1. On 20 January 2009, Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44 th President of the United States of America. He was elected by the US Electoral College, beating his rival John McCain by 365 votes to 173.

2. 53% of what?

3. On 4 November 2008, the US public voted for its Electoral College. Each state has a set number of electors in the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the group of people who vote for the President. The party that wins in each state is given all the Electoral College votes. The Electoral College votes will decide who is the President.

4. 9 0 3 0 10 0 6 0 0 55 The party that has the greatest share of the votes in each state wins all the electoral college votes for that state. If the Electoral College votes were allocated differently, how might that change the overall result?

5. Use these links to investigate the US election results further.

6. In 2004, George W Bush beat John F Kerry by 286 seats to 251. If the Electoral College votes were distributed according to the proportion of the vote each candidate received in each state, who would have won in 2004? Would George W Bush have been President?

7. Up2d8 maths US Election Special 2009 Student resource sheets

8. Click hereClick here to download the student resource sheet US Election 2004 Click hereClick here to download the student resource sheet US Election 2008

9. Up2d8 maths US Election Special 2009 Teacher Notes

10. US Election Special 2009 Introduction: One of the curriculum aims for mathematics is that young people become: responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. This resource aims to increase pupils’ awareness of the democratic process set in the context of the US election. An understanding of the impact of a particular electoral system on the results, will enable pupils to form an opinion on this example of the democratic process and so become more able to make a positive contribution to society. The system of proportional representation used in the European elections in June will be featured in a future Up2d8 Maths resource. Content objectives: - use direct proportion in simple contexts - use proportional reasoning to solve problems - break down substantial tasks to make them more manageable - represent problems and synthesise information in algebraic, geometrical or graphical form - move from one form to another to gain a different perspective on the problem. Process objectives: These will depend on the way in which you structure the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver the activity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below.

11. Activity: The task is centred around the recent US Presidential election to coincide with the inauguration of Barack Obama on 20 January 2009. Pupils are invited to consider how the votes of the US people contribute to the election of the President. They are then asked to consider if different distributions of the votes of the Electoral College would change the result in the 2008 election, and to look back to the more controversial 2004 election. Differentiation: You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. The basic task deals with the 2008 US election results. To make the task more complex you could consider: - Thinking about the results of the 2004 election - Considering the previous stages of the electoral process in the USA. This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements. Outcomes: You may want to consider what the outcome of the task will be and share this with students according to their ability. This could be: - a presentation explaining the figures from the 2008 American election - an article for a Democratic Party pamphlet persuading the reader that Barack Obama had a ‘landslide’ victory - an article for a Republican Party pamphlet persuading the reader that John McCain had a ‘near miss’ - a newspaper article explaining the results of the 2004 American Election. Working in groups: This activity lends itself to paired or small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely that you will allow them access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually. You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used to working in groups in mathematics you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness and engagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Guidance for group work). You may wish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to specific group members. Assessment: You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing the assessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide that this activity lends itself to comment only marking or to student self-assessment. Probing questions: Initially students could brainstorm issues to consider. You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion which might include: Are there some elections in which you have voted? (e.g. school council rep.) Why is an election necessary? Why not ask for volunteers? Who decides how the election is held and counted? How old do you have to be to vote? Why is there an age limit? How does the British Electoral System work? What is a general election?

12. How does your vote contribute to the overall result? How is the USA electoral system different? How would your vote contribute to the overall result if you lived in America? Are elections fair? You may wish to look at the Amnesty International resource, Human Rights in the curriculum: Mathematics (ISBN 1 873328 49 4) to extend work on different electoral systems. You will need The powerpoint display which you might read through with your class to set the scene at the beginning of the activity. There are six slides: The first slide sets the scene for the 2008 US election The second slide presents the headline results for the 2008 US election and poses a question about the figures The third slide gives some facts to explain the final stage of voting sets in the 2008 US election

13. The fourth slide explains how the Electoral College allocates its votes and invites pupils to consider if a different allocation of votes would change the overall result The fifth slide gives some sources of information for further investigation The final slide challenges pupils to investigate the results of the 2004 US election Student resource sheets, or A copy of the spreadsheet (The spreadsheet will allow pupils to experiment with different vote allocations before coming to a conclusion. If you do not have access to appropriate computer facilities, the task can be done on the accompanying resource sheets). You may wish to give pupils access to the internet to extend their investigation.