K-12 Government/Election Teaching Materials

Watch Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi answer questions submitted by YouTube users. She talks about Congress coming on the YouTube, the 2008 election and th...

Barack Obama is gaining support in the rural, conservative town of McArthur, Ohio, reflecting nationwide trends in which the Illinois senator has been consolidating support among independents and in some traditional Republican strongholds.With just three weeks until the election, political analysts say absent an October surprise it will be difficult for Republican John McCain to turn things around. That's a challenge his campaign, which has been written off before, says it is delighted to take up.

The Democratic Party's outreach to young people and to people of faith seems to be paying off. A new survey on faith and American politics shows Democratic nominee Barack Obama making inroads among some believers and moving ahead of Republican John McCain among Roman Catholics, largely because of young Catholics' support. In the biggest shift over the past four years, Senator Obama now wins the backing of 60 percent of voters who attend religious services once or twice a month, a jump from the 49 percent the Democratic nominee won in 2004.

He leads nationally in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll by 53 percent to 43 percent. He leads, too, by a wide margin in estimates of the Electoral College. Virtually all of the closest states left at this point voted for President Bush four years ago. The presidential race is not over, but at this point, Obama has a better chance of becoming president than McCain, and as a result, the questions ought to be going toward him as much or more than McCain -- questions not of tactics but of substance.

Barack Obama attracted 100,000 people at a Saturday rally here, his biggest crowd ever at a U.S. event. The crowd assembled under the Gateway Arch on a sunny Saturday afternoon to hear Obama speak about taxes and slam the Republicans on economic issues. Lt. Samuel Dotson of the St. Louis Police Department confirmed the number of attendees piled into the grassy lawn by the Mississippi River. To be sure, big crowds don't always signal a big turnout on Election Day. But Obama's ability to draw his largest audience yet in a typically red state that just weeks ago looked out of reach, could signal a changing electoral map.

News, photos, video and debates from citizen journalists and bloggers around the world.

News, photos, video and debates from citizen journalists and bloggers around the world.

The issue of race has been intertwined with the history of the United States since its inception. It has brought out the nation's best and its worst - from the courage of the civil rights workers to the murderous terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan. Barack Obama's meteoric rise already warrants a chapter of its own, and his mixed-race heritage has already played a pivotal role in this year's election. It helped the Illinois senator win key primaries in Southern states like South Carolina. But it also cost him some white support in some struggling industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to polls.

Just as the candidates have learned to use novel technology tools to reach young people during this year's presidential campaign, teachers like Mr. Sherif are turning to electronic resources to capture students' interest in the election. At the same time, they want to help students decipher the barrage of related images and information and to engage them in lessons about the democratic process today and throughout American history. "The technology is fun and helpful, but it's also a tool you can use to get a better understanding of what the political and historical issues are," said Mr. Sherif, who teaches history and science at the Science Leadership Academy, a public high school in Philadelphia.

Teacher in California is looking to collaborate with other schools around inaugural activities. Read this post in the Global Education Collaborative ning for more information.