North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
The Academy for Arts, Science, and Technology High School’s We The People Competition Team won the State Championship on Friday Dec. 13, 2019 in Columbia. This was the teams first ever championship victory in which they took 5 of the 6 best unit awards. The students will move on and compete at the Nationals to be held in Washington D.C., April 24-27.
The team consisted of Kennedy Smith, Dillon Prince, Hannah Beam, Kathleen Boyle, Emily Eaton, Hannah Ferguson, Bianca Gawencki, Nora Gore, Jazmine Lara, Ana Caroline Phillips, Michael Ritter, Gabriel Russell, Alex Sobota, Patrick Priore and Emma Ann Lay and coach Robert DeCerbo.
The primary goal of We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution is to promote civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s elementary and secondary students. What makes the program so successful is the design of its instructional program, including its innovative culminating activity. The instructional program enhances students’ understanding of the institutions of American constitutional democracy. At the same time, students discover the contemporary relevance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The culminating activity is a simulated congressional hearing in which students “testify” before a panel of judges. Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and have opportunities to evaluate, take and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues. This is performance assessment in action.
