What a great question.  I loved working with Project Citizen (a program from the Center for Civic Education- check it out on  www.civiced.org)  when I taught high school. Students were able to identify a issue or problem in their local community or school. They researched and created solutions in a presentation format. The best part of the project was leading students to identify leaders in the community they could present their findings and solutions to. Over the years, many of our projects did get implemented at the local/school level and students were able to see the inner workings of public policy making. These students are more likely to get involved when they get older. Call me an optimist, but when we can teach the young that anyone can influence government and be a part of public policy making, then we are on the right track. Public policy does not just start with elected officials. Anyone can influence if they persistent enough. 

This is a fantastic inquiry.  When I was a high school teacher, one of my favorite projects to work on was Project Citizen, a program run by the Center for Civic Education (to learn more about it, see www.civiced.org). The students recognized a difficulty existing at their institution or in their neighborhood. After doing some investigating and coming up with some ideas, they presented their work. The most rewarding aspect of this project was guiding students to local decision-makers to whom they could explain their results and proposed remedies.   geometry dash