#CERCAtheVote Prompt of the Week
Nate Silver is the most well-known and well-regarded statistician when it comes to predicting electoral outcomes. He rose to prominence in 2008 when he accurately predicted 49 of 50 states’ election outcomes and was named one of TIME‘s most influential people. In 2010, his blog was incorporated into The New York Times, and in 2012 he correctly predicted all 50 states’ votes in the presidential election. The following year, he left the Times to focus on FiveThirtyEight, a data-driven journalism site with sections dedicated to politics, sports, and culture.
Recently, Silver has been in the news for predicting that Donald Trump has a 1-in-3 chance of winning the general election, despite many other respectable polling sites giving Trump only about a 10-15% chance of winning. This has caused some journalists to accuse Silver of skewing polls to favor Trump or overcompensating for predicting early on that Trump would not become the Republican nominee.
[Related: Does Donald Trump’s claim of a ‘rigged election’ hold up?]
The weekend before the election, Silver took to Twitter to respond to his critics and defend the 1-in-3 odds. What do your students think? Does Silver’s claim that Trump has a shot at wining the presidency hold up?
We the Voters: So You Think You Can Vote?
Does this video make a convincing case that modern U.S. voters must be motivated and committed to voting? (Grades 11-12)
We The Voters: Run Rep Run
What is Juana Matias's strongest motivation to run for state representative? (Grades 9-10)
Earth's Soil is Getting Too Salty for Crops to Grow
Is salinization a serious threat to our food supply? (Grades 6-8)
The Debate: Fossil Fuels vs. Alternative Energy Sources
After reading the debate about whether we should use fossil fuels or alternative sources of energy, which side of the argument seems stronger?(Grade 4)
