Using AI to teach about Elections, Voting, and Democratic Participation: 10 ideas for incorporating AI tools into lesson planning and classroom activities this election cycle

As the United States gears up for another election cycle, educators have a unique opportunity to engage students in meaningful discussions about the democratic process. By incorporating cutting-edge AI tools into their lesson plans, teachers can create an immersive and interactive learning experience that helps students understand the intricacies of local and national elections while encouraging critical thinking and civic engagement.

Below are just some ideas about how you harness the power of AI to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and motivation they need to become informed and active participants in the democratic process.

1. Use a chatbot to brainstorm ideas

Chatbots, like ChatGPT and Claude are great thought partners for brainstorming creative unit plan, lesson, and activity ideas. Because presidential elections only come around every 4 years, this is a great opportunity to update materials or activities.

Sample prompts:

  • Suggest some creative activities that would help 4th grade students understand how elections work.
  • Here is the unit plan I usually use to teach about US presidential elections. Suggest some ideas for updating this unit using project-based learning: [insert unit plan].

2. Use a chatbot to draft lesson plans

Once you’ve brainstormed, you can then use a chatbot to help draft detailed lesson plans based on your specifications. In order to guide the AI tool in generating a lesson that meets your needs, include details like grade level, lesson length, standards to follow, and teaching style preferences.

Sample prompts:

  • Generate a lesson plan for 8th grade students about the electoral college. The lesson should be 1 hour, aligned with C3 standards, and include a small group activity.
  • Create a lesson plan for a flipped classroom model in a high school history class on the evolution of political parties in the US, including pre-class materials, in-class activities, and assessment tools.

3. Use a chatbot to design creative activities

Chatbots are great tools for cutting down on the time it takes to plan thought-provoking activities like case studies and simulations. These types of activities are not only effective at helping students understand the logistics of elections and governing, they are also AI-proof assessments that students can’t complete by simply using AI.

Sample prompts:

  • Design a simulation activity where students role-play as a local election board and their goal is to increase voter turnout in their community.
  • Generate descriptions of the key perspectives and arguments made when the founding fathers decided on elections and voting procedures in the US Constitution. Then, design an activity where students re-create the election system as if the Constitution was being written today.

4. Use AI to differentiate materials

AI is a great tool for quickly differentiating lessons, activities, and materials. Chatbots like ChatGPT can be prompted to adapt the reading level of a given text, create question sets of varying difficulty, and suggest methods for accommodating students with a variety of learning styles and needs. By taking the time to differentiate lessons on elections and democratic participation, we can equip students with the knowledge and skills to actively engage in the democratic process in a way that meets them where they’re at.

Sample prompts:

  • Provide a differentiated lesson plan on the topic of presidential campaigns, suitable for students with varying learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.
  • Create a classroom game that supports learning about the the history of voting rights in the US. The game should have different roles and tasks suitable for students with varying learning abilities and styles.

The following ideas involve using AI tools in the classroom to enhance the learning experience for students and bring subject content about elections and voting to life

5. Use AI to analyze political speeches

The natural language processing (NLP) algorithms that power chatbots like ChatGPT can help with textual analysis activities. The rhetoric used in campaign speeches, debates, and news articles impacts how the public views issues and candidates. The ideas below can help students develop media literacy skills and learn to identify potential biases or persuasive techniques used in political discourse.

Activity ideas

  • Paste an excerpt of a campaign speech or debate response into a chatbot and prompt it to analyze the tone, word choice, emotional appeals, or other rhetorical strategies that the speaker used.
    • Try this prompt: Analyze this political speech, pointing out how the tone and word choice are used to persuade potential voters: [insert text]
  • Paste an excerpt of a campaign speech or debate response into a chatbot and prompt it to analyze the structure of the arguments made.
    • Try this prompt: Analyze this response that a politician gave during a debate. Explain how they structured their argument and what evidence they used to back up their main point: [insert text].

6. Use AI to analyze election-related data

Another application of AI in the lead up to an election is predictive modeling. By inputting election data and polling information into AI tools, students can create their own election forecasts and compare them to the predictions of professional pollsters. This hands-on approach allows students to explore the factors that influence voter behavior and gain a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in predicting election outcomes.

Try these ideas for using AI to analyze election data:

  • Input data on the demographic breakdown of voters in the last presidential election and from a recent poll. Ask the AI to point out significant changes in how certain groups voted previously and their current opinions.
  • Ask students to find data on the results of various recent polls conducted by different agencies. Have them input the relevant information into an AI tool and prompt it to predict the outcome of the election. Have students discuss why polls often can’t accurately predict the outcome of an election.

7. Use a tool like Socrat.ai to assign students a debate about an important topic related to voting*

AI tools like chatbots can act as debate partners for students, encouraging them to make well-reasoned arguments. Chatbots like ChatGPT can be prompted for this activity or you can use Socrat.ai* which has a debate-a-bot tool that allows teachers to assign and track student work. This activity can also help students prepare for an in-class debate by helping them to explore counterarguments and rebuttals.

Some sample debate topics could include:

  • Should the voting age be lowered to 16?
  • Should voting be mandatory?
  • Should elections be publicly funded?

8. Use AI to “chat” with past US presidents.

Socrat.ai* as well as HelloHistory and other apps have tools that simulate conversations with historical figures. Employing these tools can allow you to bring course content to life in a unique way, thanks to AI’s ability to mimic writing styles and pull from its vast training data.

Assignment ideas:

  • Chat with George Washington about the first presidential election in the US
  • Chat with FDR about his choice to run for a 3rd and 4th term as president
  • Chat with Abraham Lincoln about his campaign strategy during a time of extreme political polarization

9. Analyze AI-Generated content to help students develop AI literacy skills

A key goal of incorporating AI into the classroom should be to impart students with the AI literacy skills they will need to navigate a world where AI-produced content is becoming more and more commonplace. Below are just a couple ideas that will allow students to analyze AI-generated content while exploring particular aspects of elections and political campaigns.

Assignment ideas:

  • Ask ChatGPT or another chatbot to write a speech as if it was a politician campaigning to be elected. Students can add specifics like: what position the candidate is running for, key issues of the candidates platform, etc, or allow ChatGPT to add those details.
    • Then, ask students to analyze the AI-generated speech for errors and biases and reflect on the tone and persuasiveness of the speech.
    • Lastly, ask students to reflect on what this exercise helped them learn about both Artificial Intelligence and elections.
  • Use an AI image generator to create images that might be seen in a campaign ad. Teachers can generate images before class for students to analyze, or students can experiment with creating ones of their own.
    • Students can then analyze the images for their persuasiveness and discuss the impact that AI may have on elections in the future. They can also compare AI-generated campaign images to real ones and discuss each’s purpose and effectiveness.
    • Note: many AI image generators will not create images of some real political figures, so you may need to prompt for more generic images. However, this is a good chance to have a conversation about why AI might need certain rules and regulations.

10. Use AI to help students become knowledgeable and engaged voters

AI tools can be used to simulate real-life scenarios and conversations that can help students engage in meaningful political discourse and explore multiple perspectives. The suggestions below explain just a few ways teachers can use this technology to help students become engaged participants in a democratic society.

Activity ideas:

  • Use AI to explore how politicians and voters across the political spectrum may feel about a particular issue. This lesson plan is designed to help students develop a nuanced understanding of political issues and create a classroom environment where diverse viewpoints are valued.
  • Prompt a chatbot to role play as a politician running for office at a campaign event where they must answer questions from voters. Alternatively, prompt the chatbot to role play as a constituent and ask the student questions as if they are a candidate running for office.
    • Prompt suggestions:
      • Pretend that you are a candidate running for [political office] who is hosting a town-hall style event. I am going to ask you questions as if I am a constituent considering voting for you. Please respond as if you are the candidate.
      • Pretend that I am a candidate running for [location] city council. ask me questions as if you are constituent considering voting for me

*the author of this article is part of the team that developed Socrat.ai

note: Claude.ai was used to brainstorm some of the ideas, edit, and draft some parts of the text in this article

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