Overview
PBS Election Central is a new website for teachers and students to use during the 2016 presidential race. We hope this lesson helps navigate through all of the parts of the site.
Election Central features lots of quick and fun ways to learn what you need to know (plus, a lot of extra cool stuff) about civics including crash course videos by brothers John and Hank Green and an interactive map.
NewsHour's videos, lesson plans and debate info. To quote author John Green in his intro to Crash Course, "We actually believe in the old-fashioned idea that learning should be fun"- we couldn't agree more!
Subjects
Social studies, civics, english
Estimated time
One 45-minute class
Grade level
7-12
Warm up activity
- Watch the Crash Course video "roles of political parties in the election process."
- Depending on time, we recommend watching the video a couple of times, once without taking notes, and the second time jotting down as many key terms as they can. After reviewing the terms, students should write down TWO main ideas they would like to research further.
- Students should go through the list of Crash Course videos on PBS Election Central website and decide what topic interests them the most. You may wish to have students work in pairs, watch the video.
Main activity
A. Election "Crash Course" videos
This lesson was published on January 8, 2016, and updated on June 4, 2026.
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