The School Operations Challenge: Learning Through the Systems That Run a Campus

I. Introduction

Every school is a complex system that students interact with every day but rarely get to investigate. Cafeterias serve hundreds of meals, buses coordinate transportation, libraries circulate thousands of books, custodians maintain shared spaces, and offices manage supplies, schedules, and communication. These systems require mathematics, planning, budgeting, engineering, teamwork, and constant problem-solving. Yet students often study those concepts through hypothetical examples while the real systems operating around them remain largely invisible.

The School Operations Challenge offers a different approach. Instead of relying exclusively on textbook problems, students investigate how their own campus functions and propose practical improvements. They might study cafeteria wait times, analyze library checkout patterns, design a more efficient classroom supply system, investigate recycling procedures, or explore how transportation schedules are organized. The result is a learning experience that connects academic knowledge to the everyday work of keeping a school running.

Research on student voice, authentic mathematical modeling, and service-learning provides a strong foundation for this approach. Mitra (2004) found that meaningful student participation in school improvement efforts could support students' sense of agency, belonging, and competence. Kohen and Orenstein (2021) demonstrated how authentic workplace problems can be transformed into mathematical modeling tasks appropriate for secondary education, while Celio et al. (2011) found positive academic and civic outcomes associated with well-designed service-learning experiences.

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This article explores how schools can turn campus operations into meaningful educational challenges without disrupting essential services. You'll find practical project ideas, implementation structures, research-based case studies, staff collaboration strategies, and a framework for helping students move from observing a problem to developing an evidence-based recommendation.

II. Why School Operations Are an Untapped Learning Resource

Students frequently ask why they need to learn particular mathematical procedures, writing skills, or scientific concepts. Teachers can explain that these skills matter in the real world, but explaining relevance is different from allowing students to experience it.

Consider what happens in a school cafeteria. Meals must be prepared, transported, served, purchased, consumed, and cleaned up within a limited amount of time. Staff balance nutrition requirements, food safety, staffing, budgets, student preferences, and scheduling constraints. A student investigating cafeteria operations could encounter rates, averages, percentages, resource allocation, logistical planning, communication, and systems thinking within one familiar environment.

Similar opportunities exist throughout the building. A library checkout system involves inventory management, classification, circulation patterns, and resource allocation. School supply purchasing requires budgeting, forecasting, unit pricing, and prioritization. Transportation schedules involve geography, time, capacity, and complex logistical decisions.

Kohen and Orenstein (2021) examined how authentic workplace problems could be adapted for secondary mathematics education. Their research identified 169 technology-related real-world problems suitable for consideration within school mathematics curricula, illustrating the potential for connecting academic mathematics with professional problem-solving.

The School Operations Challenge applies that same principle to an environment students already know. The goal is not to create artificial real-world scenarios. It is to help students recognize the mathematics, economics, science, and decision-making already taking place around them.

III. What the School Operations Challenge Actually Is

The School Operations Challenge is a structured project-based learning experience in which students investigate one operational system within their school, collect appropriate evidence, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop recommendations for the adults responsible for that system.

Projects can last several class periods, two weeks, or an entire unit. The duration depends on the complexity of the question and the age of the students.

The model follows a simple progression:

Understand the System: Students learn how a particular school operation functions, including its purpose, constraints, stakeholders, and existing procedures.

Identify a Question: Students select a specific, manageable problem or improvement opportunity.

Collect Evidence: Students gather approved observations, measurements, counts, interviews, or nonconfidential operational data.

Analyze the Findings: Students organize information, recognize patterns, evaluate possible explanations, and compare potential solutions.

Develop a Recommendation: Students propose an improvement that considers effectiveness, cost, safety, feasibility, and the needs of different stakeholders.

Present and Reflect: Students communicate findings to an authentic audience and reflect on how their academic skills contributed to the investigation.

The model connects closely to service-learning when student investigations result in meaningful contributions to the school community. Celio et al. (2011) analyzed 62 service-learning studies involving 11,837 students and found positive effects across academic performance, civic engagement, social skills, attitudes toward learning, and attitudes toward self.

Importantly, the researchers also identified curricular connections, student voice, community involvement, and reflection as features associated with stronger outcomes. Those elements should guide the design of a School Operations Challenge from the beginning.

IV. School Systems Students Can Investigate

One of the greatest strengths of this model is its flexibility. Schools already contain numerous systems that can become appropriate instructional opportunities.

Cafeteria Operations

Students can investigate serving-line flow, waste reduction, cafeteria seating arrangements, recycling procedures, or communication about menus.

A mathematics class might compare service rates during different lunch periods. A science class might investigate waste categories. An ELA class could develop a persuasive proposal using student observations and stakeholder interviews.

Library Systems

Students might examine book circulation patterns, shelf organization, genre visibility, resource accessibility, or the effectiveness of library signage.

They could recommend clearer labels, more accessible shelf layouts, improved displays, or changes to how students discover books.

Classroom and Building Supplies

Students investigate how supplies are distributed, tracked, reordered, and stored.

Projects might include estimating consumption, comparing unit prices, creating inventory trackers, or designing a classroom supply-request process.

Transportation and Arrival

Using simulated or district-approved, nonconfidential information, students can explore bus capacity, arrival patterns, transportation geography, walking routes, and scheduling challenges.

Students should never be given confidential transportation records or responsibility for determining real bus routes, which involve safety and specialized planning requirements.

Recycling and Waste Management

Students might investigate how recyclable materials are collected, whether signage is understandable, or what types of waste appear most frequently in approved collection areas.

The focus can include measurement, environmental science, communication, and behavioral design.

Substitute Teacher Preparation

Students can examine general classroom routines and design clearer, student-friendly directions that help learning continue when a teacher is absent.

Projects might include visual classroom guides, materials organization systems, or simplified technology instructions. Confidential substitute plans, emergency information, and student records remain adult responsibilities.

These investigations help students discover that school operations are interconnected systems rather than isolated tasks.

V. Teaching Students to Think Like Systems Engineers

A strong School Operations Challenge begins by helping students understand that most operational problems have multiple causes and constraints.

Consider a crowded hallway. Students may immediately propose changing the passing-period schedule. However, the congestion could also involve hallway width, locker placement, classroom release patterns, student movement, supervision procedures, or the location of staircases.

Changing one factor might improve the situation, worsen it, or create an entirely different problem.

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Students therefore need to practice systems thinking before developing solutions.

Teachers can introduce several guiding questions:

• What is the purpose of this system?
• Who uses or maintains it?
• What resources does it require?
• What constraints affect how it operates?
• Where do delays, confusion, or inefficiencies appear?
• What happens elsewhere if one part changes?
• What evidence would help us understand the problem?
• How could we test an improvement safely?

These questions encourage students to move beyond complaints and toward responsible analysis.

An important lesson is that the most visible problem is not necessarily the root cause. A slow cafeteria line might not be caused by staff working too slowly. The actual constraint might involve payment procedures, arrival patterns, serving equipment, menu complexity, or limited space.

Students should learn to investigate systems without assigning blame to the people operating them.

VI. Making Mathematics the Engine of the Challenge

The School Operations Challenge provides opportunities for applying mathematics beyond traditional word problems.

Students can collect measurements and use mathematical models to describe how systems function. The mathematical expectations should match grade-level standards and the complexity of the investigation.

Elementary Mathematics

Younger students can count supplies, organize classroom inventory, compare quantities, measure distances, collect simple data, and represent findings with graphs.

For example, students might investigate how many pencils a classroom uses during a week and create a visual system for monitoring supply levels.

Middle School Mathematics

Students can analyze rates, ratios, percentages, averages, unit costs, scale drawings, and statistical variability.

A middle school class might measure cafeteria wait times across several days and calculate how much variation exists between lunch periods.

High School Mathematics

Older students can explore optimization, mathematical modeling, probability, budgeting, forecasting, and statistical inference.

A high school class might create a simplified model of supply purchasing that considers unit costs, delivery frequency, available storage, and budget constraints.

The strongest mathematical tasks require students to justify assumptions and explain limitations.

Kohen and Orenstein (2021) emphasized that transforming authentic workplace problems into educational tasks requires simplifying real-world complexity while preserving meaningful mathematical relationships.

That lesson applies directly to campus operations. Students should work with a manageable version of a real problem rather than pretending they can fully optimize an entire school district's transportation or purchasing system.

The objective is mathematical understanding through authentic constraints, not professional-level operational responsibility.

VII. Bringing Economics and Financial Literacy into the Project

Schools make financial decisions every day, but students rarely see how those decisions are made.

The School Operations Challenge can introduce budgeting, opportunity costs, purchasing decisions, resource scarcity, and long-term planning through age-appropriate examples.

Suppose students investigate how classroom materials are purchased. They might discover that buying a larger quantity reduces the cost per item but requires more storage. Purchasing smaller quantities may cost more per unit but reduce the amount of unused inventory.

Neither choice is automatically correct.

Students must consider competing priorities.

Other projects might involve comparing prices for classroom supplies, evaluating the cost of reusable materials, estimating the resources required for a school event, or developing a fictional budget for improving library accessibility.

Teachers should use publicly available, simulated, or administrator-approved budget information. Confidential contracts, purchasing credentials, personnel costs, and vendor records should not become student research materials.

The educational value comes from recognizing that resources are limited and that sound decisions require evidence, clear priorities, and consideration of consequences.

A well-designed financial investigation can teach students that the cheapest solution is not always the most effective, while the most appealing improvement may not be affordable.

VIII. Making Classified Staff Essential Partners

Some of the most knowledgeable people in a school are not classroom teachers or administrators.

Custodians, cafeteria employees, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, library assistants, office personnel, maintenance technicians, and other classified staff manage complex systems every day.

Their expertise can make the School Operations Challenge considerably more authentic.

A custodian might explain why certain cleaning procedures must happen in a specific sequence. A nutrition services employee could discuss meal preparation and service requirements. A library assistant might explain how circulation records support inventory management. An office professional might show students a safe, simplified version of the process used to organize supplies.

These conversations can expand students' understanding of meaningful professional work while building respect for the adults who keep schools functioning.

However, staff should be invited as partners rather than treated as subjects of student evaluation.

Students should not enter a project assuming that employees are inefficient or that a group of children can easily solve problems professionals have managed for years.

Instead, they should approach staff with curiosity:

What are the biggest challenges you manage?

What do students often misunderstand about this system?

What information helps you make decisions?

What improvements have already been attempted?

What would make this process easier without creating new problems?

This approach aligns with research on authentic student participation. Mitra (2004) found that student voice initiatives could support agency, belonging, and competence, but the quality of student-adult relationships influenced how those outcomes developed.

For the School Operations Challenge to work well, adults and students must both be treated as contributors with valuable knowledge.

IX. Research-Based Case Studies

Case Study: Middle School Students Improving Cafeteria Options

Reich, Kay, and Lin (2015) documented a university-community partnership in which students at a low-income middle school helped improve cafeteria food options. The project involved students working with researchers, school administrators, and district personnel to investigate concerns and contribute to changes affecting the school food environment.

The work produced menu changes and improved communication among students and school decision-makers. Importantly, students were not limited to expressing opinions about food. They became participants in a process of investigation, communication, and improvement.

For the School Operations Challenge, this study illustrates how a familiar school service can become a meaningful educational and civic project. Students can investigate a system that directly affects them while learning why operational changes require collaboration with staff and decision-makers.

The lesson extends beyond cafeteria menus: students can contribute useful insights to school systems when adults give them meaningful opportunities to participate (Reich et al., 2015).

Case Study: Student Citizen Scientists Investigating School Food Waste

Browne et al. (2023) conducted a pilot citizen science study at an Irish secondary school involving 11 students ages 15–17. Students participated in an audit of food and packaging waste, documenting waste categories and contributing to a broader investigation of the school food environment.

The project identified organic waste, paper and cardboard, and hard plastics as major waste categories. Researchers also found contamination in recycling bins and examined the nutritional quality of packaged food waste.

Students developed proposed solutions addressing individual, community, and organizational practices.

This case demonstrates the educational potential of having students collect and interpret operational data rather than relying on assumptions. A project that begins with a simple question about waste can connect environmental science, mathematics, data analysis, and communication.

It also illustrates the importance of distinguishing findings from outcomes. The study demonstrated student participation and generated recommendations; it did not establish that the proposed solutions produced long-term waste reductions (Browne et al., 2023).

Case Study: Elementary Students Helping Redesign Their School Library

Atmodiwirjo, Yatmo, and Paramita (2012) examined a participatory library improvement project at a primary school in Indonesia. Children were involved in aspects of planning and improving the library environment, while adults supported the physical renovation and organization of the collection.

The project included opportunities for students to contribute design ideas, participate in activities connected to the improved space, and take part in library management as junior librarians.

Researchers reported that the improved environment encouraged library use and that student participation contributed positively to children's attitudes and sense of belonging. The study also highlighted the importance of continued involvement from teachers and the wider school community.

For the School Operations Challenge, the study demonstrates how students can participate in improving a school resource through planning, organization, design, and ongoing stewardship.

It also provides a useful caution: operational improvements need sustained adult support after the initial project is complete (Atmodiwirjo et al., 2012).

X. A Practical School Operations Challenge Protocol

The strongest projects follow a consistent process that students can learn and teachers can reuse.

Step 1: Select an Appropriate School System

The teacher identifies several safe, accessible systems that students can investigate. Students may rank their interests or develop questions within approved areas.

Step 2: Meet the System Experts

Students learn from the adults responsible for operating the system. This helps them understand requirements and constraints before making recommendations.

Step 3: Identify a Specific Problem

The class narrows a broad concern into a researchable question. "The cafeteria is inefficient" becomes "How does the number of students entering the serving line affect wait times during one lunch period?"

Step 4: Create a Data Collection Plan

Students determine what evidence they need, how they will gather it, and how they will keep observations consistent.

Step 5: Investigate and Analyze

Students collect approved measurements or observations, organize information, and identify patterns.

Step 6: Design Multiple Solutions

Teams propose more than one possible improvement. Students compare ideas using criteria such as cost, safety, feasibility, time, accessibility, and potential impact.

Step 7: Present a Recommendation

Students communicate their proposed improvement through a presentation, memo, infographic, model, or short report.

Step 8: Reflect on the Response

Students consider feedback from staff and administrators. If an improvement is approved, they may help evaluate its impact under adult supervision. If it is not approved, they analyze the reasons and determine what they learned.

This process supports the reflection and authentic community engagement emphasized by Celio et al. (2011). Student participation should involve more than completing a task; it should include understanding the community need, considering feedback, and learning from the experience.

XI. An Example Challenge: Improving the Cafeteria Experience

Consider a middle school where students frequently complain that lunch lines are too long.

Instead of treating the complaint as proof that the system is broken, a teacher turns it into a mathematics and engineering investigation.

Students begin by meeting with cafeteria personnel to understand the serving process, nutritional requirements, staffing, and available space.

They then develop a question:

How do serving-line procedures and student arrival patterns affect waiting time?

With administrative approval, students observe selected lunch periods and collect anonymous, aggregate timing data without recording classmates' identities.

They might compare how long students wait at different points in the process, examine how arrival volume changes over time, or identify where the line begins to slow.

After organizing the results, students develop several possible recommendations.

One team might propose clearer signage to reduce confusion. Another might suggest testing a different way to organize utensils or napkins. A third might investigate whether a revised arrival procedure could distribute traffic more evenly.

Students evaluate each idea with staff before proposing any pilot.

The final product is not simply a list of complaints. It is a short operational analysis containing a clear question, evidence, possible explanations, recommendations, and limitations.

The project can integrate mathematics, science and engineering practices, persuasive writing, and civic decision-making without requiring students to control the cafeteria or interfere with meal service.

XII. Differentiating the Challenge by Grade Level

The School Operations Challenge can work across elementary, middle, and high school settings, but expectations should be developmentally appropriate.

Kindergarten–Grade 2: Notice, Count, and Suggest

Younger students can investigate simple systems within their classroom or library.

They might count misplaced supplies, test different picture labels for classroom materials, or organize a small shared collection.

Teachers guide observations and help students explain what they noticed.

Grades 3–5: Measure, Compare, and Explain

Upper-elementary students can conduct more structured investigations using measurements, graphs, surveys, and simple cost comparisons.

Projects might include studying library organization, classroom supply use, recycling signage, or transitions within approved spaces.

Students begin writing short evidence-based recommendations.

Grades 6–8: Analyze Systems and Evaluate Tradeoffs

Middle school students can investigate more complex processes involving rates, percentages, averages, budgeting, scheduling, and stakeholder perspectives.

They can compare possible solutions and explain which constraints make implementation difficult.

Grades 9–12: Model, Optimize, and Present

High school students can develop simplified mathematical models, statistical analyses, operational flow diagrams, and cost-benefit comparisons.

They might use de-identified or simulated transportation information, approved utility data, inventory models, or hypothetical scheduling scenarios.

The underlying idea remains consistent at every grade level: students use academic skills to understand and improve a real system.

XIII. A Four-Week Implementation Roadmap

Schools can begin with one month-long project before expanding the model.

Week 1: Understand the System

Introduce the project, select an operational area, meet with appropriate staff, and develop a focused research question.

Students learn about the system's purpose, constraints, and stakeholders.

Week 2: Collect and Organize Evidence

Students conduct approved observations, measurements, interviews, or data analysis.

The teacher provides instruction in data quality, measurement reliability, and responsible interpretation.

Week 3: Develop and Evaluate Solutions

Teams identify patterns and possible causes.

They create multiple improvement proposals and compare feasibility, costs, safety, accessibility, and expected benefits.

Week 4: Present and Reflect

Students share their recommendations with the appropriate school audience.

The project ends with reflection on academic learning, collaboration, systems thinking, and what the evidence does and does not justify.

Schools that want a shorter version can compress the same phases into a five- or ten-day project.

A meaningful challenge does not require a lengthy investigation. It requires a focused question, appropriate evidence, authentic thinking, and a real audience.

XIV. Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

The School Operations Challenge can become one of the most authentic experiences students have, but only when the project respects real operational responsibilities.

• Pitfall: Students believe every system needs fixing

Fix: Encourage students to identify existing strengths as well as possible improvements. An investigation may reveal that a current procedure works well.

• Pitfall: Classified staff feel criticized

Fix: Involve employees early and frame the work as collaboration rather than performance evaluation.

• Pitfall: Students collect sensitive information

Fix: Use aggregate, simulated, public, or administrator-approved data. Never provide student transportation records, confidential purchasing information, personnel records, or private student data.

• Pitfall: The project becomes too complicated

Fix: Narrow the research question and investigate one part of the system rather than attempting to redesign the entire operation.

• Pitfall: Students recommend changes without understanding constraints

Fix: Require stakeholder consultation and evaluation of cost, safety, feasibility, and operational requirements.

• Pitfall: Mathematics becomes disconnected from the problem

Fix: Select mathematical tools that help answer the research question rather than inserting calculations simply to satisfy a standard.

• Pitfall: Only confident students make decisions

Fix: Use rotating roles for data collection, analysis, design, writing, and presentation.

• Pitfall: Adults ignore student recommendations

Fix: Arrange an authentic audience before the project begins and request meaningful feedback on the proposals.

Student voice research reinforces that final concern. Mitra (2004) found that students' developmental experiences were shaped by the structure of participation and relationships with adults. Students need to see that their involvement has purpose, even when their recommendations cannot be implemented.

XV. Measuring Success Beyond Whether a Proposal Is Adopted

A School Operations Challenge should not be judged only by whether administrators accept the final recommendation.

A proposed improvement may be reasonable but impossible because of budget restrictions, safety requirements, staffing limitations, or other factors students did not initially understand.

That outcome can still represent strong learning.

Teachers should evaluate several dimensions of student work.

Quality of the Question

Did students identify a specific, meaningful, and researchable operational issue?

Quality of the Evidence

Did students gather appropriate information and recognize limitations in their data?

Mathematical and Scientific Reasoning

Did students use accurate calculations, appropriate representations, and defensible explanations?

Understanding of Constraints

Did students consider cost, safety, accessibility, staffing, and how different parts of the system interact?

Communication

Could students explain their findings clearly and respond thoughtfully to questions?

Reflection

Could students identify what they learned, what surprised them, and what they would investigate differently next time?

These criteria help keep the challenge academically rigorous.

The research on service-learning also suggests that reflection and curricular integration matter. Celio et al. (2011) found that programs incorporating recommended practices, including meaningful student participation and reflection, were associated with better outcomes.

The final product therefore matters, but the thinking students develop throughout the project matters just as much.

XVI. FAQ

Is the School Operations Challenge appropriate for elementary students?

Yes. Younger students can investigate simple classroom and library systems using counts, measurements, drawings, and observations. The complexity of the analysis should increase with age, but even young students can identify a problem, examine evidence, and suggest an improvement.

Do schools need to give students access to confidential operational data?

No. Students can work with aggregate information, public documents, teacher-created datasets, approved observations, and simplified operational models. Confidential transportation records, employee information, purchasing credentials, and student records should remain protected.

How is this different from traditional project-based learning?

The School Operations Challenge is a specific application of project-based learning. Instead of selecting an external or hypothetical problem, students investigate systems operating within their own school. The authentic setting gives students access to real stakeholders, constraints, and possible audiences.

What subjects can participate?

Mathematics is a natural fit, but the model can also support science, engineering, social studies, civics, economics, ELA, computer science, and career education. Interdisciplinary projects can combine measurement, financial reasoning, research, persuasive communication, and systems thinking.

What if the school staff do not have time to participate?

Start with a project requiring minimal staff involvement, such as classroom inventory organization or library signage. Teachers can arrange one brief interview or request an approved explanation of the process. Staff participation should be voluntary, manageable, and respectful of existing responsibilities.

What if students propose an unrealistic solution?

Use the proposal as a learning opportunity. Ask students to consider cost, safety, staffing, feasibility, and potential unintended consequences. Real-world problem-solving includes discovering why appealing ideas may not work as originally imagined.

Can students investigate school bus routes?

They can explore transportation concepts using simulated, generalized, or approved nonconfidential data. Actual routing decisions involve safety, legal requirements, protected information, and professional expertise. Students should not determine real routes or access private rider details.

Do students need to produce a physical improvement?

No. The final product may be a proposal, model, report, infographic, presentation, or revised procedure for adult review. A strong recommendation supported by evidence can demonstrate substantial learning even when implementation is not possible.

Can this be completed in one or two weeks?

Yes. A shorter challenge might involve investigating one process, collecting a small amount of data, and developing a focused recommendation. More complex projects may require several weeks. The important feature is the investigation cycle rather than its length.

How can this support student leadership?

Students take responsibility for identifying questions, gathering evidence, developing solutions, and communicating with adults. Mitra (2004) found that meaningful student voice initiatives could contribute to agency, belonging, and competence, especially when students had authentic opportunities to participate in school improvement.

XVII. Conclusion

The School Operations Challenge helps students recognize that their campus is more than a collection of classrooms. It is a connected organization that depends on logistics, mathematics, resource management, communication, engineering, and people working together. Every lunch served, book circulated, supply ordered, and classroom prepared involves systems that can be studied and understood.

When students investigate those systems, academic skills become more meaningful. Ratios describe actual service patterns. Graphs reveal trends in real observations. Budgets demonstrate resource constraints. Writing becomes a tool for making thoughtful recommendations. Civics becomes the practice of contributing constructively to decisions affecting a shared community.

Research offers a compelling foundation for this approach. Studies of student participation in cafeteria improvement, school waste investigations, and library redesign illustrate how young people can contribute to real school environments (Reich et al., 2015; Browne et al., 2023; Atmodiwirjo et al., 2012). Broader research on authentic mathematical modeling, student voice, and service-learning supports creating educational experiences that connect academic learning with meaningful participation (Kohen & Orenstein, 2021; Mitra, 2004; Celio et al., 2011).

The model also teaches humility. Students learn that school systems are complex, that improvement requires cooperation, and that adults working behind the scenes possess expertise deserving of respect. They discover that evidence is more valuable than assumptions and that a promising idea must survive practical questions about safety, resources, and feasibility.

Schools do not need to launch a massive campus improvement initiative to get started. One classroom could analyze its supply system. One grade level could investigate a library procedure. One mathematics class could examine cafeteria flow with staff approval.

The most important step is giving students an authentic question worth investigating and the support to investigate it responsibly.

Over time, students may begin to see their school differently. The cafeteria becomes a system of logistics and service. The library becomes a study in organization and access. The supply closet becomes an economics problem. The entire campus becomes a place where academic knowledge has practical applications.

When students learn to understand the systems around them, they begin developing the skills needed to improve the systems they will encounter throughout their lives.

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XVIII. Sources

Atmodiwirjo, P., Yatmo, Y. A., & Paramita, K. D. (2012). My library: Involving children in the improvement of school library space. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 38, 31–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.03.321

Browne, S., Mullen, A., Mulholland, B., Lo, C., & Ruttledge, A. (2023). Nutrition quality and food and packaging waste associated with the school food system: A pilot, citizen science study in an Irish secondary school. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 36(6), 2310–2322. https://doi.org/10.1111/jhn.13220

Celio, C. I., Durlak, J., & Dymnicki, A. (2011). A meta-analysis of the impact of service-learning on students. Journal of Experiential Education, 34(2), 164–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/105382591103400205

Kohen, Z., & Orenstein, D. (2021). Mathematical modeling of tech-related real-world problems for secondary school-level mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 107(1), 71–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-020-10020-1

Mitra, D. L. (2004). The significance of students: Can increasing “student voice” in schools lead to gains in youth development? Teachers College Record, 106(4), 651–688. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2004.00354.x

Reich, S. M., Kay, J. S., & Lin, G. C. (2015). Nourishing a partnership to improve middle school lunch options: A community-based participatory research project. Family & Community Health, 38(1), 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1097/FCH.0000000000000055