A team of eighth-graders from Sycamore Canyon School will advance to a state-level competition at the end of this month after winning the first round of this year’s “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” contest.

The contest, sponsored by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to promote “civic competence and responsibility” among students throughout the nation, according to the program’s website.

Dr. Jon Sand, principal of Sycamore Canyon School—a K-8 campus in Newbury Park—said he is thrilled for his students, who will compete at the state competition on Sat., Jan. 29 at University of California, Irvine.

“We are honored and fortunate to have done so well,” Sand said. “It’s one thing to take history from the past, but to bring it alive and have students demonstrate its relevance to their lives is really powerful.”

This year marks the first time Sycamore Canyon School has advanced to state level, having participated in the annual program for the past nine years.

A total of 83 honor students from the school, all in eighth grade, participated in the districtwide contest, which took place Jan. 6 at California State University Channel Islands.

All five middle schools in the Conejo Valley Unified School District participated in the districtwide competition, and Colina Middle School of Thousand Oaks will also advance to state level along with Sycamore Canyon, Sand said.

“We were told it was very, very close in terms of what differentiated the teams,” he said.

According to the program’s website, competing students participate in a “simulated congressional hearing” in which they “testify” before a panel of judges.

Students must then defend particular positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues using learned constitutional principles.

“It’s not the winning that matters as much as how our students were able to demonstrate their understanding of the content and make it meaningful in their lives,” Sand said. “Our students were articulate and were able to demonstrate just that.”

Since its establishment in 1987, the “We the People” program has helped educate more than 28 million students across the nation, the website states.

Source: http://www.toacorn.com/news/2011-01-20/Schools/Sycamore_Canyon_Middle_School_wins_local_We_the_Pe.html