Social Studies, Government, History Computer Project: Electoral College in Excel

Welcome to my Electoral College Excel Project. During this project, students will learn how to create and manipulate information on 3 different spreadsheets. They will learn all about the history of the Electoral College from some awesome websites I discovered. They will create one spreadsheet with all the states, regions, # of electoral votes and how each state voted in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Did you know that there are 2 states electors are not required by law to vote with the popular majority in the presidential election? Your students will know which states those are and how they voted by the end of this project. Once you have the big spreadsheet built, you will learn how to sort and filter the information to just show the states that went Democratic in the 2012 election and the states that went Republican in the 2012 election. You will create 2 new spreadsheets with just that information. You will also learn simple formulas for adding up the electoral votes to see how each candidate did. We know who won but by how much did they win? This curriculum includes detailed lesson plans, sample spreadsheets, a requirements page for the students to refer to as they are doing the project and a grading rubric for the teacher. As with all my projects, no previous computer experience is required. My lesson plans are VERY detailed. Everyone thinks the Electoral College is a hard concept, when you are finished with my project, you will wonder why everyone thinks it's so difficult. Enjoy!!