The “CBS Sunday Morning” crew from New York set up in a social studies classroom Thursday to broadcast government classes for a national story about civics education.

“They are going show how we teach government, which is very different than how it is taught all over the United States,” government teacher Candance Fikis said. “The reason being is that our system has won a lot of educational awards for what we do.”

To learn about civics, students are given the opportunity to participate in a mock government simulation to gain experience.

“Our government class is really about civics education,” Fikis said. “We do a committee hearing that acts like a legislature simulation. We have a full session like how Congress meets in a full session, so students get to live the role of a politician. It’s a very unique program so they want to profile this in the story.”

Teachers use the government curriculum to teach students how to be citizens, write bills, and find expertise on civics issues.  

Two government classes were recorded. One was taught by Fikis and the other by government teacher Mary Ellen Daneels who is on sabbatical.

“(Daneels) helped write our state standards for civics education. She sits on the National

Council for the Social Studies and she’s been going around training people all over the state on the state standards,” Fikis said.

Fikis credits Daneels for her expertise on civics.

“She’s spoken a lot of about this issue and she’s really the reason why we have this class. I just get to teach it,” Fikis said.

Daneels and seniors Rudy Munoz, Sabrina Lutfiyeva, Spences Usedom, and Daniela Almarades will be interviewed Friday about their experience in government class and politics.

“We try to pick a diverse group of students, female and male, different backgrounds, ethnicities,  but also different politically,” Fikis said. “Students had to choose if they were Republican or Democrat, so we try to pick people that are different on the spectrum on issues as well.”