Bourne 8th Graders Present Civics Action Projects
Bourne Middle School’s Media Center was packed with family and friends eager to peruse the maze of trifold posters for the 8th grade Civics Action Project Showcase on Tuesday afternoon, May 23.
Students of Sharon Moore’s and Lisa DiBiasio’s 8th grade civics classes began preparing for the project in January. It kicked off with a panel of local organizers and leaders intended to help students identify topics of interest to explore through their projects. The theme this year was Physical, Mental and Social Well-Being.
Forty-five groups—168 students altogether—spent the day presenting their action projects to 6th and 7th grade students, high schoolers and community members. More than 50 parents, siblings and friends crowded into the media center at 1 PM for the event’s keynote and student speakers.
Keynote speaker Beth Griffin, licensed mental health counselor and member of the Bourne Substance Free Coalition, opened the event with a speech that emphasized the students’ ability to make changes in both their own lives and the lives of others.
Physical, mental and social well-being, she said, are all topics that start within. Students “need to take care of themselves first,” she said.
“If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others,” she said. “So as you young people journey through your life, your physical, mental, emotional and social well-being should be paramount as you go forward to create positive change.”
Ms. Griffin also extended an invitation for a student representative to attend a meeting of the Bourne Substance Free Coalition next year and provide feedback on what the coalition can do to best address substance use.
“You are our future, and when you aim for the moon, if you miss, you may hit a star,” she said. “Just think for a moment if each and every one of you made a positive difference, what an impact that would be on our community and our society.”
Through the projects, she said, students learn an array of skills they will carry with them to high school and beyond. Students took on everything from professional phone calls, emails and attire to academic research, presentation skills and meeting deadlines. And most important, students learned how to work together effectively as part of a team.
“It’s preparing them for their future,” Ms. Moore said. “To say I’m proud is an understatement.”
Students Finley O’Doherty and Emmalee Daniels each spoke to the parts of the project that inspired them most. Finley and her group focused on the mental health of healthcare workers, while Emmalee’s group looked at anxiety and stress in schools.
“To put [it] in simple terms, the civics action project impacted me by filling me with inspiration,” Finley said. “From the days of elementary school, teachers have been saying you have the power to make real change, but not until now have we been given an academic assignment that has allowed us to see that for ourselves.”
The students were encouraged to pick a topic that they were passionate about and to pursue it in a way that could bring about change.
“You start off with your interests,” Ms. Moore said, “you may end up with your friends, but when you do all the research and all the interviewing and surveying, you decide what direction you want to go. Do you want to try to make a policy change, do you want to raise awareness, or do you want to try to start a program?”
Most groups chose to raise awareness about their topics, which ranged from vaping and drug addiction to healthy eating, mental health and social media. Groups also had the opportunity to visit 7th grade classrooms and present their topics.
In her group’s research about school-related stress and anxiety, Emmalee said her group noticed it was an issue among younger children, especially because they lacked the terminology to properly name the feelings they were having. One of their goals, she said, was to inform and help them understand those emotions better.
“After we presented, 90 to 95 percent said they understood it more and they had a good idea about it,” Emmalee said.
Another group of 8th graders focused their project on raising awareness about vaping, something they all agreed is a “pretty bad” problem at their school. They see it everywhere, Ryder Cook said, but the problem is that younger children do not seem to take it seriously.
“I think a lot of them already know about the problem,” Ryder said, “that’s what I think part of the problem is, it not being interesting enough for them to listen about it.”
The group’s presentation to the younger students evoked different ways of keeping them engaged. Ryder said they used a presentation and a Kahoot quiz to keep the students’ attention. Overall, he said, he thinks they got the message.
A common thread did exist among the 8th grade presenters this week, echoed by one student after another: being done with their projects is a great, rewarding feeling.
“There is some sort of peace in my head being able to get this out to other people,” Emmalee said, “and to help make the world a better place.”