SUN VALLEY — At Esther Bennett Elementary School, 45 percent of four first-grade classes wear glasses. About 27 percent have black hair. Most students live with their parents and one or two siblings while one student has 13 people living in their house.

The 2010 census is providing at least one Washoe County school an educational opportunity as well as statewide financial benefits and the chance to increase congressional representation. Bennett fifth graders completed their own census of first-graders Wednesday to encourage them to understand their civic responsibilities and ensure their parents would fill out their forms. The students presented their findings to Superintendent Heath Morrison, Board of Trustees President Estela Gutierrez, Bennett Principal Michael Henry and other community members, including Washoe Counts 2010 Chairman Michael Moreno.

Together with Erick Godinez and Jose Pintor from the other classes, fifth grader Nico Murillo referred to each graph and said it was a valuable learning experience to interact with his younger peers.

“It was not as difficult as we thought it would be,” said Murillo, who shared the results of the census that three fifth grade classes collaborated on together. “If people don’t know what the census is, we as fifth graders can explain what the census is about.”

A total of 58 fifth graders from three classes, which are taught by Emily Bennett, Jeanine Hoskins and Bill Protz, interviewed 61 first graders. The older students assisted the children with answering 10 questions they came up with. Afterward, they graphed responses into pie charts and bar graphs to show the results. Questions were asked about how many people live in the student’s home, how many rooms their home has, their age, hair color, whether they wear glasses, how many siblings they have, if the child was a boy or a girl, how many pets and their month of birth.

In all, Bennett has about 530 students, Henry shared with a class who listened to Murillo’s presentation.

Murillo said it was exciting to be involved with the process of guiding first graders with their responses.

“The hardest one was for them to tell us what month their birthday was in,” he said. “The teachers helped us get those answers (by looking at their paperwork). But we learned the census is very important and that Nevadans need to fill it out so we get more money.”

Hoskins said it was encouraging to see the children take initiative in the project.

“They’ve really learned a lot,” she said. “It helps meet math standards and in social studies, it teaches them civic responsibility. It’s important for them to understand that doing this is their civic responsibility, their duty.”

For every person counted in the census, Nevada gains $9,170 per year for the next 10 years. Morrison reinforced the idea that the students’ political involvement when they become old enough to fill a form out will help their state for years to come.

“On a small scale, you all did what’s going on across the country and we need to make sure we get the appropriate representation for our growing state,” Morrison said.

Murillo summed it up best when he said, “Everyone’s important.”