In this lesson, we will play a game I designed for my introduction to American Politics college course.  This game helps students understand how political parties in the U.S. recruit and run candidates, how platforms are made, and how the Electoral College works. 

In this game, students will shift between the roles of: 1) individual voters, 2) political parties wanting to win the election, and 3) the Electoral College.  In round 1, students will play the role of individual voters.  They will anonymously rank their preferences on real world political issues; we'll use this to discuss how public opinion influences what politicians do.  In round 2 (the main part of the game), students take on the roles of party committees.  They first try to place their candidate on a left-right scale without knowing where the median voter is.  Is it a winning strategy to be ideological or moderate?  Finally, in round 3, students will play one or more states in the Electoral College and cast a vote for one of the two hypothetical candidates.  Will the popular vote match the winner of the Electoral College?  

This lesson provides many opportunities to understand how our system works and discuss recent (and upcoming elections).  As with all my lessons involving politics, I focus on how the system works, not advocating for/against a specific political party.  One way that I do this is to use hypothetical (instead of real-life) candidates in the game or allow students to create their own candidates.

NOTE:  In order to make sure this class is fun, safe, and productive with everyone, parents and learners should familiarize themselves with the Outschool Community Standards before signing up for this class and follow them once class starts (https://support.outschool.com/en/articles/16039-community-standards).   I reserve the right to move students to the waiting room or remove them from class if they depart from the standards.