Google Forms and The Election

I have no shortage of love for Google Docs, including the amazing Google Form. There are just so many potential classroom uses. I wanted to use this post to highlight just one example of how Google Forms can be used to create engaging, authentic learning experiences for students.

Students at Saucon Valley High School used Google Forms to run an election simulation and take exit polls. Government students created the election form which included an "exit poll."

After watching a debate where students presented the candidates stance on issues that had been selected by students, the entire student body was allowed to vote. Voting took place in the library with students checking in with "poll workers". Laptops were set up with the ballot/poll in full screen mode.





Statistics students worked with the government students to develop the "exit poll" questions so they would provide meaningful data that could be analyzed after all the results were in.  Google Forms provide great real time graphical results (as seen to the left and right) students will be analyzing these results to see if they can spot any trends.

What I liked best about the use of technology in this activity, is that it was incredibly easy to implement, and provided meaningful results for the students. This is a great example of how real world technologies are helping students in the classroom learn how to be the leaders of tomorrow.

PiktoChart: Create Great Infographics for Free

I've been looking for a free infographics tool for a while now. Infographics are visual representations of data that beautifully combine graphic design and statustics. Just this past weekend I stumbled upon PiktoChart.

PiktoChart promises to allow you to create a great looking in just 30 minutes.  So I gave it a shot, I created this in about 5. Considering I didn't use any factual statistical data, I'd say a real one could definitely be created in less then 30 minutes.

The key to creating successful infographics in a real understanding of the underlying data.  Students must gather the information and then analyze the data and finally create a visual representation of the data the helps the reader understand the information presented.  This process really promotes the higher order thinking skills.

Students can create great infographics at any level K-12 and in any curriculum. Here are just a few examples.

Math: Since infographics are all about visualizing data, there are countless uses in the math classroom.

Social Studies: Create an infographic comparing and contrasting any two events in history, or the political parties, or social eras.

Science: Students who are climate change can create infographics to represent the current trends.

Elementary: As a get to know the class activity students can survey classmates about things they like and do and then represent that information on an infographic.

Language Arts: Character studies are a great way to use infographics.

These are just a few ways that infographics can be used in the classroom, the possibilites are limitless.



Here is a great video on using infographics as a creative assessment. This video uses several other tools to create infographics, but with PiktoChart you can really save time on the creation side of the activity.