This project addresses gender bias in sports and its impact on women athletes. The group explored disparities in pay, visibility, and opportunities, collecting survey responses that highlighted unequal treatment in both school and professional sports. They proposed an amendment to school policy that would introduce educational presentations during orientations and P.E. classes to raise awareness. Through presentations and posters, their goal is to inspire others to challenge long-standing discrimination and promote equality in sports and beyond.

Motivated by students’ personal experiences—both positive and negative—the project aims to amplify student voices and foster a more supportive, understanding school environment. Survey results highlight the emotional impact teachers can have, and students identified traits like empathy, encouragement, and clear communication as hallmarks of great teachers. The group’s action plan includes presenting findings to staff, implementing short teacher-student check-ins, and using a social inventory survey to build stronger connections.

This project focuses on raising awareness about littering and its negative impact on the environment and community. Through surveys and photo mapping, students highlighted the lack of trash cans and the presence of litter in key areas. Their proposed solutions include participating in community cleanup events, adding more trash cans, and implementing educational programs to promote responsibility and environmental stewardship.

This project tackles the issue of long lunch lines in their school cafeteria to create a more enjoyable, safe, and relaxed lunchtime experience. In a panel discussion with administrators they learned that there are two major challenges to improving the lunch lines. One is the overall design of the cafeteria and the second is that their contracted food service provider, makes most of the decisions on how many staff to hire. After reading research focused on the issue of lunch lines, they came up with some recommendations to improve the speed at which students recieve their lunch. This group plans to meet with administrators in their district as well as the food service company to share their recommendations.

The middle school students at Smith school were concerned that the inadequate amount of time for lunch and recess causes students to feel stress, hunger and decreased focus in classes. In an interview with the administrator, they learned that teacher contracts would make it difficult to extend the school day to provide more break time. By conducting surveys and interviews with teachers, they identified several alternative options for providing students with time to recharge throughout the day. They also created a modified scheduled that reduced class periods by 2 minutes to allow for an extended lunch and recess period.

This group of middle school students proposes turning student ID cards into debit cards to simplify payments for school events and fundraisers. They argue that Deb-ID cards would reduce the stress of forgetting cash, increase school profits, and teach students financial responsibility. Their plan includes integrating the system with the parent portal for secure fund transfers and implementing safeguards to prevent misuse.