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State Representative Gene Pelowski Jr.
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-8637
For more information contact: Matt Swenson 651-297-8406
Press/News Releases
MODEL LEGISLATURE TO BE HELD DECEMBER 6-7 AT WINONA STATE UNIVERSITY
WINONA, MN – Several hundred students from Winona Senior High, Cotter Senior High, Houston High School, St. Charles High School, Winona Middle School, Bluffview Montessori School, and Winona State University will participate in a Model Legislature at the Tau Center on Winona State University's West Campus. Grades 9-12 will be Representatives, Senators, the Governor, and Lt. Governor. Students from Winona Middle School and Bluffview Montessori School will serve as pages. Winona State University students will be advisors. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie will swear-in the student legislators and deliver the opening address at this year's event.
"This may be the only activity in the nation where grades 6-16 participate in a hands-on educational activity," said Rep. Gene Pelowski (DFL-Winona), who has taught the "Teaching Social Studies in the Secondary" course for WSU for the past 18 years and has been the advisor to the Model Legislature for 32 years. The event will be held at WSU's Tau Center on the West Campus Thursday, December 6th and Friday, December 7th from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm both days. The public is invited to attend.
In preparation for becoming Social Studies teachers, Winona State University students in Pelowski's 'Teaching Social Studies in the Secondary' course will be participating as committee administrators to each of the ten legislative committees, staff to the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate and Governor's Office. They will journal on this experience in a power point format that will be presented to the class as their final, explaining how the teachers and the students learned the legislative process from each other.
"Rather than reading about it in books, this gives students the chance to actively learn the intricacies of the legislative process. They present their bill in committee. If it passes committee, they will have to debate it in the House and Senate. If it passes both houses, it will be up to the Governor to sign or veto it," said Rep. Pelowski.
Participants are able to research actual bills that will appear before the Minnesota Legislature in St. Paul during the upcoming legislative session by using the Legislature's web site at www.house.mn, which lists bills that will be introduced this year. Students in this year's Model Legislature have researched and drafted over 120 bills.
News Items
- REP. GENE PELOWSKI: MINNESOTA STATUTE 12A IMPROVES STATE DISASTER RECOVERY PROCESS AND DISASTER RELIEF PACKAGE - (Posted: 2012-08-24 00:00:00)
- REP. GENE PELOWSKI AND SEN. JEREMY MILLER SUPPORT TWO-BRIDGE PROPOSAL - (Posted: 2012-08-23 00:00:00)
- REP. GENE PELOWSKI: STATE DISASTER RECOVERY PACKAGE SHOULD FOLLOW PROCESS OUTLINED IN 12A AND INCLUDE PUBLIC INPUT - (Posted: 2012-08-16 00:00:00)
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