At the Institute for Humane Education (IHE), we are passionate about teaching teachers how to educate their students to be positive changemakers. We believe that when teachers help students carry out solutionary projects, these students gain agency, optimism, purpose, and lifelong solutionary skills through real-world problem-solving.
This is all well and good. And…
How do we really know that our work is having the impact we want?
To find out, we asked teachers and students to tell us about their experiences.
To clarify, a solutionary project is one where students use IHE’s Solutionary Framework to engage in a four-phase process where they:
- IDENTIFY a problem they care about
- INVESTIGATE through connecting with stakeholders, collecting data, and analyzing the behaviors, systems, and mindsets that keep the problem in place
- INNOVATE a feasible solution that addresses the problem in a way that does the most good and least harm for people, animals, and the environment
- IMPLEMENT an actionable part of their solution before sharing their work with an authentic audience to inspire others to be positive changemakers
In 2025, Maine students carried out solutionary projects that addressed local issues, including food waste, ocean pollution, substance abuse, plastics pollution, homelessness, factory farming, mental health, and more. Regardless of grade level, project topic, or location of their school, the students and the teachers with whom we spoke talked emphatically about eight distinctive elements that explain the power of solutionary teaching and learning.
1. Student Agency and Empowerment
Students discovered that they could make meaningful change in their communities and that their voices matter to adults and decision-makers. We heard repeatedly from students how empowered they felt because they did a solutionary project.
It’s refreshing to do a project like this—hands-on and collaborative. A lot of kids think they can’t make a difference, but that’s not true. If you work with others, you can convince more people than you’d think to help change things.
~12th grader
I hope other students will get a chance to do this project because it helps open your eyes and realize that you can make a difference.
~ 7th grader
Teachers were equally enthused, regardless of the grade level of their students:
The best part of all is that you’ll be prepared to lead your students through this journey and become a class of solutionaries: true, positive, impactful changemakers. Students will leave your classroom knowing that their voice matters, and they have the power to make positive changes in their community.
~ Rachel P., 5th-grade teacher
These projects give students the understanding that they have the power to make their corner of the world a better place. They can make a change in a positive way.
~ Katie W., 8th-grade teacher
2. Authentic Learning and Real World Impact
Students of all ages noted that solutionary projects felt fundamentally different because they address actual problems that the students care about.
This project has felt different from other school assignments. It’s something we’re genuinely passionate about. It connects to real issues in our community, and it gives us a chance to do something that matters—not just write a paper or take a test.
~ 10th grader
Teachers corroborated the importance of real-world learning:
The students weren’t just doing a school project anymore—they were trying to fix something they had seen with their own eyes. The trash on the harbor, the salt runoff, the town’s snow dumping practices—this wasn’t abstract learning. One of the kids said, “That’s going into our ocean.” The sense of agency they developed—the feeling that they could make a real difference in their own community—is something I don’t think they’ll forget.
~ Emily H., high school science teacher
3. Skill Development Through Authentic Practice
Students realized that they needed specific skills to successfully carry out the project, and they were willing to work on these skills because they were invested in the outcome.
We’ve learned so many new skills from this project, especially doing research. We’re better at finding information and understanding environmental issues now. These are skills that will help us even after 6th grade.
~ 6th grader
Teachers noted that students needed—and were open to—being coached. They also realized that students developed confidence as they gained skills. Literacy and critical thinking were foundational throughout. Students analyzed primary documents, interpreted legal language, synthesized research, and practiced professional communication. By the time they reached the project phase, they were confident in their ability to write letters to local officials or translate data into action.
~ Kyle M., high school social studies teacher
4. Gaining Perspective Through Interaction With Stakeholders
Interacting with stakeholders was a critical part of the process for many students, and it helped them better understand a variety of perspectives and impacts related to the problem. The process helped them make connections and think differently.
This experience has changed me personally. I’ve developed a better understanding of what people might be going through, even when it’s not obvious. As teenagers, we sometimes say things that we don’t realize are hurtful—but now I think more about the impact of my words and actions. I’ve learned so much through this project, and I’ve realized that people often have invisible struggles that affect how they act and who they are.
~ 9th grader
Teachers shared many examples of this as well:
Kids feel like their voices don’t matter. These kids realized people did care about what they think and what they found through research. That was huge. Now they know who the stakeholders are—and they know they have a voice.
~ Nannette M., high school ELA Teacher
5. Using Systems Thinking
Students learned to see problems as embedded in interconnected systems rather than as isolated issues. When thinking about solutions, they looked for root and systemic causes and leverage points and took to heart the idea of taking actions that do the most good and least harm.
What I’ve taken away from this project is that problems often don’t have just one cause. There can be many different factors and people involved, and sometimes people don’t even realize there’s a problem.
~ 9th grader
Teachers were excited to see the shifts that occurred when students learned and used systems thinking.
Across the board, students gained a deeper understanding of how complex systems work. This was especially meaningful in a civics course, where the learning can sometimes feel discouraging or disconnected from action. The Solutionary Framework helped them move from disillusionment to agency.
~ Kyle M., high school social studies teacher
One of my favorite parts of the project was the leverage points in the iceberg model… This helped us all realize that there are multiple solutions, and we can’t necessarily do them all—but we can ask, ‘Which one does the most good with the least harm?‘
~ Ragan H., high school science teacher
6. Unexpected Student Leadership
The Solutionary Framework provides students with the opportunity to grow as leaders. This was apparent in the advice students gave to others who want to do solutionary projects:
When you do this project, I really hope you guys choose a good problem to solve, because if you do a really hard one it’s actually really fun. You get to learn so many new things that you probably never knew before. This was definitely the best unit we’ve done in science.
~ 7th grader
Teachers were impressed by the way students stepped up and shared that they were sometimes surprised by which students took the lead.
The students I expected to excel have done really well, but what’s surprised me most are the students I thought might struggle—some of them have shown incredible insight and passion. It turns out the problem wasn’t ability, it was interest. When they care about the topic, they rise to the occasion…. It’s definitely changed how I think about curriculum and how I can incorporate more student choice in my daily teaching.
~ Christa R. and Hannah K., 8th-grade teachers
7. Redefining Intelligence and Success
Many students and teachers emphasized that the types of intelligence needed to work on real-world problems were different from those frequently focused on in schools.
A lot of school is about making you book smart…. But this project made us smart in a different way. It gave us common sense and real-world experience.
~ 5th grader
What’s incredible is how wide the range of student abilities was—some were top of their class, others read at a fifth-grade level—and they were all working together. That inclusivity, with kids on IEPs, behavior plans, and NHS members collaborating on real problems—it was powerful.
~ Deb O., high school science teacher
8. Shift in the Role of the Teacher
Both students and teachers noted that the degree to which students have voice and choice during solutionary projects means that the teacher plays a very different role than is typical: a “guide on the side” instead of a “sage on the stage.” The outcome of a solutionary project is not determined by the teacher in advance, and teachers do not tell students step by step what to do. This means that students need to be more self-directed and teachers need to feel comfortable with students taking control of their learning.
The teachers were there to help when we needed it, but mostly we had the ‘wheel’—the power to steer our own learning.
~ 6th grader
It is wonderful to have widespread confirmation that solutionary teaching and learning actually shifts the power dynamic in classrooms and energizes students to see themselves as capable, compassionate changemakers who want to make a positive difference in the world. Knowing that this approach supports students to gain agency, meaning, and purpose at a time when so many young people have lost hope for the future is a huge benefit to them and for our schools and communities. This is what we want for all kids. Isn’t this the essence of teaching students to be future-ready?
Almost 1,000 teachers have now completed our training to learn how to use the Solutionary Framework with their students. As a result, tens of thousands of students around the world have had the opportunity to carry out solutionary projects in school over the past five years.
Intrigued? Learn more and register for the next Solutionary Micro-credential cohort. We hope you will consider joining us in our quest to educate a generation of solutionaries!