Teach Voting Systems in a Way Students Actually Understand
Too often, high-school civics education misses the mark.
Students view civics as a check-box course, and educators aren’t given great resources to help change that. This leaves students stuck memorizing how elections work instead of learning how to think critically about how democratic systems shape outcomes.
You need a lesson plan focused on making civics interesting and participatory.
Students will learn how First Past the Post, Ranked Ballots and Proportional Representation work, but not just in theory. By testing the voting systems themselves. Through voting simulations and discussions, they will learn about fairness and what meaningful representation actually looks like.
This lesson plan is based on the 2025 Best Political Series Nominee: Unrigged
Designed to align with Ontario’s CHV20 Civics and Citizenship curriculum
Students will leave the lesson with a deeper understanding of how elections translate votes into power and why civic participation matters.
The UpliftED Civics Education
lesson includes
Guided discussion questions and video integration
A student graphic organizer
Reflection activities that encourage civic thinking and respectful dialogue
Interactive voting simulations
About UpliftED
UpliftED, our Civics Education Program, focuses on the development and implementation of lesson plans for Canadian students, starting with the Ontario Grade 10 civics class.
The goal is to enhance the understanding of democracy and voter reform, utilizing the docuseries "Unrigged" as a foundational resource. In the long term, the project aims to spread the initiative across Canadian high schools by leveraging digital platforms, partnerships, and marketing strategies.
The long-term vision is to expand this initiative to cover civics education from grades 5 to 12 across all high schools in Canada.
