(CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Discovery Middle School seventh-graders ‘lived’ U.S. history during their tour of the nation’s capital.

Social sciences teacher Christine Jones led the Washington D.C. tour for the fifteenth year. The trip coincides with Alabama objectives for seventh-grade civics. Eighty-five people including 11 chaperones took the pay-for, optional trip.

Jones arranged the Capitol tour, photos with U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks and permission for four students to lay the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.

World Strides tour service handled other needs, like on-call doctors, hotel guards and knowledgeable yet entertaining guides. Liberty Middle School seventh-graders also tour Washington with World Strides.

The bus entourage arrived in Alexandria, Va. for hotel lodging during three full days of touring (two travel days).

They visited Mount Vernon, Pentagon 9/11 memorial, Washington Zoo, Lafayette Park and Union Station. The Madison students toured the Holocaust Museum and Smithsonian Air and Space, Natural History and American History museums.

The tour included memorials for Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson and Martin Luther King, along with tributes to World War II, Air Force, Iowa Jima and the Korean and Vietnam wars. They saw the National Cathedral, U.S. Capitol, White House, Ford’s Theater, Kennedy Center, Embassy Row, Supreme Court, Library of Congress and National Archives.

“Students loved meeting Congressman Mo Brooks. Colby Morrell took a selfie with him,” Jones said. “The Holocaust Museum made a huge impact on them and led to a great discussion on how bullying or following the wrong people can be disastrous.”

These Discovery seventh-graders now realize “the world is bigger than they think. They learn sometimes being a good citizen requires sacrifices. Men and women have died to give them freedoms they sometimes take for granted,” Jones said.

“They saw that ideas in civics aren’t just words in a classroom and were able to ‘see’ the First Amendment,” Jones said.

Prospective seventh-graders can register for the 2015 trip by visiting Worldstrides.com and using the code 106193. Normally, the trip is full by October.