Local students learn about exit polling during the election
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
By Helen Ravenel
Pictured Above: Carter Falk (6th grade) and Lexie Thomas (7th grade) are
Lower Picture: Carter Falk (6th grade), Billy Swails, Ellie Thomas, Tyler Collins (7th grade) are shown here from left.University School of the Lowcountry in Mount Pleasant is committed to learning.
But the learning techniques are not the everyday ones most are used to.
Students have four days of school and one Learning outside of the Classroom day.
“Learning Outside the Classroom experiences are a fundamental part of our program. They are weekly, and they embody our believe that students learn best by doing — and the Lowcountry is a rich and varied classroom filled with exciting educational opportunities and passionate and talented individuals,” said University School founder and headmaster Jason Kreutner
Last Tuesday University School of the Lowcountry (USL) students conducted exit polling for the Mount Pleasant mayoral and town council races.
For the past three years that the school has been open, students have participated in exit polling on election day.
According to Kreutner, the school chose six precincts across Mount Pleasant in order to have a representative sample of the town as a whole.
“We garnered approximately 100 completed exit polls at each site (593 in all), and then we returned to USL to compile the surveys and make informed predictions about the races,” Kreutner said.
And, the students in grades 3-8, who were in “combined groups” were almost right on the money.
The students predicted Linda Page, John Burn and Elton Carrier would be the winning candidates.
The students were also correct that Billy Swails would be Mount Pleasant’s new mayor.
“The students did all of the work. They had been researching the candidates,” Kreutner said.
Students even offered to make Web sites for the candidates who did not have a Web site.
Town council hopeful Tom Reilly took the students up on their offer.
“This experience follows upon a similar endeavor we undertook last fall when we did exit polling across Charleston County for the 2008 presidential race. It was a great learning activity about mathematics, statistics, and the democratic process for us all,” Kreutner said.
At USL, Kreutner said there is a lot of mentoring.
In reference to the exit polling, the students were assisted by other students who had done it last year.
“We made sure they had practice before they went out on Tuesday,” Kreutner explained.
“Considering the accuracy of our exit poll for the results of the mayoral and town council races, I am confident that we have a good sense of what residents of Mount Pleasant are feeling about two questions we also asked them. We feel this way because our sample was not a general poll of adults but one of 580 registered voters who did vote,” Kreutner said.
1) Should the mayor of Mt. Pleasant be a full-time job, or should it stay a part-time job?
71.55 percent said it should be a full-time job
20.69 percent said it should remain a part-time job
2) What is the single most important problem facing Mount Pleasant today? That is, the one you would like to see resolved by your mayor and town council
Numbers do not equal 100 percent because some voters chose more than one. Instead, the % equals the percentage of voters who selected the issue.
46 percent traffic/transportation
22 percent Economy/jobs/unemployment
11 percent Education/schools
11 percent Taxes
7 percent Funding of municipal operations
6 percent Open/transparent government
6 percent Services for seniors/retirees
4 percent Environment
3 percent Crime
3 percent Recreation
(Helen Ravenel can be reached at helen@moultrienews.com.)
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