This October, New Pioneers visited the Honors Environmental Science class at Bardstown Middle School to lead our activity called "Decisions, Decisions" with 7th and 8th grade students!

We started off the class by independently ranking statements about the environment on a scale of 1-10. Then, students were given the opportunity to share their perspectives in pairs with opposing views. During this time, students respectfully shared their opinions, and some even changed their rankings based on the new insight they received.

This starter activity opened students' minds to the varying values across communities and got them thinking about how decision-makers should take all of these perspectives into consideration!

With this in mind, the class was then presented with 2 relevant, local issues for them to solve together, acting out a mock town council meeting. These meetings included insightful, thoughtful, and meaningful ideas to tackle fictional scenarios about a data center and solar farm wanting to move into town.

Together, students came up with creative solutions that kept both the environment and the community in mind! Thank you to the wonderful students, Mrs. Curtsinger, and Bardstown Middle School for making this collaboration so impactful.

To view more photos from this visit, click here or on the collage above.