STEM-In-Action Spring Scoop: 1 Peter 5:7

Our STEM-In-Action Grant winning teams have been hard at work for the past year advancing their eCYBERMISSION projects to make a difference in their communities. If you're new to the eCYBERMISSION blog, the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) awards STEM-In-Action Grants of up to $5,000 to eCYBERMISSION teams that wish to further develop and implement their projects in their communities. We're checking back in with this year's STEM-In-Action Grant teams to get the inside scoop on their project process. First up, Texas team, 1 Peter 5:7.
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Team 1 Peter 5:7 delivering scent diffusers

Our names are Ava-Grace, Sydney, and Rylee and we set out on a journey last year to help students at our school who experience anxiety. After the pandemic, anxiety became a much more real issue for so many young people and our research last year amazed and saddened us with just how many students are experiencing anxiety. We thought, if we could make a change in the place where young people spend the majority of their awake hours - at school - then we have a chance to improve many lives. So, we spent last year studying different changes in the classrooms at our school, including placing light coverings over the fluorescent lights, playing light white noise in the background, diffusing essential oils that are known to decrease anxiety and increase mood, and we even had a therapy dog that visited with all of the students in our grade. Students reported back how the changes affected them, and we were so pleased that anxiety levels decreased up to 83% with some of our changes. From there, we decided to apply for the STEM-In-Action Grant to be able to apply these simple modifications to all of the classrooms at our school. Now, fast forward several months, and see what we have been able to accomplish!

Explaining how to use items properly to a 6th grade class

We have implemented four environmental changes in the classrooms at our school. Each classroom received light coverings, ranging from galaxies to trees to clouds or beach. The teachers were sent a survey to decide which coverings they would like most for their classroom, and we were able to accommodate all of their choices. We also gave each room a scent diffuser with three different scents: lavender, peppermint, and orange. These scents were specifically chosen for their effects on decreasing anxiety and increasing mood and focus. The last change that was implemented in each room was a sound machine that can play lots of different sounds from rain to white noise to a peaceful crackling fire. In addition to these, some classrooms also received weighted lap pads and soothing lava lamps. The lap pads are utilized by less students but are incredibly helpful for students who like to fidget or who benefit from proprioceptive input, which we learned about during our studies last year.

Covers to be placed over fluorescent lights

We have personally seen the changes to classrooms in use and are happy to say we have sent out a survey to the teachers who have given their input on our changes and how it has affected them in positive and negative ways. Because we know that this is to benefit our peers, we have been critiquing and working on a survey for our students to fill out during their bellwork in the science period. Our current goal is to get responses from the students and receive data about the effects of our environmental changes. Our future goal for this project is to be able to drastically decrease anxiety in our school and increase grades, focus, sociability, and body function. Another major goal we have is to share our project with the public and other schools and inform them of how it has changed our school and really, how a few simple changes to the classroom environment may have a huge impact. We only surveyed students at our school last year, while researching, but we know that anxiety is very common among school-aged people. Maybe if other schools see these changes, they will advocate to implement our changes where they are as well. We have been trying to get the word out by emailing our local newspaper and several different news stations. We were highlighted on one local news station, very briefly, in a segment called “Tell Me Something Good.” They highlighted our project and it was very exciting to see that publicity for our project. We would love to increase awareness even more, however, and will continue to reach out!

Delivering a scent diffuser, scents, and lava lamp to teacher, Ms. DeFarias

As with most things, our project has had some minor speedbumps, including time to get together and managing to get the teachers to implement the classroom changes on a regular basis. We have overcome these speedbumps by working early in the mornings, during lunch, and staying in the Activity Period, which is a class at the end of the day for students to receive tutoring or help on school items. We have been able to get on the same page with the teachers about using our items and they have all at least been willing to do it for a day or longer, for data purposes, if it isn’t something that they are able to use routinely. Currently, our biggest challenge is getting all of our data put together and organized. We successfully sent out a survey to all of the students in our building and are excited to see how our classroom modifications have impacted the student population with raw data.

Delivering scent diffusers and light covers to classrooms

Our ideal outcome for this project is to see a true decrease in anxiety among all the students at our school. We realize that this is a high ask, but we are remaining optimistic that our changes have only been beneficial! Then, of course, we want the word to spread to other schools! We have been amazed that some very simple changes can have a such huge impact!

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A huge congratulations to team 1 Peter 5:7 for truly making their eCYBERMISSION project a reality! They are improving the lives of countless students and teachers with their work, and we're so glad to see them putting their STEM-In-Action Grant to great use!

Join us next week as we hear from the next STEM-In-Action Grant winners. Projects can begin now for the 2024-2025 eCYBERMISSION competition, and the eCYBERMISSION Mini-Grant application is now open for teachers. 

Faith Benner

Senior Communications and Marketing Specialist