Hosted by ?

Hi everyone~. In the following sentences, what do you think of the meaning of "hosted by families"?

The familes invited the students? OR the students stayed in the house of the families ?

Any idea is welcomed. Thank you~

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By encouraging students to choose a path they want to follow, perhaps a topic whose details are equally new to everyone, it also levels the playing field, particularly in terms of previously acquired knowledge. Everyone, again including teachers, becomes a novice, and traditional subject area lines are blurred when, for example, an elections project group decides to find out “what makes a swing state swing” and spends 2 weeks in Ohio (hosted by families connected to likeminded schools) following the Obama and McCain campaigns in 2008.