Materials & Tools

• The C-SPAN network web site, with links to newspapers around the country and archived news reports to monitor up-to-date polls of the candidates as the election nears.

• C-SPAN’s American Presidents web site and television series to research past presidents

• C-SPAN’s Road to the White House 2000 program and Campaign '98 coverage online (airs Sunday evenings at 7pm ET)

• Graph paper

Time frame
Weekly activities to be implemented during the election cycle.

Procedure
1. Research a past president - Instruct students to choose a particular president of interest to research using C-SPAN's American Presidents website. Questions to consider:

What year was he elected and how many years did he serve? Describe the time period in which he lived. Did the president implement a major policy? What were the public perceptions of the president during the time period he served? How did the president leave office?

Identify aspects of society at large, the culture and international events that influenced the presidency. Students should research the president’s indivdual beliefs and the platforms of his political party.

2. Study current candidates - Instruct students to follow one presidential candidate in the upcoming election. Students can use C-SPAN's media links from the Washington Journal site or look at past elections using Campaign Archive site. Follow television and print media coverage. Learn about campaign platforms from newspapers and candidates' websites. Call candidate campaign offices to research platforms and campaign strategies. Track poll results.

When conducting research, students should consider the following questions:

What is the party affiliation of the candidate?

What is the background of the candidate? Identify the policies with which the candidate seems to agree and disagree with that of the present administration.

What is the approval rating in early polls?

What is the current political environment in the country?

What is the public approval of current president?

What are the physical characteristics of all candidates?

Assignment: Use graph paper to keep track of polls during the election period. Place months and weeks on the "X" axis and voter approval on the "Y" axis. The student will have a visual component which will show aspects of increasing or decreasing approval. (It is also helpful to track the opposing candidate on the same graph using a different color pen.)

3. Compare and Contrast - As a class, compare the political climate of today to that of presidents the students researched. Compare and contrast the lives of the presidents and draw inferences from the political climate. Are there similarities in party politics? What is the appeal of the candidate compared to that of the previous president?

Keep track of connections between the political environment and the men themselves by writing student observations on the board in front of the classroom.

4. Make predictions - Based on the information gathered through research of past presidents and current candidates, students will make predictions of who will be the next President of the United States.

Additional Activities
1. Write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper and inform him or her about your project as well as your prediction for the upcoming election.

2. Encourage the students to volunteer for their candidate during the election period.