Photo courtesy of Senate Media Services State Sen. Gary Dahms meets with students from Minneota Public Schools as they visited the Minnesota Capitol building earlier this month.

ST. PAUL — Minneota Public Schools students got an up-close look at Minnesota history and government earlier this month.

Not only they get a tour of the state Capitol building, but they got to meet some members of state government — including an area legislator and the governor.

“We had a group of fifth graders who got to meet Governor Walz,” said Minneota teacher Kaley Buysse.

It was an exciting experience for students, she said.

Minneota students in fifth and sixth grade traveled to St. Paul on April 14.

“It’s our class trip for the year,” Buysse said.

The trip also went along with school curriculum — sixth grade students were learning about Minnesota history in social studies.

On the field trip, students toured the Minnesota Capitol to learn about its history and architecture, and then visited historic Fort Snelling.

While they were at the capitol, students visited with Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, who represents state Senate District 15, which includes Lyon County.

Another state government member students met was more of a surprise. The capitol tour brought a group of fifth graders into an area near the governor’s office, Buysse said. It turned out Walz was at the office that day, and he and his wife Gwen came out to meet the students.

Buysse said the experience of meeting state government members was fun for students, especially since Dahms is from southwest Minnesota, and Walz also has family connections to the area.

School groups from Minneota had been to the state Capitol in past years, but they had never gotten to see the governor, Buysse said.