This includes school beautification, character education, disability awareness in the school, and anti-bullying campaigns. These projects are designed to directly impact school safety and morale. Bullying has become a targeted problem in schools across the country. The projects found here will be focused on bullying prevention in schools and online.
Projects are listed alphabetically by title in the following categories:
- Bullying Prevention/Peer Mediation
- Disability Awareness
- School Beautification
Bullying Prevention/Peer Mediation
1100 Peace Peer Mediation by Karyn Weeks and Jennifer Willis in Baltimore City. Created for middle school. Sherry Unger winner.
Primary Subjects:
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for:
Level of Service:
Project Description: 1100 Peace is a conflict mediation program that provides students with the opportunity to discuss a problem with one another in an effort to find a peaceful solution. The program is facilitated by 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who are trained mediators.
Anti-Bullying and Disability Awareness by MSDE. Created for middle school.
Primary Subjects: English
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English, Health, Art
Level of Service: Direct, Indirect, Advocacy
Project Description: Students will read and analyze fiction selections for bullying, teasing, and disability awareness themes. Students will then research and present social skills and techniques to end bullying and promote disability awareness. This will be done in both special and general education classrooms.
Primary Subjects: Health
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Health, Science, Math, English
Level of Service: Advocacy
Project Description: As students study safety & injury prevention in health class, students will evaluate harassing & intimidating behaviors happening in the school, as well as research anti-bullying programs available and develop a plan to implement a school-wide system to address bullying.
Bullying Prevention by Talbot County Public School
s. Created for Grade 4.
Primary Subjects: Reading
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: ELA
Level of Service: Advocacy
Project Description: Students study the problem of bullying and then create stories to share with younger students about how to prevent and stop bullying behavior. The books are shared with students in younger grades during an exchange that includes discussion about anti-bullying strategies.
Disability Awareness
DisAbility Awareness: Awareness of Abilities by Sandi Witt and Rosemarie Deming in Howard County. Created for middle school.
Primary Subjects: English
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: DisAbility Awareness in the 7th grade develops the idea of disability awareness in a variety of ways. Films, discussions, hands-on activities, and role-playing give the students many opportunities to develop an increased sensitivity to those around them that have disabilities.
Primary Subjects: English
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English
Level of Service: Indirect and Advocacy
Project Description: Childhood diseases and disabilities impact many middle school students. This unit is designed to introduce sixth grade students to a variety of diseases and disabilities that children may suffer from or encounter in their school population. The unit incorporates research, compositions both written and visual, analysis of civic duty and culture, and an analysis of computations and statistics. The unit is designed to culminate in a student-run health fair.
Primary Subjects: English, Math, Technology, Art
Maryland State Curriculum Indicators for: English, Math, Technology, Art
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Sixth grade students at Pine Grove Middle School participate in a yearly “Disability Awareness Day.” Pine Grove Middle School has a diverse culture which includes autistic students, deaf and hard of hearing students, and wheelchair bound students. During this special day, all sixth grade students are run through various simulations of different disabilities which include visual, attention deficit hyper activity disorder, cerebral palsy, wheelchair bound, autism, and deaf culture.
Primary Subjects: Health
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Health
Level of Service: Indirect
Project Description: My name is Jenna Newman. I have started a charitable foundation to raise money for disabled children called "The Jenna Fund for Kids in Need", see www.jennafund.org. I am raising money through different fund raising projects. The first $10,000 raised will go to the Kennedy Krieger Institute where I did an academic internship through my high school, and where I continued to volunteer over the summer.
Inclusion Play Day by Jeanne Tamberrino in Baltimore County. Created for middle school. Sherry Unger winner.
Primary Subjects: Physical Education
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Physical Education
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: "Inclusion Play Day" is a concept developed at Pine Grove Middle School by physical education instructor Jeanne Tamberrino to address the need to make students aware of diversity. Under her guidance, seventh grade students' planned and designed activities for "Inclusion Play Day". During the planned event students from Pine Grove Middle School acted as Station Leaders or Peer Helpers to students with special needs who participated in various play day events. The students with special needs came from Pine Grove Middle School as well as other area schools in Baltimore County.
Inclusion Play Day II by Melissa Mast in Baltimore County. Created for middle school. Sherry Unger winner.
Primary Subjects: Health, English, Math, Technology Education, Art
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Health, English, Math, Technology Education, Art
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Inclusion Play Day brings together regular and special education students for a field day like event. The purpose of the 12th Annual Inclusion Play Day was for students to experience activities and situations to promote cooperation and self-esteem, as well as develop an awareness and appreciation of diversity. Students who have participated in the past have felt immense satisfaction in having been involved in an activity which made them more accepting and aware of the diverse lifestyles individuals’ experience.
Peer Buddy Project by Melissa Preston in Howard County. Created for middle school. Sherry Unger winner.
Primary Subjects: Math, Reading, Social Studies, Health, Music, Technology Education
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Varies
Level of Service: Direct, Indirect, Advocacy
Project Description: Students from Lime Kiln Middle School (LKMS) assisted students at a nearby school that exclusively serves students with disabilities. Long after their school careers are over, students from both schools will live in the same communities, go to the same physicians, be governed by the same laws, and may work in the same businesses. This was the driving force behind establishing a group of citizens who will advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. Our program fosters friendships and teaches valuable interpersonal skills.
Primary Subjects: English
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: This service-learning program is an infusion into the ninth grade English curriculum, focusing on a teacher-selected theme in literature. The theme will unify the teaching of content and skills throughout the course. The service project is developed in collaboration with students, teachers, and community partners in response to a need identified by the partner in the community. The program seeks to provide ongoing assistance to meet the need during the course and is continued by students in subsequent classes. The literature chosen for this class can be linked by the common theme of tolerance (appreciating diversity, respecting differences).
School & Community Health & Pride
Butterfly Garden by Tamara Sasscer in Calvert County. Created for middle school. Fellows project.
Primary Subjects: Math
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Math
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Twenty 8th grade math students planted a buttefly garden in the school courtyard. The students found the area of the courtyard and created scale drawings to indicate where to plant the plants. We were aiming to beautify the school grounds.
Primary Subjects: Government
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Government
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Stephen Decatur High School adopted a new philosophy known as the "Decatur Way...The Way to Grow," promoting student pride, responsibility, respect, and achievement. Building on this theme, resource teacher Tom Sites and I developed a plan that would allow our 20 high school students to become actively involved in our school through service-learning. Our plan allows for our students to plan, construct, and maintain a new courtyard area for our school to be used by the entire student body for various class activities.
The Graffiti Project by Janet Scollick in Montgomery County. Created for high school. Fellows project.
Primary Subjects: English, Art
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English, Art, Math
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: The Graffiti Project was a very successful service project that involved over 75 students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. This was a partnership project sponsored by the National Council to Prevent Delinquency (NCPD). Research Director, Ms Faith Weilder was their project coordinator. The culminating activity was a beautiful student mural depicting the values, goals, and themes of Julius West Middle School. The installed mural contains 40 panels and is 144 feet in length. It was installed in the school cafeteria so all students are able to enjoy the project and reflect on the values and themes of our school.
Primary Subjects: Social Studies
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Social Studies
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: The NJHS members decided to start “Operation Instilling School Pride.” One of the projects they selected was to paint all the bathrooms in the school with different themes chosen by the school community. The bathroom facelift had multi-purposes: to cover the graffiti in the bathroom, to have the bathrooms reflect the personality of our student body, and to instill pride in our school community.
Project Citizen by Jodi Buckson in Baltimore City. Created for middle school. Fellows project.
Primary Subjects: Social Studies
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Social Studies
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Every year for the past three years, I have engaged students in service-learning through a program entitled Project Citizen. Through this program, my students have been able to tackle issues in their community such as the sanitation of school lavatories, abandoned housing, and rat infestation.
Rain Garden by Margaret Paul in Baltimore County. Created for high school. Sherry Unger winner.
Primary Subjects: Horticulture
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Horticulture
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: At the beginning of the school year, five trailer classrooms were delivered to the Towson High School campus behind the main building. After their installation, the disturbed grounds around them pooled excess water, due to the soil's clay base. To prevent potential problems from occurring, the Towson High School Environmental Club and horticulture classes mapped out the land involved and chose and planted perennials - both plants and shrubs - that would utilize the pooled water.
Reforestation Project by Renee Reining in St. Mary’s County. Created for elementary school. Sherry Unger winer.
Primary Subjects: Science
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Science
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: In the spring of 2005, Oakville Elementary School planted 12 native trees on school grounds. Students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade participated in this project. Oakville Elementary School began a reforestation project during the Spring of 2004 and is committed to an ongoing effort to help maintain and restore our local environment and the Chesapeake Bay.
School Wide Recycling Project by MSDE. Created for elementary, middle (Alt-MSA), and high school (Alt-HSA).
Primary Subjects: Science
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: Science
Level of Service: Direct, Indirect, Advocacy
Project Description: Students will collect plastic bottles /cans/paper in order to demonstrate the ease of recycling and reduce the trash in and around their school or community.
Primary Subjects: English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Media Skills
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Media Skills
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Students at South Dorchester School planned, implemented and assessed an Earth Day Celebration, which included the planting of a wetland, planting of native trees and shrubs, a schoolyard clean-up, and a seminar from the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
Primary Subjects: English
Maryland Curriculum Indicators for: English
Level of Service: Direct
Project Description: Teacher Appreciation Week seems to usually only recognize elementary school teachers. High school teachers rarely receive any recognition or tokens of appreciation from their students and families during Teacher Apperception Week. My students created a project during Teacher Appreciation Week to let the Edgewood High School (EHS) faculty know how much they meant to them.