Essential Questions

*What are the mechanisms, processes, and history of the American electoral system?

*How is data used to influence elections and predict election results?

*What is the science behind election advertising? How can science be used to make aesthetic and linguistic choices?

In this project, students will dive deeply into American civics, politics and electoral history. In addition, they will study the psychology that lies behind political advertising and opinion manipulation. There will be a heavy math component in this project as students analyze how data can be used to make predictions.

At the end of this project, students will choose a medium of communication (podcast, documentary film, WeChat blog, or website) and explain the 2020 election to students at various middle schools China. How does our political system work? What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of our system? What are the major issues in the 2020 election? And who will win?!?

Students will commit to the following core outcomes :

• I will become a better classroom citizen. I will learn how to contribute meaningfully to civilized political conversations; I will listen for silence and seek out voices I have not noticed before; I will be upstanding and empathetic. I will self-assess using Harkness diagrams.
• I will be able to identify key historical items and terms (full list here) and place them in their context.
• I will be able to explain the 2020 election to middle school students in China.