October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and, particularly for middle and high school students, awareness may be on the mind. Instead of letting the month roll by unmarked, consider ways to help raise age-appropriate awareness in your school setting by turning your kids into kid educators. Foster research and critical thinking skills while letting kids get the word out about breast cancer awareness during this important month. These three simple ideas will let your students take the lead to foster independence, critical thinking, and awareness of important social and health issues.
Breast Cancer Awareness Display Projects
Schools are always looking for creative and powerful ways to showcase student work. Let your students research information and critical facts about breast cancer and breast cancer awareness month to create school displays to share their knowledge. From simple posters with statistics to powerful, moving messages, display projects create a fast and easy way for kids to practice marketing and presentation skills while still researching a relevant topic in modern health.
Interview Survivors
Nothing can be more powerful than a first hand account of cancer survivors. Let your students interview breast cancer survivors or cancer survivors in general. Let students develop critical thinking skills and powerful journalistic questioning skills. They can then interview friends or family members. For students without access to a survivor, students may research biographies or stories of survivors online. These interviews and biographies can be shared with classmates for a powerful picture of how cancer affects people and the community.
Organize Charity Drives
For classes that want to be more proactive, have students become charitable givers. Let students research various foundations and choose one with a mission they like. Then, students can organize their own charity drive or collection at the school or in the community. This community service based project can become a powerful way for kids to make a difference while still supporting strong research skills, organization skills, and communication skills.
