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Teaching and Learning for Social Impact Main Menu Introduction Introduction to the Teaching Schema Why: Teach for Social Impact How: Course Design for Social Impact What: Topics to Teach for Social Impact About this Publication Washington University in St. Louis

What: Election

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The youth voter turnout rate consistently falls below national averages. Students at Washington University are no exception. One best practice for addressing this disparity is integrating election content into classrooms. Connecting students’ area of studies to relevant policies and political platforms and emphasizing the importance of voting as a response to material learned in the classroom has been proven to increase student voter turnout. In addition, students face numerous procedural barriers to voting. Many students have never voted before and must navigate various processes, deadlines, and forms in order to successfully vote on Election Day. Including voter education as part of the classroom education experience will address many of these barriers and equip students with the information necessary to complete the steps needed to vote in a timely and accurate manner. Given the University’s interest in increasing the voter turnout rate among its students, adding elections content to courses is crucial.

Curated Course Structures and Components

Full Courses and Syllabi
- Project Pericles syllabus repository
  - Computer science course example
  - English course example
  - Interdisciplinary humanities course example
Assignments and Lesson Plans
- Periclean Voting Modules
- Congressional Candidates and Policy assignment from Dr. Anne Kruchten
- Teaching Tolerance 2020 Election Plan
- Institute for Democracy and Higher Education Facilitating Political Discussions guide
Other materials
- Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement Faculty Voter Engagement Resource This webpage has been curated especially for Washington University faculty. It includes election resources to add to courses, including syllabus language, PowerPoint slides, Canvas announcements, and more.

Curated Relevant Content

Read

Articles about integrating voter engagement into courses

Pedagogical Value of Polling Place Observation by Students
I’ll Register to Vote If You Teach Me How: A Classroom-Based Registration Experiment
Embedding Engagement in a Political Science Course: Community College and University Students and the Help America Vote College Poll Worker Program

General Reading

Institute for Democracy and Higher Education Election Imperatives 2020 Note faculty-specific strategies on pages 8 and 9.
Making Sense of... The Vote-By-Mail Conversation
Block the Vote: Voter Suppression in 2020

Listen

Young Activists Pour Energy Into Protests, But What About the Election?
Vote! The Podcast

Watch

Suppressed 2020: The Fight to Vote
The Power of the Youth Vote

Experience

Volunteer at the on-campus polling location
Engage Democracy events – The Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement will be hosting civic education events throughout the semester. These will include events that discuss important policy issues, how the pandemic is affecting the vote, and more. As events are finalized, they will be posted to this page.
Become an academic voter engagement hub – Some WashU academic departments have been trained on voter registration and voter engagement strategies to better help the students in their department turn out to vote. If you are interested in having some members of your department trained, please contact Lindsay Gassman, Voter Engagement Fellow, at lindsaygassman@wustl.edu.
Be a poll worker Please note that this activity has heightened risk at this time. The Gephardt Institute is not encouraging this for students this year.

This page has paths:

What: Culturally Relevant Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Emily Stenberg
Contents of this path: