2012 Election Education Resources

Obama photo by Pete Souza, The Obama-Biden Transition Project
Romney photo by Gage Skidmore

The 2012 Election is just weeks away and is generating tremendous interest among students and adults alike. This great interest is something that can be tapped by teachers in order to make content relevant and engaging to students, and there is certainly no lack of resources available to help do it. Our digital culture is changing the way elections are run, and providing opportunities for critical thinking and analysis of candidates' statements, positions, rhetoric and records. It is also providing opportunities to engage in the process of election digitally, through Twitter, Facebook, websites and other tools. What a tremendous gift to give a child - an opportunity to learn how to engage with information, evaluate it, reflect upon it, and formulate an opinion they can back with facts.

Here are some resources to help teach the 2012 election in your classroom, regardless of your content area. If you have some more I'd love to hear about them - please share them in the comments below!

• The New York Times
• Our Election 2012 Unit: An Overview
• From the website: In this unit, we’re putting teenagers front and center by having them consider these basic essential questions — questions central to any election — through the lens of a hypothetical situation in which the voting age has been lowered to 13. (1) Who are the candidates? (2) What are the issues? (3) How are the candidates trying to win the election? (4) Who do you think should win the election?
• The United States of Numeracy: The Math of a Presidential Campaign
• A presidential race is a gift to American history and civics classes. But it’s also rife with learning opportunities for math students, too. Here are 10 suggestions for looking at the campaign season through an arithmetical lens, using New York Times resources.
• FiveThirtyEight Blog - Provides information on the electoral college and predictions on where candidates stand
• The Electoral Map: Building A Path To Victory - Allows you to create your own scenarios with an electoral map
• Worksheet: Evaluate a Debate
• Worksheet: Television Commercial Analysis Chart
• Milestones: Mitt Romney - An interactive timeline of Mitt Romney’s life and career
• Milestones: Barack Obama - An interactive timeline of Barack Obama’s life and career

• NBC Learn
• Election Math
• Decision 2012 Election Timeline
• The Newseum is a 250,000 square foot “museum of news” in Washington, D.C. Its Digital Classroom team has created an interactive “Election Timeline” that utilizes NBC Learn videos to trace the major media moments of Decision 2012.
• Weekly Thought Starters

• ProCon.org
• 2012 Presidential Candidate Positions on 61 Issues: A Side by Side Comparison
• Lesson Planning with ProCon.org

• Meet the Candidates
• Barack Obama
• Mitt Romney

• Matchmakers
• ISideWith.com
• USA TODAY's Candidate Match Game II
• Pew Research Center's "Where Do You Fit? The Political Party Quiz"
• ElectNext.com

• Museum of the Moving Image: The Living Room Candidate - Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012
• The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

• FlackCheck.org
• Could Lincoln be elected today?
• FlackCheck asks: “Could Abraham Lincoln win re-election in 1864 if today’s technology and methods were available to his opponent?”
• Taking Down The Worst Political Ads

• FactCheck.org
• Also FactCheckED.org - designed for teens

• Track the Electoral College
• NYTimes: FiveThirtyEight Blog - Provides information on the electoral college and predictions on where candidates stand
• NYTimes: The Electoral Map: Building A Path To Victory - Allows you to create your own scenarios with an electoral map
• Huffington Politics: Election Dashboard
• Politico.com: 2012 Swing States
• 270towin.com

• Google Politics & Elections

• OneVote
• From ChannelOne, this site is designed for teens.

• Free Federal Resources for Teaching Elections

• Pearson: 2012 Election Teacher Resource Center

• PBS Learning Media: Election Resources for Your Classroom

• My Voice My Election: National Student Mock Election

• Rand McNally: Play the Election
• Play the Election is a free, collaborative, online tool that teaches students about the 2012 Election and the election process through a series of games, resources and competition. Students predict the election winners for each state on an interactive election map, and compare their predictions to their class and the country to see where they rank. The program also includes eleven digital mini-games that delve deeper into influential and battleground states, like California and Texas, and Ohio and Florida. Play the Election includes thirteen lesson plans that support core concepts to grades 7-12, crafted by expert teachers specializing in government and civics - and all aligned to the core curriculum and state standards.

• OpenSecrets.org
• OpenSecrets.org is the nation's premier website tracking the influence of money on U.S. politics, and how that money affects policy and citizens' lives.

• Scholastic: Election 2012

• iCivics: Win The White House Game

• C-SPAN: Campaign 2012

• CNN Student News