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Stuart Criley

The Electoral College is a complex system that takes precious class time to explain, yet often results in low student retention. However, students will never forget these rules when placed in a game, and they must use them to win. Funded by the Department of Education, these learning games were designed both for teachers who cover this subject each year in grades 5, 8, 11, and 12. In presidential election years, these games also serve as a school-wide digital election event, where the student no longer views the election as a future voter, but as a future campaign strategist.

Attendee Benefits

By the end of this session, participants will be able to judge what makes a good learning game, and how to use them effectively for teaching. They will become confident in using election data, both from opinion polls and from voter turnout, to drive classroom discussion. They will be able to display gameplay data from student sessions to test (and often debunk) models of past elections. Finally, they will leave with tools that enable them to engage students from diverse political positions in healthy civic discourse, with learning games that favor strategies that use voter data well.