Lesson one Day one

The Electoral College Mathematics

Objectives: Students will chart the 2004 and 2008 election results using an
Excel Spreadsheet. Then, at the bottom of the spreadsheet, the student will
explain why a presidential candidate can lose the popular vote and still win
the overall election, while relating the election to ratios.
Procedure: First I will show the students a short YouTube video on the
electoral college and how mathematics is used to elect a president. I will also
show them another YouTube clip on the basic functions of Microsoft Excel,
and this will help them with their work. Then the students will be given a link
to a website that will give them the results from both the 2004 and 2008
election. The students will then be put into groups of three. Once the groups
are formed they will be shown an example of how to format their
spreadsheet. Then the groups will each chart the 2004 and 2008 presidential
election results. Once the groups are done charting, at the bottom of their
spreadsheet, the students will answer the question, How can a presidential
candidate lose the popular vote and still become the next President of the
United States? Be sure to explain using ratios. Once the groups have
finished charting and answering this question they will turn in one Excel
Spreadsheet per group for grading.
Content Standards:
L.6.RP: Ratios and Proportional Relationships-- A. Understand ratio concepts
and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
1. Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a
ratio relationship between two quantities. For example, The ratio of wings to
beaks in the bird house at the zoo was 2:1, because for every 2 wings there
was 1 beak. For every vote candidate A received, candidate C received
nearly three votes.
L.6.SP: Statistics and Probability-- A. Develop understanding of statistical
variability.
2. Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question
has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall
shape.
Materials: Link to 2004 and 2008 Election Results; Link to both YouTube
videos; Microsoft Excel; classmates
Accommodations: Group work so any students with special needs will be
grouped with those without special needs to help; if a special needs student

needs more help than student help they will be serviced, for example, nonnative students will be helped with translation trouble if needed by the
teacher. Gifted students will be spread throughout the groups to help
challenge them.
Rubric (see below):

Electoral College Spreadsheet

Teacher Name: Colby Delahoussaye

Student Name: _____________________________________