Lesson Plans and Resources for Teachers
Vote by Design takes a design-thinking and student-centered approach to building citizen agency and voter confidence. Our interactive, non-partisan curriculum allows educators, civic organizers, and community leaders to help next gen voters find clarity on what leadership qualities are most important to them in a U.S. President -- and why. As one student reflected, “I used to think I didn’t know enough to vote, and now I believe I have a process and way of thinking that will allow me to engage.”
The entire Vote by Design curriculum, as well as our facilitator support materials and student-paced options, are freely available to any educator, community organizer, or student who is interested in bringing the experience to their classroom or community.
Educator Field Guide and Lesson Plan
Our comprehensive field guide offers a step-by-step road map to running Vote by Design in your classroom or community.
Student-Paced Programs: Digital Offerings
Interactive Student Workbook
We’ve taken our award-winning classroom experience and distilled it into an interactive, digital workbook for students to experience on their own or in conversation with others!
*In order for your work to be saved in this interactive PDF, please download the PDF and open it as a file on your desktop (not as a tab in your web browser).
Nearpod Experience
Vote by Design is now accessible in both asynchronous and synchronous formats through Nearpod, an interactive dashboard for educators.
We recommend this option for teachers who want to utilize the interactive features that Nearpod offers, including collaborative whiteboards and polls. You can explore the three modules here:
Supplementary Materials
Deliberative Discussion Guide
Presidential Debate Scorecard
Leadership Criteria Worksheet
Recorded Lessons & Educator Trainings
Watch the Vote by Design workshop run with students in real-time through the screen of an educator to get a sense of the experience and the learning platforms. Please note: the curriculum has been slightly updated since this workshop in June 2020.
This instructional video walks educators and facilitators through how to run Vote by Design's one-hour workshop in their classrooms or communities. As you watch, we encourage you to follow along in our facilitation guide/lesson plan here: https://tinyurl.com/VBDguide
