What does the Guarantee Clause in Article IV specify about the governments of American states? Which amendments all deal with some aspect of the presidency? What is the procedure for casting electoral votes for President of the United States?

If you couldn’t answer those questions, you’re not smarter than a middle schooler. Or, at least, not the 15 middle schoolers competing Friday at Colorado’s first state Civics Bee.

The National Civics Bee — presented by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, with support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Daniels Fund — is an annual competition encouraging young Americans to engage in civics and contribute to their communities, according to its website.

This year, 15 students in Colorado competed at the state competition Friday after winning their local competitions. Nine states nationally held Civics Bees this year.

In the contest’s first round, 6th, 7th and 8th graders wrote essays and judges selected 20 finalists to participate in local competitions.

The local competition tested the students’ civics knowledge in a live quiz event. The top three winners from each local competition advanced to the state competition, where they competed in a live quiz and the top seven students pitched their essays to a panel of judges.

In the quiz round Friday, 15 students from around Colorado sat down at tablets in front of a panel of judges and an audience. An emcee announced questions related to civics and the students selected answers only judges could see.

The students at Friday’s competition included:

• Jack Centner – Corwin International Magnet School, Pueblo
• Joseph Drexler – Darren Patterson Christian Academy, Buena Vista
• Ella Engebretson – Mandalay Middle School, Westminster
• Mercy Fontenot – homeschool, Craig
• Rayne Housel – Hayden Valley Secondary School, Hayden
• Penny Kim – Merrill Middle School, Denver
• Maya Lyle – Buena Vista Middle School, Buena Vista
• Ryun Pressgrove – Craig Middle School, Craig
• Andee Quilico – Buena Vista Middle School, Buena Vista
• James Rall – Denver School of the Arts, Denver
• Addison Scott – Pleasant View Middle School, Pueblo
• Aanshi Shah – Thunder Vista P-8, Broomfield
• Tally Smith – Falcon Bluffs Middle School, Littleton
• Sriram (Ram) Yalavarthy – Drake Middle School, Arvada
• Morris Casarez – Pleasant View Middle School, Pueblo

In the live quiz, the students were asked multiple choice questions about civics, testing their knowledge about the constitution, government and US history.

Normally, five students move on to the next round. The 15 students Friday had multiple ties and seven students moved on, sitting on the stage in front of the judge panel to defend the essays they wrote in the competition’s first round and answer judges’ questions.

Drexler, Yalavarthy, Pressgrove, Centner, Shah, Kim and Fontenot each took the microphone and discussed issues in their communities they had chosen, researched and developed solutions for.

Centner talked about drug overdoses. Drexler discussed affordable housing. Fontenot laid out her plan for an “edible walking trail” to address health. Kim dove into education challenges. Pressgrove presented on the increased price of eggs. Shah suggested a solution for students to share their emotions and challenges anonymously, and Yalavarthy brought up lack of civility.

The judges chose their top three winners, announcing Yalavarthy in first, Drexler in second and Shah in third.

Shah never imagined when she submitted her first round essay that she would make it to the state competition, she said.

“To be here today and be with the other 15 finalists then up on stage with the top seven was really a unique opportunity,” Shah said.

Shah didn’t know much about civics before joining the competition. Through the process, she developed her knowledge and gained skills in public speaking, she said.

While Shah was learning civics in school, she also complemented that education with her own research: Asking her teachers for resources; reading through the Bill of Rights and watching YouTube videos about Supreme Court cases.

Drexler was nervous answering the multiple-choice questions, but his nerves went away when he got on stage to talk about his essay, he said.

Drexler spent time before the competition studying the amendments, going through flashcards his mom helped him make and preparing to answer questions he might get about his essay topic with his dad, he said.

The biggest impact of the competition was learning about “all the different problems and all the different ways to solve them,” Drexler said. His new knowledge made him consider a future job in government, where he could have an impact, he said.

“It would be really cool to be a governor or something,” Drexler said. “Just helping educate other people too with the knowledge that I have now.”

The winners received monetary prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250 for first, second and third place.

“We had 15 amazing kids compete today and they are so proficient in civics, and they demonstrated that today,” Loren Furman, the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, said. “We hope that this will continue to change some of the data we’re seeing about students … only one in four are proficient in civics and only 15% in American history.”

Only 20% of eighth graders across the country are on grade level or proficient in civics, according to a recent National Assessment of Education Progress, Daniels Fund CEO Hanna Skandera said.

One-in-three Americans overall can pass the citizenship test, according to Skandera.

“We have a democratic republic that’s totally dependent on our citizens engaging,” Skandera said. “You could say we have a crisis on our hands.”

The Civics Bee tackles this “crisis” by encouraging young people to learn about and engage with civics and contribute to the process of government, Skandera said.

The students competing Friday will have a big impact on their communities and the state, Furman said. They have potential to be future state leaders.

“(The students) are amazing and so articulate and they understand the state and local government and how it influences their lives,” Furman said. “I do believe that they’re going to be a huge influence in their communities and in the state.”

The program is just getting started, organizers said, with plans to grow and encourage more young people around the United States to learn about civics and engage in their communities.

Program leaders hope to expand the program to all 50 states, provide study guides to students and host a national competition between winners of the state competitions in the future.