The Pay It Forward project embraces the notion that our students are fully capable of becoming change agents right now. Seventh graders chose issues they found personally meaningful and then crafted action plans to address them. Throughout the process, they learned and practiced a variety of skills that supported them as they assumed the role of activist. Each student worked to make change starting at "the faucet" level of identifying, researching, and addressing three root causes of the issue.
The 7th Grade Pay It Forward project blends skills and concepts we've been working on in all of the core disciplines. They conducted research, made contacts in the community, and conducted interviews with experts or individuals impacted by the issue under consideration. They then wrote and delivered an evidence-based presentation, created a work of art, wrote a poem, analyzed the perspective of stakeholders regarding their issue, and produced a supergraphic to communicate powerful data. They additionally designed and implemented an action plan that could address their specific issue by focusing on its root causes. Finally, students coded a website to showcase all the pieces of their project. Below are the websites from each of our students, with an explanation of how they coded their website.