A group of students from Como Park High School is heading to a center of political action on Monday: Mason City, Iowa.
As buzz around the Iowa caucuses hits full swing on Feb. 1, Eric Erickson and a couple fellow Como Park social studies teachers are taking students to the site to bring to life everything they've learned in class.
"With the eyes of the nation focused on our neighboring state to the south, I thought we should take a field trip," said Erickson, a social studies teacher at the school.
Erickson, the group of 40 students and two other teachers are heading to Mason City after school on Monday, packing in a dinner before getting to the Republican caucus at 5:45 p.m. There, they'll informally poll caucus-goers, and head to the Democratic caucus at 7 p.m. to see more of the process.
He took kids to Iowa in 2008 for the caucuses, but skipped the 2012 caucuses because only the Republican party was represented, and he wanted his students to be exposed to both sides.
One of the students Erickson took to the caucuses in 2008 is now a regional director for Hillary Clinton's campaign in Iowa, he said.
Students won't see candidates, but will see neighbors conversing about politics.
"This is grassroots politics at its finest," Erickson said.
