Students in AP Government and AP Macroeconomics were presented with the opportunity to participate in a statewide civic competition, the CItizen Bee. During the competition, students are tested on a wide variety of subjects Including American history, government and civics.
The competition consists of two rounds. The first round, regionals lasts two days, students log on to a zoom call and are tested online against others throughout the state. After that students from all over Texas can progress to the next round where they compete at the capital and are asked various questions.
“My teacher Ms. Zavala told the whole class about [the competition] but I was one of the only ones that was interested, it’s right up my alley,” senior Oscar Roueche-Beard said. “I’d like to think that I know a lot about U.S. history, but there’s definitely a lot that I’ve learned through this.”
Students are given a packet consisting of 180 pages prior to the competition with all the information required to know. Roueche-Beard studied by looking through the packet and highlighting the information he didn’t know.
“I was not as diligent as I could have been about studying, I was just going through the packet until I was confident that I knew enough to beat the other people,” Roueche-Beardand said “I studied it, and then I did it, I won the regional competition.”
Through this unique opportunity Roueche-Beard believes he has benefited greatly as he has gained a significant amount of knowledge and has won a $250 Amazon gift card. If he wins at the state competition he will receive $5000.
“I finally had a reason to memorize all the government and history stuff I didn’t know,” Roueche-Beard said. “ There’s a bunch of questions about people and events from the founding of America to modern times, like Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey.”
Being AP Government and AP Macroeconomics teacher Samantha Zavala’s first year teaching, she presented the competition to her students and was able to learn from this experience herself.
“I learned some content as well, there were some Supreme Court cases I had never heard of,” Zavala said. “I think that really just pushed me. I was like, ‘Maybe I should give these students a little more detail and really urge them to thrive for knowledge.’”
Zavala believes the Citizen Bee competition encourages students to activate their civic responsibility.
“I really like to urge students to understand that, yes, you do have a voice,” Zavala said. “Even though you are 17, 18, and probably think your voice is really small, if you learn more about the Constitution and all these current events, you’ll be able to keep yourself in the know and continue to make your voice more powerful.”
