MATTAPOISETT — Over the course of four weeks, Old Rochester Regional Junior High School eighth graders researched topics that they believed would help their community if understood better.

Environmental issues, mental health problems, underage substance use, bullying and dress codes in school were among the topics on display at the Civics Action Project Showcase on Tuesday, May 27.

More than 130 student projects were showcased at the event, with each crafted from a multi-step research process that taught the students about local government, public policy and regulations in relation to societal issues.

Eighth grade civics teachers Sarah Makein and Rick Regan were proud to present the work of their students.

"We were very happy with and impressed by all the tremendous work and effort that our students put into their civics action projects," Makein said. "This event was a great success, and we look forward to repeating the effort."

"It was outstanding to see so many high-quality projects completed by our students," Regan said. "They did a lot of hard work to collect information and to develop compelling findings on so many intriguing subjects. It was amazing to see what they came up with.

Students, parents and community members voted on the top projects by two groups of students at the event.

Oliver Ward and John Rousseau won for their project on “Interactive Lessons In School” and Sophie Zhou won for her project on “Wildlife and Road Safety.”

Principal Silas Coellner expressed his support for the students’ work.

"I'm happy to see how so many of our students engaged intelligently on some of these very difficult issues impacting our communities," said Principal Coellner. "There were so many thoughtful presentations that were based on data collected by our students who then offered some very interesting perspectives on these important topics.”