Presidential Election Math Ideas
Every four years we have an awesome opportunity to incorporate the real world into math class and help students understand how the United States presidential election works. Chances are the middle school history teacher at your school is also going to incorporate the election, however, the more ways students hear or experience something the better it sticks with them.
Below are some ideas for having your middle school students practice important math skills while learning about the voting system and U.S. Presidents. Looking for a print and go option? Grab my Math Behind the U.S. Presidential Election from my TpT shop here.
7 Ways to Incorporate the Presidential Election Into Your Math Class
Have students make a Presidential Trading Card with 10 numerical facts such as the president’s age at inauguration, number of years president, etc.
Look at Overall Presidential Data: Have students work in groups or pairs to make a chart of U.S. Presidents (Name, Years as President, Age at Inauguration, or other numerical facts). Then have students calculate the average, median, and mode of a specific data point. Have each group analyze a different data point. For example, maybe one group looks at the data of average age of presidents and another group looks at the number of terms each president had. You could then have groups create a poster or chart sharing what information they learned based on their data.
Help Students Understand How Presidents Get Elected: Showing a helpful video such as The Electoral College Explained by Kids is a great option for students to watch. Ask students to tell you the equation mentioned in the video and why it is so important in a presidential election.
Look at Electoral College Votes in Your State: Have students use this website to find out the votes in your state. Then have students calculate the percentage of votes your state gets out of the overall number of electoral votes of 538.
Look at the Swing States: Make a chart of this year’s seven swing states: Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Look at the past four presidential elections and see which way each state went. Have students record the votes for each year. For example, the votes in Wisconsin in 2020 were as follows: Joe Biden received 1,630,503 and Donald Trump received 1,610,036. Students can see just how close the votes were in these states. After looking at past elections, have students predict what might happen in these swing states this year.
Campaigns by the Numbers: Have students do some research on the amount of employees and volunteers each campaign has as well as the amount of money each candidate has raised. Create posters displaying their information comparing the two campaigns.
Election Night Math: Have students keep track of the number of electoral votes each candidate receives when a state is declared. The magic number is 270.
These are just a few ideas of how to incorporate the presidential elections into your math class in the coming weeks!
