Often students may sit in class and wonder how do the subjects they learn in class relate to the real world.

For one seventh grade class at Cedar Heights Middle School they don’t have to wonder anymore. The students in Megan Gray’s social studies class applied their findings from a school project to the city of Covington.

The class developed a question, conducted a survey to determine answers and presented the findings to the Covington City Council.

The project stemmed from a training that both Gray and Pam Grad, the school’s librarian, attended in Washington D.C.

The two were chosen as the delegates from Washington State Geography Alliance to attend a training in Washington D.C. where they spent a week being trained in the Geo-Inquiry process.

After spending time listening to lectures from National Geographic’s writers, teachers, photographers, videographers, scientists and artists, the two looked at how students could learn and practice these geography skills to better understand their city, Grad wrote in an email.

In a nutshell, Grad said, the Geo-Inquiry process includes the following five steps:

• Ask — develop a Geo-Inquiry question

• Collect — acquire geographic information

• Visualize — organize and analyze geographic information

• Create — develop a Geo-Inquiry story

• Act — share the Geo-Inquiry story

“The goal of the process is to teach these steps and have students feel ownership and a sense of responsibility over the process using their curiosity, observation, communication and collaboration skills to solve a real problem,” Grad wrote.

As the students explored their community, she said, they began to find the focus themselves.

This group of 12 to 13 year olds looked at the city of Covington and set out to determine if it has everything a community needs. And if not, what is it missing.

Gray believes this project fits the criteria for civic engagement “extremely well,” which is part of the social studies curriculum.

“This process became very real and meaningful to students, and engaged the entire community at very steps of the process,” Gray wrote in an email. “I love lessons where students have the opportunity to learn outside the walls of the classroom, and gain skills that will help them become engaged, informed citizens of our democratic society.”

The first step in answering their questions was to map out exactly what the city already has.

In doing so, the students determined the city already has a lot of retail, restaurants and housing.

Besides mapping out what the city has, the students also surveyed nearly 250 people, mostly residents, to see what their thoughts were.

The survey was simple, including only three questions — what is your age, are you a resident and what do you like/what you want to improve?

A majority of the answers gathered stated the city needs more forms of entertainment for people of all ages. This means more than just parks.

Many of the students stated entertainment options such as movie theaters and bowling alleys would be welcomed attractions to the city and residents.

Once they gathered their results, the next step in the process was to prepare their presentation to council.

During the Jan. 23 meeting, the students spoke in front of council voicing their findings that the city lacks in forms of entertainment.

The students thought their time at council went well and Grad echoed their feelings.

“The Covington City Council treated our students as members of the community with something to contribute and that meant so much,” she said.

She added because the council was engaging and supportive to the students, it will help their future impact in the community.

A number of students said they would be interested in joining Covington’s Youth Council, a suggestion made by council that evening to the students.

Covington Mayor Jeff Wagner was pleasantly surprised with how great of a job the students did during their presentation to council.

He said it gives him hope that this group of young adults will “lead us in the future.”

A lot of the findings from their project, Wagner said solidifies information the city already has.

And with the Lakepointe project coming in the future, he said many of the entertainment sources the students and community are in search for will be answered.

He added, it is unfortunate it has taken so long.

“That’s the hardest part of government, the long process it takes to get things done,” Wagner said.

Before he was on council and before he was mayor, Wagner said he has been a part of many organizations within the city that focus on making youth a priority and getting them away from screen time.

During the January council meeting, Wagner said the student presentation lifted everyone’s spirits, everyone had a smile on their face.

“I hope as they go through, they keep this spirit and momentum going,” he said. “There’s no stopping them, they can go on to great things.”

Now that this final stage of the project is complete, Grad said they will continue to use the Geo-Inquiry process.

“Where it leads kids will depend upon their curiosity which is the kind of great thing about this,” she said.

More projects like this will be done in the future, Gray said. And they will pass on information they learned onto others.

Both Gray and Grad will be presenting at state social studies conferences in March and another in June, so others can learn about the Geo-Inquiry process, Gray said.