Lesson Activities

Activity 1

With this activity students are expected to differentiate between political elections and other instances where voting may take place.

1. Name three TV programmes where the public are asked to determine a result by voting.
2. What are the different ways the public can cast their votes?
3. Are there any restrictions on taking part in these votes? 
4. Name three other situations where voting is used to determine a result.
5. Give a reason why these are different from a political election.
6. Name three types of political election in the UK?
7. How can people vote in these elections?

This activity would be best suited for a teacher-led classroom discussion.

Activity 2

The aim of this activity is to encourage students to consider the position of candidates in elections and the various levels of elections in the UK.

Write on one set of cards (or sheets) the names of the various elections and on another set of cards write the abbreviated title for representatives standing in these various elections.

First, allow students the time to read through the ‘Types of UK Elections’ page in the student notes. Take the cards you have prepared and mix them up. Then, in groups or as a class, ask the students to match the representative position to the correct election.

The pairings are as follows:

MP - General Election

MP - By-election

MEP - European Election

MSP - Scottish Parliament Election

AM - Welsh Assembly Election

MLA - Northern Ireland Assembly Election

Councillor - Local Election

Mayor - Mayoral Election

As follow-up, you may wish to cover with your class the scope of responsibilities that would fall to each of these representatives. You could prepare a list of responsibilities or make-up scenarios, for example ‘fishing quotas in the Adriatic Sea’ or ‘creating a regional assembly for the North East of England’, which students would then be expected to match to the relevant representative.

Activity 3

The aim of this activity is to introduce students to current voting trends in UK elections - with particular reference to the most recent General Election in 2001.

Students should be given 10 minutes to read through the ‘Introduction’ and ‘How the UK currently votes’ pages in the student notes. These cover the core statistics and motivation behind debates and election turnout and political participation.

Once students have had the opportunity to digest these facts and figures, hold a class discussion to deliberate on the following questions:

1. What factors could have caused the low turnout at the 2001 general election?

2. For what reasons do you think the turnout amongst the youngest voters was so low?

3. What is ‘voter apathy’?

Follow up on these questions by asking the students to share and iscuss their predictions for the 2005 general election.

Activity 4

This activity is designed to introduce students to some of the key controversies surrounding the minimum candidacy age that will be discussed over the course of the HeadsUp debate.

To begin with, allow students some time to reread the basic arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ lowering the voting and candidacy ages (these are presented as bullet-points in on the ‘For’ and ‘Against’ pages of BackUp).

As a class or in 'reporting groups', discuss the following questions (or similar):

1. Why are election candidates who represent a political party traditionally more successful than independent candidates?
2. What age is the youngest MP?
3. What reasons could be behind having a minimum candidacy age that is higher than the voting age?
4. What reasons could be behind having the same candidacy age for every level of UK election?
 
Having covered these questions, you may wish to then hold a small class debate on the merits of the various arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ lowering the candidacy age. At the end of this debate ask the students to show their support for either lowering or retaining the current minimum candidacy age. This could be done either through a show-of-hands or a ballot.

At the end, you may wish to ask the students if any of them would consider standing as a candidate and for what level of representative. To stimulate further discussion, ask those students who would not consider standing to explain their reluctance.

Activity 5

This activity is designed to bring together and compare the various arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ changing the minimum voting and candidacy ages. This is an opportunity for students to weigh up both sides of the debate and begin formulating their own views (if they haven’t done so already) to take into the HeadsUp forum.

Stage a small, classroom-based debate. Begin by dividing the class in two. Have a quick show of hands to show who is ‘for’ and who is ‘against’. If possible, mix it up by getting the ‘for’ students to argue ‘against’ and vice-versa. Allow each group to prepare their case and elect a spokesperson(s). The spokesperson will then present their group’s case to the class.

After the cases have been delivered, assign two desks with either side of the argument and ask the students to gather around the desk corresponding to the side of the debate they support. Impress upon them that they needn’t support the case they had argued for during the activity. Alternatively, the class could cast votes into a ballot box or have a show-of-hands.

Activity 6

This activity is designed as an opportunity for students to consider how the ages at which a person qualifies to vote and stand as a candidate relate to ages at which other rights and responsibilities are established. It should also help your students understand how the actions of people - in this instance young people - have an effect on others in society.

Space permitting, you could assign each of six desks a ‘minimum age’ (there are six key ages- 10, 13, 16, 17, 18 and 21). When you call out a legal right - for example ‘How old do you need to be before you can work part-time?’ or ‘At what age do you start paying National Insurance?’ - the students should gather around what they believe to be the correct minimum age. If this is logistically unfeasible, perhaps students could prepare placards (each with a different age on it) and use them to indicate their answer to your questions. You should judge which, and how many, rights to cover.

Following on from this, discuss as a class why it is believed necessary to have minimum ages for certain rights and responsibilities. For example, ‘why are you not allowed to buy alcohol until you are 18?’ or ‘why are you not allowed to drive a bus until you are 21?’

Activity 7

This activity encourages students to find out how the age of electoral majority in the UK compares with other countries (a map, globe or atlas could be used to illustrate the proximity of these countries to the UK).

1. Name another country with a voting age of 18.
2. Name another country with a candidacy age of 21.
3. Name a country with a voting age lower than 18.
4. Name a country with a voting age higher than 18.
5. Name a country that has a candidacy age lower than 21.
6. Name a country that has a candidacy age higher than 21.
7. Name a country where voting is compulsory.

Once a country has been pinpointed for each question the class could be split into groups and each group assigned the task of investigating (using the school class/library and/or internet) the voting/candidacy regulations in one of the named countries. In the case of those countries that differ from the UK, the groups should try to highlight reasons for this. This activity could take up to 30 minutes to complete and you may wish to consider devoting a whole lesson to this activity.