Super Bowl Debate

Submitted by tiffanie.miley on

In Mr. Shields’s eighth grade history classes, students have been debating and learning about politics as they determine who they think will win the 2010 Super Bowl.  On February 5, students used the Electoral College system to vote on who they thought would be this year’s champion. 

Electoral College is the system that the United States uses when it’s time to vote for the president of the United States.  Each state gets a certain amount of votes, based on the population in that state.  This system brings a different set of results than using popular vote.  For example, if a few lower-populated states all vote Republican and one higher-populated state votes Democratic, Democratic could still win in the Electoral College, but Republican would win in popular vote. 

Well, needless to say, Mr. Shields’s classes were excited and involved on February 5.  Before the voting, the classes had a debate. Half the class represented the Saints, and half represented the Colts.  Then each student picked a state out of a hat (some students got two so that all 50 states were represented), and then they voted.  Mr. Shields remarked, “The kids had fun with it. It was a little vocal and fun, and they got to campaign.”

The results are in, and the total (all the classes combined) Electoral College votes for the Saints was 1,255 (popular was 131), and for the Colts, 1,970 (popular was 175).  As it happened, there was one unusual score: in Mr. Shields’s third period class.  In popular vote, the Saints won with 27 votes to 23 for the Colts.  However, the Colts won in Electoral College, at 310 votes to the Saints score of 228.  Despite all of these students rooting for the Colts, the Saints pulled ahead in the game, winning 31-17. 

Attributions
Kristi Hatch, SJHS Staff Writer