm) App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions.
Review the students? responses to the homework questions. Answer any other questions the students have.
During the Activity
Distribute the appropriate pages from the Activity to your class
Distribute the CellSheet(tm) file(s) to your class using TI Connect(tm) and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
Follow the procedures outlined in the Activity
Students will:
Examine the workings and history of the Electoral College system.
Evaluate the merits of the Electoral College system in the face of its historic behavior relative to the popular vote in national elections.
Design a campaign strategy for a modern-day presidential election based upon projections from data on past elections.
After the Activity
After students finish linking their results for this Activity to the teacher, introduce Activity 3, Electoral College and Political Strategy. In Activity 3, students will become a team of political strategists for either a Democratic or Republican candidate for president in the 2004 election. Their job will be to devise a campaign strategy that will help them win the electoral college vote in the most efficient means possible, focusing on states that will be projected winners for their candidate.