TEACHER: Michele Cole
SCHOOL: Blue Springs South High School
GRADE FOCUS: Grades 11-12
TIME FRAME: One block day (90 minute period)
Show Me Standards Covered: Goal 1 Students will acquire the knowledge
and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.
1. develop questions and ideas to initiate and refine research
2. conduct research to answer questions and evaluate information and ideas
3. use technological tools and other resources to locate, select and organizeinformation
4. evaluate the accuracy of information and the reliability of its sources
5. organize data into useful forms
Introduction: The students will investigate the importance of campaign
finances in elections in the United States by gathering information from various
Web sites about campaign finances of different Presidential hopefuls. Students
will use Excel software to create charts illustrating these aspects.
Objectives:
Students will:
1. examine why finances are in important part of campaigning.
2. use websites to investigate receipts, disbursements, cash on hand, top contributors,
sector totals and geographic totals.
3. create Excel charts illustrating these finances and analyze what each chart
indicates about this candidate.
Preparation for Learning: As a class, we will discuss why information
about campaign finances might have been hard to find prior to creation of the
Web sites devoted to this aspect of politics and how technology has affected
our view of candidates. We will also incorporate into our discussion the important
role of money in politics and why a citizen would want to access campaign finance
information.
Scope of Student Work: Step One: Group students in twos for research
purposes. Assign each group one of the candidates currently in the running for
President in the 2000 elections. Students will use Web sites to find information
about the campaign finances of their assigned candidate and they will then illustrate
these statistics in Excel to better understand how their candidate is raising
and spending his or her campaign money. Each group will find the following:
1. Candidate's political party affiliation
2. Receipts (money raised)
3. Disbursements (money spent)
4. Cash on hand
5. Top contributors and how much they each have contributed
6. Business sector contribution totals
7. Geographic totals
Students will use the following Web sites:
Federal Election
Commission (www.fec.gov)
Center For
Public Integrity (www.publicintegrity.org)
Center for
Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org)
Public Disclosures
Inc. (www.tray.com)
Project Vote
Smart (www.vote-smart.org)
Step Two: After on-line research is completed, each group will create
a series of charts with Excel. At the bottom of each chart, students will write
a paragraph analyzing what this chart illustrates. Each chart will be clearly
identified with candidate's name, party affiliation, and documentation. Photos
can be added for extra decoration.
Resources and Technology Used:
Student lab with 24 computers connected to Internet
Microsoft Excel 97
Assessment and Reflection: Students will be evaluated on participation
in class discussion, ability to access statistical information from a variety
of Web sites, accurate and original charts representing information gained in
Internet research, and accurate analysis of statistics and charts.
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