Election 2012: Debate Activities for all Subject Areas

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October 2nd, 2012
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Edmodo This!

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The presidential debates start this Wednesday, October 3, and we’ve pulled together activities for each subject area to help you engage students. All activities and resources are listed in our Election Insights Community, with a few samples highlighted below.

Join the community and view the “Collection” area for additional resources. Please share your favorites as well.

Social Studies - Host a backchannel discussion on Edmodo during the debates. Have students login to Edmodo from their home computer, laptop or mobile device. Within your group, post discussion questions and thought starters in real-time and allow students to respond.

Language Arts – Have students use this debate viewing guide to rate each candidate during the debate. Post the reflection questions (listed within the guide) in your Edmodo group for students to discuss.

Have access to Edmodo Apps? Download the free Votes Blasts app from StudySync and use it with the Votes Blasts lesson plan.

Science – Help students understand our Earth’s energy sources and alternative energy sources with The Great Energy Debate lesson plan. Use the small groups feature to host your own in-class debate on Edmodo and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy.

Math – Use this Analyzing Election Data activity to get students thinking about quantitative data and statistics. After Wednesday’s debate, ask students to share a statistic stated by a candidate and have them share their findings in your Edmodo group.

A fun activity for all subject areas – Debate Bingo! Look for the bingo cards in the Collections folder of the Election Insights Community.

9 Responses to “Election 2012: Debate Activities for all Subject Areas”

  1. Stephanie Greacen says:
    October 2, 2012 at 7:06 am

    I have been looking for activities for our presidential study. Thanks so much for these!

    Reply
  2. Kim Butterfield says:
    October 2, 2012 at 11:15 am

    When I click on the Debate Viewing Guide under Language Arts, I get the lesson plan.

    Reply
  3. Robin Dauma says:
    October 2, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    I think the link is incorrect for the “Debate Viewing Guide” under Language Arts…

    Reply
  4. SisDr Karen Urbina says:
    October 2, 2012 at 3:09 pm

    Thanks for this wonderful set of resources! I wanted to engage students with these issues but was unable to put something together!
    Does anyone know where I can get the StudySync app?

    Reply
  5. Jonathan says:
    October 4, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    If you want to have your students actually stage debates on the topics in this year’s election, I have free handouts and accompanying youtube videos to teach “public forum” debate (which is very similar in format to the presidential debate from last night).

    If you’re interested, go to my youtube page: youtube.com/mygreatdebate or directly to my website: http://www.greatdebate.net The handouts and training for “how to debate” would be a great way to get your social studies class involved in actually debating amongst themselves. Hope this is helpful!

    Reply

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