Title: ★ TASK: Explore Your State
Course: US Election 2016-Leuphana Copy > Section: Introduction

[fa-check-square-o fa-3x pull-left fa-muted] In this task, you will...
  - take a look at your adopted U.S. state, its people, geography, and culture as well as its political landscape;
  - develop an idea about how your state might vote on Election Day and discuss this in a forum;
  - document your initial findings and refine them gradually as you proceed with the project.

1    Overall impression of 'our' U.S. state   [fa-book]

Take a look at the websites below and explore your state in general. Try to understand what the people living there might think and feel about the upcoming election.

To guide this exploration, you can fill out a K-W-L chart. Make three columns – know, want to know, learned – and fill in your ideas and questions as well as what you find out as you proceed with the project.

Know | Want to know | Learned

2    Past voting behavior   [fa-book]

Take a look at the state fact sheet to find out how many electors your state will send to the electoral college and what the voting behavior was like in the past. During the course of the project you will study the current situation in more detail.

Discuss your ideas with your classmates (and potential American partners) in the FORUM: First assumptions.

Keep your ideas, impressions and hypotheses in mind while working on the project. You can take notes and document your work in the Project Journal.

Refine your ideas gradually. At the end of this project, your task will be to make an informed prediction about how your state will vote on Election Day.

[fa-glyphicon-plus] [fa-files-o] Materials and resources

Website Visit the USA: Explore USA states, territories and major cities

Handout Handout: State fact sheet

Website IIP Digital: 50 States in 50 Days

Website History.com: 50 States

[fa-lightbulb-o fa-2x]   Self-study tips for this task  Doing research  Linking ideas and sentences  Golden rules of cooperation