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CNN Student News Learning Activity: Polling

(CNN Student News) — Students will create and evaluate public opinion polls.

Procedure

Begin with a brief discussion on public opinion polls, including why they are important and what makes them reliable and credible. Ask: How should a reliable public opinion poll differ from a poll you might take of your class or school? Refer students to online resources, including the CNN Student News One-Sheet: Political Polls, for guidance.

Next, divide students into groups and tell them to imagine that they have just been hired as pollsters for CNN. Their task is to create a hypothetical public opinion poll to gauge the mood of registered voters at a specific point in time on the candidates, issues, or both.

found here.

CNN Student News Learning Activity: Polling

(CNN Student News) — Students will create and evaluate public opinion polls.

Procedure

Begin with a brief discussion on public opinion polls, including why they are important and what makes them reliable and credible. Ask: How should a reliable public opinion poll differ from a poll you might take of your class or school? Refer students to online resources, including the CNN Student News One-Sheet: Political Polls, for guidance.

Next, divide students into groups and tell them to imagine that they have just been hired as pollsters for CNN. Their task is to create a hypothetical public opinion poll to gauge the mood of registered voters at a specific point in time on the candidates, issues, or both.

found here.

Volcano spurs Chile town’s evacuation

(CNN) — Chile’s Chaiten volcano spewed clouds of gray smoke, hot rocks and toxic gas on Tuesday, forcing authorities to issue an evacuation order for the more than 200 people who remained in the town of Chaiten, emergency officials said.

The country’s emergency office said the evacuation order was issued after the volcano erupted around 8:45 a.m., emitting pyroclastic flows — or mixtures of hot, dry rock fragments and hot gases.

Hours later, large plumes of gray smoke still rose into the sky.

Five boats will transport the remaining emergency officials, reporters, residents and others from the town, government spokesman Francisco Vidal told CNN en Espanol. Three helicopters were assisting, the country’s emergency office said.

We hope that this takes place in the most optimal way, President Michelle Bachelet said, according to her Web site.

Video showed the evacuees wearing face masks and carrying luggage as they walked toward the shore. Most parents held their children by the hand.

The evacuees will be transported to Castro, across the Moraleda Canal, or to Puerto Montt, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Chaiten. The majority of the some 4,000 Chaiten evacuees are staying in those two cities, the country’s emergency office said on its Web site. Some residents from nearby Futaleufu were also evacuated.

A small contingent of police and military remain in Chaiten, officials said.

The volcano, which is about about 750 miles (about 1,210 kilometers) south of the Chilean capital, Santiago, began erupting early Friday, raining gray ash onto Chaiten. The small city is on the Corcovado Gulf, in southern Chile.

The volcano’s column of smoke and ash stretched more than 12 miles (19 kilometers) into the sky on Monday, Chile’s National Geology and Mineral Service reported, and it extended well into neighboring Argentina and to the Atlantic Ocean.

Local journalist Amaro Gomez-Pablos, speaking to CNN from Santiago, described the landscape as quite literally, a giant ashtray.

Chaiten is now a ghost town, he said. Watch huge cloud of ash boil out of volcano

On Sunday, Bachelet took an aerial tour of the volcano, and visited Futaleufu, according to her Web site. She also spoke to evacuees in Puerto Montt, and told them their fate depended on what course the eruption took.

found here.

Obama takes North Carolina; tight race in Indiana

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama claimed victory in North Carolina on Tuesday, but the contest in Indiana was too close to call.

Early returns in Indiana showed Sen. Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead, but as results came in through the evening, that lead narrowed considerably.

With 91 percent of Indiana precincts reporting, Clinton was ahead of Obama, 51-49 percent.

There are 72 delegates at stake in Indiana.

Obama congratulated Clinton on what he called her apparent victory there.

Clinton told her supporters in Indianapolis it’s full-speed on to the White House. Watch Clinton greet her supporters

She turned her attention to the upcoming contests in West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon, saying she would work her heart out in the next month.

Obama thanked his supporters in North Carolina after they handed him a decisive win. With more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, Obama held a 14-point lead over Clinton.

The win will give him the larger share of the state’s 115 delegates.

Some were saying that North Carolina would be a game-changer in this election. But today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, Obama told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. Watch Obama thank his supporters

Obama took an overwhelming 91 percent of the black vote in North Carolina, according to exit polls, while Clinton claimed only 6 percent.

Clinton took 59 percent of the white vote compared to 36 percent for Obama, according to the polls.

Poll workers in Indiana and North Carolina reported heavy turnout in the two primaries.

Turnout in the North Carolina Democratic primary was expected to reach 50 percent, according to Gary Bartlett, executive director for the North Carolina Board of Elections.

That figure would far exceed the 15 percent to 30 percent that usually turn out for a primary, he said.

The Indiana secretary of state’s office said turnout was high throughout the day.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita will not release official figures until the end of the day, but said turnout looked more like a general election than a primary.

A judge ordered some polling stations in Indiana to stay open past closing time because the lines were so long.

Polling officials in Indianapolis said they had set a record for voter turnout after being open for only six hours.

According to early exit polls, half of Clinton’s supporters in Indiana would not vote for Obama in a general election match up with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Watch what the exit polls show

A third of Clinton voters said they would pick McCain over Obama, while 17 percent said they would not vote at all. Forty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama in November.

Obama got even less support from Clinton backers in North Carolina where 45 percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for him over McCain. Thirty-eight percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for McCain while 12 percent said they would not vote.

Obama voters appear to be more willing to support Clinton in November. In Indiana, 59 percent of Obama backers said they’d vote for Clinton, and 70 percent of Obama backers in North Carolina said vote for her against McCain.

Obama on Tuesday said he didn’t agree with those who said his party would not be able to unite.

Tonight, many of the pundits have suggested that this party is inalterably divided — that Sen. Clinton’s supporters will not support me, and that my supporters will not support her, he said.

I’m here tonight to tell you that I don’t believe it. Yes, there have been bruised feelings on both sides. Yes, each side desperately wants their candidate to win. But ultimately, this race is not about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain.

This election is about you — the American people — and whether we will have a president and a party that can lead us toward a brighter future.

Voters from both states were spilt over the controversy surrounding Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, early exit polls suggest.

In Indiana, 49 percent of voters in the Democratic primary said the issue was not important, compared to 48 percent who said it was an important factor in their vote.

In North Carolina 50 percent of voters said the Wright controversy was important, and 48 percent said it was not.

In both states, those who said it was an important issue largely broke for Clinton, and those who said it was not backed Obama.

Obama currently leads in pledged delegates and in states won, and he is ahead in the popular vote, if Florida and Michigan are not factored into the equation. Those states are being penalized for moving their primaries up in violation of party rules.

found here.