The U.S. Constitution is more than just a few chapters in a hardcover textbook for Fox Lane students.

Educators at Fox Lane High School have made the constitution a multi-layered learning experience that they hope will resonate in their students for the rest of their lives.

That was evident during Wednesday’s Bedford school board meeting, when 20 high schoolers presented the work they’ve done so far on the Constitution. Drew Patrick, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said Superintendent Jere Hochman asked for the presentation because of his belief of how important the document is.

“Jere gives all graduates a little copy of the Constitution during his speech and the Constitution plays a huge role in his philosophy on education,” Patrick said.

Hochman was unable to attend the meeting due to personal matters, but there is no doubt he would have been impressed by the work that has been completed by the students so far.

The high schoolers  answered three questions during the presentation: What are the standards and what are kids expected to know? How do they learn it? How does it to apply to real life?

Mary Harrison, a social studies teacher and coordinator for coursework regarding the Constitution, said state and national teaching standards list the teaching of the document as an important part of the  social studies curriculum. But she said coursework about the Constitution also instilled other important lessons in students.

“It cultivates responsibility and citizenship...it cultivates an understanding of elections and the political party system,” Harrison said. “It allows students to evaluate moral, ethic and legal responsibility—all things that we want to be doing when we leave here.”

Although the Constitution is part of the state curriculum, teachers were also given leeway in choosing some of the activities that they wanted their students to participate in.

Bill Broggy, an Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher, took his class on a field trip to the John Jay Homestead. The students were then split into two groups—federalists and anti-federalists—and were expected to research their positions and debate.

Alison Tai, a student in Michael Poplardo’s economics and  government class, was given the task of studying the federalist movement in the U.S. and the impact it had in the crafting of the Constitution. Afterward, she used her research to create a website about federalism.

“What this really did was bring it (the Constitution) to today,” Tai said of the class. “It asked me what I though of it and what it exactly meant for my life.”

In Mark Nemecek’s U.S. history and government class, students were required to simulate the U.S. Congress and debate bills. Examples of a bill the students debated included a law that would mandate that all student athletes get tested for performance enhancing drugs and another law that would allow school to install video cameras in order to monitor bullying.

“In our class it was really interesting because on the news you would always see ‘oh, you know there’s a healthcare bill’,” Catherine Tipa, one of Nemecek’s students, said. “In this class you really understand that you can’t just have an idea and it automatically goes into play. There are different variables about the funding and you need all these different factors to bring about your idea.”

A video of Wednesday’s meeting is available here.