Boston Arts Academy


Bronx Int'l HS


Build San Franscisco Institute


Central HS


Excel Academy


Johnson Senior HS


Lima Senior HS


Newell HS


Poland Regional HS


School for Democracy and Leadership


South Granville HS


'05-'06 Progress Reports Homepage




BACK TO INTRODUCTION

BACK TO WKCD

A Third Year of Action Research

Progress Reports from WKCD Student Research Teams

In San Francisco, students are studying the history of waterfront traffic on the San Francisco Bay to produce a set of sixteen ceramic tile installations for a new public pier. Three thousand miles away, students at the Boston Arts Academy are bringing to peers nationwide a riveting play they created about the challenges African-American male students facedoing well in school. In St. Paul, Minnesota, a group of special needs students and their teachers are growing their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs for use in the school lunch program. Will students who "toil and grow their own healthy food make the change to a healthier diet," the students wonder?

Nineteen teams of young action researchers like these got a substantial boost last fall, when each received up to $4,500 from What Kids Can Do, Inc. in a competitive grant funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Winning projects had to:

  • Target an issue meaningful to the school and/or community and show promise of impact
  • Lead participants through an extended period of research that includes a formulation of the problem, a research design, data collection and analysis, and the creation of a final product
  • Put students in a leadership role
  • Earn students academic credit
  • Culminate in a public presentation and beneficial action.

    • Here we present student-created progress reports from eleven of these projects. The reports include early accomplishments, photos, and artifacts, from student-designed surveys to PowerPoint presentations.

    Click here for a list of all nineteen projects, plus projects funded 2003-2004 and 2004-2005.


    2005 - 2006 Projects

    Soul Element: Breaking the Stereotypes
    Boston Arts Academy, Boston, MA
    Prejudice, apathy, and violence trap many minority teens, especially males, in a downward spiral. Male students at the Boston Arts Academy believe they can combat this spiral by using theater to challenge and inspire their peers.

    Teen Pregnancy Within An Immigrant Community
    Bronx International High School, Bronx, NY
    Cultural norms surrounding teenage pregnancy vary widely. Educating teens and families about pregnancy in a diverse immigrant community requires a nuanced approach.

    Pier 14 Tiles Project
    Build San Francisco Institute, San Francisco, CA
    This past fall, city leaders in San Francisco asked students at Build San Francisco Institute to design and create a set of sixteen ceramic tile installations for a new public pier on the city's waterfront. After much research, the students decided to create a visual timeline of water transportation in San Francisco Bay.

    How A School Turns Itself Around
    Central High School, Providence, RI
    Schools with bad reputations have a hard time turning them around. But a group of students in Providence have an online journal and a set of short videos in the works to showcase how their school is changing on the inside.

    Searching For The Net: Stop Drop Outs
    Excel Academy, Chicago, IL
    When graduation rates that rarely cross the 50 percent-mark, some urban students wonder exactly how the realities they face everyday-gangs, violence, drugs, foster care-impact the rate at which their peers dropout.

    Garden For Life
    Johnson Senior High School, St. Paul, MN
    One dilemma in the debate over child obesity is the wide availability of unhealthy foods. A group of St. Paul students propose a solution, investigating whether students who toil and grow their own healthy food will make changes in their diets.

    Violent Misconceptions: Physical Altercations In Schools
    Lima Senior High School Of Multiple Intelligences, Lima, OH
    Incidents of violence often dominate the media's coverage of schools, though their accounts are sometimes exaggerated or untrue. A team of Ohio students is setting the record straight about their school.

    National Animal Identification System
    Newell High School, Newell, SD
    Most people who don't live on a farm are ignorant of the benefits and challenges of the National Animal Identification System. But in communities where cattle outnumber people, the complex program impacts life on every level.

    Biological Restoration in a Maine Lake
    Poland Regional High School, Poland, ME
    Situated in commuting distance of several Maine cities, Tripp Lake is bursting with new development that threatens its once pristine water and shoreline. Terrestial Biology students at nearby Poland Regional High School are making the lake's restoration their passion.

    Education Reform
    School For Democracy And Leadership, Brooklyn, NY
    When a school receives a grant, it's not always clear how that money can best be spent. As one student says, "we can't succeed with old text books and new metal detectors; although we're protected physically, it doesn't protect our education."

    Public Restroom Study
    South Granville School Of Health And Life Sciences, Creedmoor, NC
    Public restrooms are dirty places; they harbor bacteria, fungi, and viruses. If restaurants are held accountable for restroom cleanliness by posting letter grades after health inspections, why shouldn't schools do the same thing?