Inside The Hayot Center for Innovation (HCI) one September morning, a clock counted down from 10 minutes. Seniors murmured fervently, arms stretched across their table as they arranged small wooden shapes and annotated with their pencils.
"5 more minutes," Senior History Seminar teacher Emily Feder announced.
Upon closer inspection, those small wooden pieces came together to make up a map of the United States. The pieces, which fit together like a puzzle, had been created earlier using the laser cutters in the HCI.
The intensity picked up as the seniors competed to see which group could correctly arrange and label the states the quickest. At the sound of a buzzer, Ms. Feder and Director of the HCI Jon Olivera evaluated each team, crowning an excited group of six the winners.
“Now, confer with your group and figure out how many electoral votes each state has,” Ms. Feder said, transitioning to the next part of the lesson. “But first, who can tell me how many total electoral votes there are?”
After noting the correct answer of 538, the students began to use their critical thinking and analytical skills to determine the allocated amount for each state. Prior to this class, the seniors read about the electoral college – what it is and why it matters – and learned how electoral votes are determined. (The number of electoral votes that each state has is the sum of its number of senators (two) and its number of representatives – determined by the state’s population – in Congress.) The students also learned about the difference between electoral votes and the national popular vote.
“Make your best educated guess,” Ms. Feder advised.
“I want to be accurate – democracy is important!” remarked one student as her group considered how many representatives California might have.
After 10-15 minutes, Ms. Feder announced, “Times up! Pencils down!” (Their teacher would later review the maps to see which team had the most accurate responses.)
To conclude the lesson, Dr. Olivera gathered tubes of red, blue and white paint. He then tasked each group with painting their entire map one of the three colors and hot gluing a small piece of Velcro to each state. The seniors' work resulted in one large classroom map that depicted the projected state-by-state outcomes.
With this engaging and interactive study of the electoral college, the students will keep a keen eye on the election process and update their classroom map according to the most up-to-date polling information.
