STEPHENS CITY, Va. - The Independent School of Winchester has introduced the election process into a cross-curricular project for students in grades 3-7.
Under the direction of Brigitte DeHaven, the school's Quantitative Reasoning teacher, students will learn about the Electoral College by analyzing data such as population, geographic location and political leaning (red state vs. blue state) and how it affects the election process. Using graphs to represent their data, students will make their own predictions of the outcome of the presidential election.
"Math is so much more fun when you can apply it to real-world situations," DeHaven said. "And when those situations are something the kids are seeing in the media and able to understand on a daily basis, it becomes exciting to them. It creates a confidence that can't be gained through simply solving problems in a textbook."
On Election Day, the students will perform an original Reader's Theater Play featuring excerpts, researched and selected by the students, from prior presidents' famous and infamous speeches. In the play, past presidents will gather to offer advice to the newly elected president on issues identified by students as being key to the well-being of our nation.
The Independent School of Winchester is a co-educational, progressive program that provides instruction to students in grades K-7. For more information, call Susan Nyberg at 540-409-7036, email email@example.com or visit www.iswva.org.