Rails - Nov 2005 - Nonmodel fields - select_tag

Hi, I''m a ROR newbie and I''m trying to use a nonmodel field.
Precisely, I''m
trying to use the select_tag. Here''s what I''m doing:

in my view:
<%=select_tag(:place_sel, options_for_select(@places,
@params[:place_sel]))%>

in the controller, I try to get the selected item by doing this:

@tmp = @params[:place_sel]

and get nothing. What am I doing wrong?

Regards,
Rodrigo Lara