January 19th, 2012

ACES Students Headed to Capitol

ACES sixth graders at Farnsworth Aerospace School on St. Paul’s eastside are in the midst of an exciting project that will land them in front of state legislators as part of Youth Day at the Capitol. Only select students will earn the right to represent the class in the meeting with legislators, so the competition is fierce!

Youth Day at the Capitol (February 21, 2012) is a civic engagement opportunity for young people to visit Minnesota's capitol, meet government officials, and talk to their representatives about the importance of quality youth development opportunities.

The ACES sixth graders started their work around civic engagement with discussions about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his contributions to society, and how the students themselves have helped their community by cleaning up gardens and preparing food for people who need it. Next, students collected and reviewed responses to a civic engagement survey from 34 of their peers. Violence in the community was the most common concern.

The ACES students then brainstormed additional ways to learn more about violence issues and prevention. Some ideas included interviewing police officers and keeping suspended students in school and providing appropriate counseling for them—schools are all about teaching and learning, after all.

A next step is for these ACES sixth graders to refine their messages to legislators while continuing to collect data and information about violence in their school. Students will earn the right to represent the class in the meeting with legislators based on their involvement in data collection as well as an essay. The essay will describe the issue of violence and data they collected, the solutions they brainstormed, why they would be a good representative of the class, and how this experience would help them.

Good luck to all the ACES sixth graders at Farnsworth during this exciting project!