Washington state crowns its first Civics Bee champion

Washington state has its first ever Civics Bee champion.

Twelve-year-old Benjamin Wu from Narrows View Intermediate near Tacoma took the title at the state finals.

The state's first Civics Bee started months ago with a call for middle school students to submit essays identifying a problem in their community, and how it might be solved.

It culminated Thursday in Seattle with nine finalists who went through two rounds of quizzes.

The quizzes are somewhat like a spelling bee, but instead of spelling words the students were answering questions about the finer points of government rules, structure, and history.

The top scorers went on to answer questions from judges about their essay.

Wu, who took first place, spoke passionately about the issue of unequal access to computer science education, a problem he said is creating a new digital divide as technology revolutionizes our world.

Some of his peers spoke about issues such as homelessness and littering.

"It feels exhilarating,” Wu said after being named champion. “And also my ideas are being heard now.”

When asked why civics education is important, Wu said it teaches a sense of civic duty.

"It teaches us that we have the responsibility to solve these problems, we have the civic duty to solve these problems, and we need to be industrious, and we need to take action," he said.

Wu and his peers at the state Civics Bee are well-versed in a set of topics that many of their fellow students around the country struggle with.

A recent assessment showed only about 20% of eighth graders in the U.S. have a solid academic understanding of civics.

The state competition that ended this week is part of the National Civics Bee, an initiative started last year to encourage greater engagement from students in civics.

The competition, which includes cash prizes for the winners, was held in nine states this year.

Next year, the hope is to expand it to all states and have a final round of competition held in Washington, D.C.