Race to the White House: A Game About Presidential Elections

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Race to the White House: A Game About Presidential Elections

Edmond David Hally, PhD

Average rating:4.9Number of reviews:(315)

In this one-time course, students will use real life polling data in a game which will help them understand both how Presidential Elections work as well as the 2020 Presidential election outcome.

Class Experience

What factors make a candidate more likely to win the Presidential election?  Is it campaign funding?  Likability?  Issues?  Or does a crafty candidate need to worry about all of the above?

In this lesson, students will learn about how pollsters and academics predict election outcomes and why so many of these models were wrong in 2016.  The class will play a game I designed.  The game uses uses real life polling and election data from August and September of 2020 to model what happened in the...

Students will learn how pollsters and academics use public opinion data to make predictions about elections.  Students will also learn how the election landscape of 2020 lead to its outcome.

I have been teaching Political Science courses at the college level since 2002.  My B.A. is in Elementary Education and Political Science.  I have both published and presented research on the use of games in the college classroom.

Homework Offered
Assessments Offered
Grades Offered

Any game materials will be posted in the Outschool classroom.  Students will choose their roles at the beginning of the game using these materials at the beginning of the game.

In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:538.com
Crystal Ball
270 to win
Real Clear Politics

This class focuses on the solely strategy that campaigns use to win battleground states; it doesn't delve into any of the specific issues addressed by the candidates in the campaign.  If students bring these issues up, we may discuss the more appropriate ones while adhering to the guidelines for respectful discussion covered at the beginning of class.  

In all other ways, this class adheres to the class content policy established by Outschool.   It presents facts and ideas that are grounded in science, in this case, social science polling methodology.  It uses real world evidence (voter data) to simulate possible election outcomes.  I avoid discussing my own viewpoints or vote choices with the students, although I'm happy to discuss the students' own preferences in a neutral and unbiased way.

The class will be using 270towin.com to see different electoral map possibilities.  We will look at election forecasting sites such as fivethirtyeight.com, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Real Clear Politics.  I will be incorporating public opinion data from Pew, Gallup and other organizations.

Meet the teacher

Edmond David Hally, PhD

Average rating:4.9Number of reviews:(315)

Hello!  My name is Ed.  On Outschool, I hope to teach lessons focused on social studies, science, and literature.

After graduating college, I spent a year as a substitute teacher and then another year with my own 3rd and 4th grade classroom. ...