Public Policy
Looking for project ideas? Browse or use the advanced search to find examples that meet your desired academic subjects, grade levels, project types, and keywords.
Tip: The grade levels and subjects listed are only our suggestions. With a bit of creativity, project examples can be adapted to meet the needs of different ages and curricular goals.
Classes studying the Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights developed projects to connect to those studies. Students created a presentation on the Rights of the Child that was given at City Hall and the governor's mansion. They organized and participated in a peace site rededication and a peace prize festival. They also wrote and performed a play about child labor.
Fifth graders were absorbed in learning about endangered species. A partnership with the local zoo provided real-world learning opportunities by transforming the zoo into a "learning lab," developing partnerships with city businesses, and supporting the federal accreditation of the zoo's education department.
Most students do not think they are old enough or powerful enough to exact widespread change. But 6th- through 8th-grade students in a politics course decided they could make a difference, and they voiced their opinions in a very big way: They acted as citizen lobbyists in their state legislature.
Facing a growing threat of buckthorn- a tall non-native shrub that spreads aggressively, forcing out local flora, including tree saplings - students did an issue analysis, community education program, and cleanup projects.
A high school biology class decided to test the water in their local lake and found it was polluted. After researching water pollution and ways to reverse it, the students developed a five-year plan to clean up the lake. They worked with the town council to implement pollution reduction plans and developed a presentation to train residents to test water quality.
For one group of 6th through 8th graders, environmental science was anything but a textbook subject. Having learned in school about one of their state's main water systems, the students were excited to put their knowledge to practical use by testing and reporting on nearby water ecology.
While studying the environmental issues surrounding their state's major aquaculture industry, 3rd graders had to look no further than the polluted river dike outside their school to understand the threat. But in that challenge they also saw a way they could help keep their community's important resource clean.
Concerned about the destruction of wetlands in their state, middle-school students hosted an environmental-education program for young children. The event is the first in a series of activities designed to strengthen and rebuild local natural resources.
Acceptance is key in the fight against HIV and AIDS. One class realized this after reading a book about pandemics and society's negative views of the infected. The students worked to counteract harassment within their school.
Inspired after watching a movie on the genocide in Cambodia, students spent several years researching and writing a curriculum to improve education about genocides in other countries.
When fifth-graders and a physical education teacher noticed a lot of students in their elementary school were out of shape, they worked together to create a physical fitness challenge that could be replicated at school's across their school.
