Students in Council Bluffs Monday received an education on how the Iowa caucuses work, holding a caucus of their own.

They're in schools like Bloomer Elementary and in homes and churches across the state where neighbors will gather and basically debate as to who the best Democratic candidate for president will be. How it works is simple. The Bloomer students showed us how. Many of them will attend one with their parents. "Anyone can attend, but 18 and up are the only ones who can actually participate," said fifth-grader Erin Kinney. "Or if you're 17 and will be 18 by the time the election happens."

For educational purposes, the students held a caucus as if they could participate. First, they organized into groups based on the candidate they supported. Third-grader Blake Willadsen initially chose John Kerry because of his stance on education. "I strongly support that too because I wanna go to college and I wanna have a good job in my future." Because Blake was the only one in his class who chose Kerry, he had to persuade others to join him. It's because at least 15% of the group must support a candidate for the votes to be considered viable. As it turned out, the Dick Gephardt team persuaded Blake to switch.

When the caucus was done, each group counted votes. Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean were the top choices, results that will be important throughout the campaign season. "They sometimes show the winners who might come out of the primaries for the elections, for everything," said fifth-grader Luke Thallas. "We see it kind of as an elimination process," said teacher Gail Kenkel. "Since Iowa is designated first in the nation it's going to be a starting point for many candidates and for some it will become an uphill struggle and some of them may eventually drop out of a race."

The students will be watching to see how their results compare to the rest of Iowa on Monday and the rest of the nation come election night in November.