STEM-In-Action Fall Follow Up: 1 Peter 5:7

We're back with another year of STEM-In-Action Grant Fall Follow Ups, where we check in with our 22-23 STEM-In-Action Grant winners to see what they've accomplished since NJ&EE! If you're new to the STEM-In-Action Grant program, the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) awards five STEM-In-Action Grants of up to $5,000 to eCYBERMISSION teams wishing to further develop and implement their projects in their communities. This year, the Grant was awarded to one 6th-grade team, one 7th-grade team, and three 8th-grade teams. First up, we're checking in with our 6th-grade (now 7th-grade) recipients, 1 Peter 5:7.

___________________________________

Hi! Our names are Ava-Grace, Sydney, and Rylee and we are 1 Peter 5:7. We are from Lubbock, Texas and attend Southcrest Christian School. Over the past year, we have researched anxiety and its effects on middle school students in the classroom. We investigated simple methods to help decrease anxiety and then made changes to the classrooms at our school to determine if these simple changes could help relieve some of the anxiety our fellow students may have been experiencing. We had amazing results! When lavender scent was diffused in the rooms, 72% of students had decreased anxiety. Rain noise playing quietly in the background helped 73% of the students. And 69% of the students enjoyed the blue tint that was placed over the fluorescent lighting. We were amazed that such simple changes could improve the well-being of our classmates so much! Our project made it all the way to the National Judging and Educational Event, and although we did not win, we wanted to continue our journey to helping our fellow students by implementing the changes we analyzed into all of our school’s classrooms. 

Our passion to help students led us to apply for the STEM-In-Action Grant, which we received, so now we are able to implement changes in all of the classrooms at the secondary campus of our school. The grant money will be utilized to purchase a scent diffuser and lavender scent for each classroom, a sound machine that can add ambient noise to the classroom and soothe nerves, and light filters that eliminate glare and decrease anxiety caused by fluorescent lights. We sent out a survey to all of the teachers in our building with the different light filter options available so they could pick out what they think will be best in their rooms. We wanted to give them the choice to ensure better likelihood that they will utilize the lights. They could pick from different scenery pictures such as clouds, trees, beach, and galaxies, and we also offered solid colors of blue and tan. Many of the teachers are anxiously awaiting their light coverings and have students who are very excited about the upcoming changes to their classrooms! Other calming devices, like weighted lap blankets and wax lamps will also be purchased to help calm the nerves of students and decrease distracting fidgeting.

As we start to implement these changes into the classrooms we hope to see a relevant change in the anxiety levels of students. Once we start implementing the changes in the classrooms, we plan to reach out to the teachers and see if their students are becoming more relaxed and less stressed. We will create a questionnaire for the teachers to assess changes in behaviors. We are so excited for the opportunity to provide changes to the classrooms at our school and observe the positive benefits of diminishing anxiety. Just helping one student would be worth it, but to be able to make changes that can affect the entire student population is a huge blessing and we can’t wait to see the improvements in our fellow classmates. Thank you so much eCYBERMISSION for this opportunity!

_____________________________

Wow! 1 Peter 5:7 sure has been busy, and we love seeing them use STEM to help their fellow students. We'll check back in with them in the spring for their final update, but until then, stay tuned for Fall Follow Ups from all of our STEM-In-Action Grant recipients!

eCYBERMISSION registration for the 2023-2024 competition is open at www.ecybermission.com/register, and Mini-Grant applications are are open until November 16 at www.ecybermission.com/minigrantprogram. For questions about eCYBERMISSION or help with registration, email missioncontrol@ecybermission.com.

Faith Benner

Sr. Communications and Marketing Specialist