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Dallas Middle School mock election includes ‘electoral college’

Wilkes-Barre Area School District has taken the mock election idea a step further, involving students in grades 7-12 from four schools and letting teachers work the results into their own lessons. For at least a few students, the project has been eye-opening.
				&ldquo;The most interesting thing for me isn&rsquo;t the election itself, it&rsquo;s how mass media impacts the election,&rdquo; Jordan Diggs said during a Zoom interview with students and staff involved in the project (Wilkes-Barre Area is operating in remote-only mode right now). &ldquo;There&rsquo;s subliminal stuff that they put in your head.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;This election is a big part of our lives,&rdquo; Megan Gallagher said of her class work on the campaigns in Erik O&rsquo;Day&rsquo;s media class. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve definitely learned a lot since the beginning of the school year.&rdquo;
				Meyers High School math teacher Sam Elias has participated in mock elections in the past, using the results in lessons with students. This election will include students in four schools and five buildings: Meyers High School, GAR Memorial High School, Solomon Junior High and Coughlin High School, which has students split between the original school&rsquo;s annex and the renovated Mackin building.
				The project included a survey, concluded Monday, that asked several demographic questions, a query about which political part they identify with, and whether they believe the COVID-19 pandemic impacts who they would chose for president. They get to cast a vote for the candidate of their choice Tuesday.
				Different teachers use the data and the results in different ways.
				Elias will have students crunch some numbers to see how closely the race and gender of students voting for either candidate match what happens in the actual election. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping it will be a similar comparison,&rdquo; he said, noting that has been the case in the past. &ldquo;Our school and district is a microcosm of the country.&rdquo;
				Media studies teacher Erik O&rsquo;Day said he was less interested in the demographics because he focuses on the trends in elections past compared to current events. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve spent weeks looking at data points in other elections,&rdquo; he said, including spending on advertising, news reports, and past results in five current &ldquo;swing states,&rdquo; including Florida and Pennsylvania.
				&ldquo;We look at how they spend money, information on early votes,&rdquo; he said. My class is trying to come up with a predictive map.&rdquo;
				American History teacher Michael Ward said his class has been looking at elections of the past, including demographics and voter trends. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hitting it at every angle.&rdquo;
				District Social Studies Coordinator Sean McLaughlin said doing the election with the various approaches dovetails nicely with a new state requirement to do a civics assessment project before graduation.
				Sarah Newman, another student in O&rsquo;Day&rsquo;s class, said she &ldquo;probably wouldn&rsquo;t have paid attention to the election&rdquo; without the class, but now &ldquo;I understand it.&rdquo; She cited times her parents talk about it and she knows what they mean.
				The students seemed to lean toward Biden when asked, though Diggs said he sees the arguments on both sides, noting his parents run a small business, so &ldquo;closing it down affects my life.&rdquo;
				Newman offered some insight into the potential impact of Biden picking a woman, Kamala Harris, for his running mate. &ldquo;I gravitate more toward him now,&rdquo; she said.
				And all three students sounded a similar theme about the impact of following the election this year in particular. With a pandemic, the rise of Black Lives Matter protests, gun violence and other growing issues, paying attention to elections now can have huge consequences in their lives as adults.
				&ldquo;Getting involved is really important to the future of America,&rdquo; Newman said. &ldquo;I want to have a voice.&rdquo;

WB Area crafts mock election into multi-subject lessons for grades 7-12