It’s 9:54 a.m. and every student in the room awaits for History Teacher Stephen Fitzpatrick’s arrival. Feet are tapping and Macbooks are heating up in anticipation for the election tracking to begin.

Recently, Mr. Fitz and his Government and Politics class have been tracking the upcoming 2016 election. According to Mr. Fitz, the main goal of this research is to show how ambiguous the election is at this point in time. Mr. Fitz decided to track the polls because, over the summer, he saw saw for himself how unpredictable the polls are. “We have a chance on a nightly basis to take a poll ourselves and chart who we think will win the nominations,” said senior Josh Greenzeig, a Gov student.

Mr. Fitz’s class last year focused heavily on the leading candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney. However, now, Romney is no longer running, and Republicans such as Donald Trump and Jeb Bush are rising in popularity. Mr. Fitz really wants the Gov students to focus on these types of fluctuations.

Each day during class, students engage in impassioned discussions about party nominations and why certain candidates may or may not be favored at that specific time. “We thoroughly discuss this in class and debates are almost mandatory homework,” said junior Will Cotter. The course is designed to keep students up to date on current events by reading, discussing, and writing about secondary texts.

Overall, the class discussions are fueled by the students’ passion for politics. “All the students are in the class by choice, meaning everyone is highly curious when it comes to politics,” said Josh. The

Gov students do not think that their conversations in class are a chore; in fact, they use conversation as a way to satisfy their collective interest and curiosity. A common topic discussed in class is the connec- tion between political theory and current events.

To delve further into each candidate, Mr. Fitz assigned the class a project in which each student is in charge of presenting a candidate’s beliefs. The assignments were given out based upon how similar a student’s views are to the views of a Democratic or Republican candidate. In order to do this, Mr. Fitz had the Gov class take a personality quiz that would delineate what each student’s views are. “Each student received one of the candidates from either party, with the goal of enumerating his or her positions on most major issues,” said Josh.

Each presenter was in charge of researching a specific issue in which his or her candidate played an important role. The students were expected to use actual quotes of what their candidates said to get a full picture of the candidates’ ideas.

To enhance their study of American politics, the class will be taking a trip to the heart of Ameri- can governance, Washington, D.C., on Oct. 21, “supposing Ted Cruz hasn’t shut down the government by then,” said senior Mackenzie Price.

The gov students will have the opportunity to visit the USDA and debate the merits of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) with officials. The class has already begun to explore this topic with assigned nightly readings from perspectives on both sides of the GMO issue. “I look forward to engaging and stimulating discussions, not just during the visit to D.C., but throughout the entire school year,” said Mackenzie.