Rational Thinking: Voting, Fairness, and the 2016 Presidential Election

Kelly McManus, Math, Martin Luther King, Jr. MS

Curriculum Unit (pdf)

Synopsis

The students will explore concepts such as gerrymandering, fairness in elections, and social factors that contribute to any election, including the 2016 presidential election. Students will learn about using all operations with rational numbers in order to build confidence in fractions and decimals to best prepare them for 7th-grade rigor. Throughout the curriculum, students will read, write, listen, and interpret current events. At the end of the unit, students will be prepared to be Campaign Managers for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump’s campaign. They will sue the strategies they have already learned to complete a series of tasks to create a plan for their candidate to win the 2016 presidential election.