EAST Conference 2026

Highlight Breathing

Life can crank up the volume with school, friends, and personal challenges, and stress and anxiety can make everything feel overwhelming. Our project drops a mindfulness and meditation program to help teens manage stress, boost focus, and feel better. With health teachers and counselors on deck, students jam through breathing exercises, reflection activities, and other simple tools while tracking their progress on Google Sites. In a world full of pressure, notifications, and constant noise, this program helps students hit pause, breathe, and find balance so they can turn down the anxiety and turn up their well-being.

Stream Team

Every story has a rhythm, and ours starts with water. Our project, Stream Team, is about testing and protecting streams in Northwest Arkansas. We looked closely at how pollution can affect water quality, especially erosion — one of the biggest causes of water pollution. When soil erodes, it carries dirt, chemicals, and other materials into nearby streams. That can harm fish, wildlife, and even the safety of the water itself. To understand what was really happening, we stepped outside the classroom and into the environment, testing the water and studying the land around it and mapping it all in ArcGIS.

Fishing Friends

Screen vs Teen

Fishing should be for everyone, but for people with muscular or skeletal disabilities even casting a line can get in the way of the experience. We started with a simple idea and some basic materials like PVC, wood, and rubber bands, and used SketchUp to design a rubber band-powered caster that can launch a lure while still letting someone feel the pull of reeling in a fish. With help from our community partner Bryan Savage, we focused on accessibility and added larger PVC grips so it would be easier to hold and control. After designing, building, and testing it together, we ended up with something simple, affordable, and rebuildable that helps open the water to more people.

Like a track playing through a wall of distortion, the message behind Screen vs Teen comes through loud and clear. We explored how screen time is shaping teenage life today. Through research, statistics, and studies, we found that excessive screen use can affect mental health, sleep, and eyesight, while issues like cyberbullying and rising depression appear in the data like feedback in an amplifier. With guidance from community partners Ian McCready and Dr. Beasley, we focused on raising awareness and helping students find balance between the digital world and real life. Using tools like Google Forms, Google Slides, and Google Sites, we gathered information and shared what we learned so others can understand the impact and find healthier balance in a world full of constant notifications.

Downtown Springdale

EAST Unlocked

Strike a pose… for history. Our team wanted to take the story of downtown Springdale and make it something people could actually experience. Instead of history sitting quietly in a book, we imagined it out on the street, something you could discover step by step. That’s where the idea hit us! QR codes. Scan one with your phone, and suddenly the past comes to life. To make it even more exciting, we turned it into a scavenger hunt, with clues guiding visitors from one historic building to the next.

Most students walk past the EAST classroom without realizing what’s happening inside. Our project turns up the volume on the program through a podcast where EAST students, alumni, and teachers share their real experiences. Using tools like BandLab, Buzzsprout, and microphones, we recorded and edited conversations that show how EAST is creative, challenging, and built around solving real problems. By working together to plan interviews and produce the episodes, we created something that helps others understand what EAST actually is. Our goal is simple: if someone hears the stories and gets curious enough to step into EAST, then the message was worth sharing.

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