5K 

• Focus on the quality of the work or project, not the scale. Keep things small, but give your students time to do great work. Use models, critique and feedback. Have a public audience for the work. A beautifully written essay or beautifully drafted historical note card can change a student’s vision of what she can do. The video Austin’s Butterfly makes this clear. Many projects in the center are small in scale (Island Cards, Insect Bookmarks, Reflective Photo Essay).

10K

• Use a proven project format based on a model from the site. For example, there are dozens of models of students interviewing local experts to create a booklet or book based on the wisdom of those experts—scientists, civil rights heroes, survivors of The Great Depression, recent immigrants. (Meet Local Scientists, Give Bees a Chance, A Little More than Just People) You can get a behind-the-scenes look at such a project in this video (Small Acts of Courage Video).

Marathon

• Take on a significant issue in your community, find local experts, and work with your students to make a real contribution to improving things. You can see models of many projects of this scale in Models of Excellence, and videos about those projects here (The Eye of the Storm; Peacekeepers of Chicago; Revitalizing Rochester, Water Quality and the Future of Loon Pond)