A Selection of Student Presentations
School Lunch Should Be More Than Just HealthySo one night last week my mom made Brussels sprouts. She loves brussell sprouts. Boiled brussel spouts. I had to eat six of them. They were healthy but didn’t taste good or look good.
My mom baked spinach muffins. They were healthy but didn’t taste good or look good. That doesn’t even sound good. We’re here to tell you that school lunch needs to be healthy but it also needs to look good and taste good. Always. We’ve learned a lot about school lunches. We learned that in the United States 27 million children eat school lunch. Most of the lunches have too much fat and almost half of those lunches don’t have fruit or vegetables. Healthy lunch keeps you awake and give you energy and keep your brain working. So we know school lunch should be healthy, but we think it should taste good and look good, too,. Kids deserve this, too. Always. Did you know that Isaac Dickson is the only school in Asheville city schools that has a salad bar? That’s great but I’ve noticed that everyday our school lunch has meat and all the chicken is fried. Chicken should be baked or made in a healthy way. Jones Elementary school worked with a chef to create a recipe for healthy food that tastes good and looks good. We think there should be a group of students who give advice to the school board about recipes. We would call it The Taste Good and Look Good Group.Because healthy doesn’t have to be nasty. We need your advice. During intermission, you ‘ll see a table with samples of healthy food. All the fellow kids please come to the table and try a sample. There will be a survey on a slip of paper and you can check if the sample looks good and tastes good. Just because it’s healthy doesn’t mean it has to be nasty. |
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Cross Burning: Why Kids Can Make a Difference
Hello, I am 11 years old. I have dreams to be a chef and a writer and a fashion designer. I want to invite you to really zone into this presentation. Don’t let your mind run out the window. Just like if you drive a car, you have to keep your mind on the road. So keep your mind on this road. My idea worth spreading is that racism and cross-burning still exist, that they hurt and I would like it to stop. It might be hard to listen at first. It made me sad to hear about cross-burning and racism. I wanted to cry. I held it inside and tried to act normal. But it hurts. I thought cross-burning never happened. When I found out that it still happened right here in the Asheville area I was shocked. I couldn’t believe this. Racism and cross-burning does more than hurt, it keeps people scared and it needs a change. I’m the one who’s gonna make that change. When I was in class one day in writing, my writing teacher Ms. Hurley read us an article from the local paper about the cross-burning that happened to families right around here. When I heard that something like this still happened I was really sad. I thought that it stopped a long time ago. Right then and there questions started popping in my mind like firecrackers. • Why would people do this? • Is something wrong with their minds that would make them do this? • When did cross-burning actually start? • Why would people be racists? I felt bad and worried that it still happens to the people right around here. It’s not just blacks and whites. People can be racist to lots of different kinds of people. Racism affects friends, community and other things like: • When you are racist you miss out on things like good friends • When there is racism in a community, you have people hiding inside in their rooms, curtains closed and its dark inside their houses. • Children are scared so they might board up their windows just in case there is something dangerous. They want protection. • When you’re a kid, you want to play around. You want to play with your friends and have fun. But when you see someone that you know is trouble, someone who wants to insult people just because of their skin color, you don’t want to be around. You’re scared. You don’t want to be insulted. Kids can make a difference because sometimes they can do stuff better than grown-ups. What I mean by that is when you’re a grown up you’re not very active, you don’t think as well as kids do, you don’t really have an imagination and you might not see what is really going on. You might not see that your kid is getting bullied by someone that is supposed to be their friend. Kids see many bad things that are happening in this world. When kids see things like that it scares them and they might do things differently. They might be inspired. They might start writing letters to people that they have heard of who want to help. Kids can make a good support team for children that have had cross-burning and other hateful things happen to them. Western North Carolina Citizens for an End to Institutional Bigotry is an organization that provide support to people who have had bad experiences. I think they should have a kids supporting kids group, too. I want all adults to take kids seriously. I can make a difference. I want to see progress in the world. I want to see all different colored kids, black, white, green, and yellow, blue, pink and purple… all different kids holding hands and supporting each other. In this world, we want equality, balance and love. Not cross-burning and violence. You shouldn’t be racist because you miss out on the good things. If you keep being racist, you’ll wish you weren’t like that because you’ll see when you get old, you’ll wish you had all different kinds of friends. |
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Inhumane Slaughter of Sharks & DolphinsHi, my favorite sport is football. And hi, my favorite sport is tennis. And we're here to tell you about sea animal cruelty and abuse and share the idea worth spreading that dolphins and sharks should not be killed in such an inhumane way for food. Every day hundreds of dolphins are killed. They kill the dolphins in such in a bad way; they take a harpoon and throw it down their throat. This is a picture of hundreds of dead dolphins that are ready to go to markets. The dolphins are killed for food & money. I watched a documentary called the Cove it seemed like to me, some fishermen killed them because they wanted to. The same for sharks, the way the fishermen kill them just makes me sick. They just take the fin and throw the rest of the shark in the water. Even when the shark is submerged, fresh blood still bubbles up to the surface. While other, smaller fish eat the shark alive. This is all for making a shark fin soup, which many people consider a delicacy. It sells for a lot of money. Okay so, sharks have been around for over 400 million years. And have survived at least 4 mass extinctions, and now people are killing off entire species of them just for a bowl of soup. It doesn’t sound good to us. But were just two guys and we want to here your opinions. If you don’t think these animals should be killed like this, raise your hand. That’s what we thought. One way you can help this cause, is to stop eating shark or dolphin products. I know most don’t eat that kind of stuff. But maybe you know someone who does. If you do please tell them about what you just heard. Even if it’s just one saved shark or dolphin, it can really make a difference. Thank you for listening and thinking about the awful ways dolphins and sharks are killed for food. |
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The Dangers of Exotic AnimalsHello, I am eleven years old. I like hip hop and BMX. Today I’m here to talk to you about exotic pets. And how they can be dangerous, not just for the owner but for the animal, too. Now you’ve probably heard of an iguana. But you may not have known that they are exotic pets. Even though they’re looks are deceivingly cool, cute, or even scary, they can be very dangerous. This is partly because most exotic animals can hold up to 18 diseases. So without even knowing it you could be affected by the animal’s disease. Now raise your hand if you’ve ever known someone who has kept an exotic pet or heard of someone who has kept one. Now some of you said you have so that means that there are a lot of people keeping exotic pets. Which mean that they are all in danger of being effected by the pet’s disease. About a year ago I heard about a woman who kept a chimpanzee and when her friend came over the chimpanzee attacked her friend. Now thankfully the woman was not killed but she was severely injured. This is a great example of how exotic pets can be dangerous. And how not only the owner can be endanger but the animal can get abused by the owner for doing stuff that’s in there nature. Now you may not know this but even lizards, snakes, turtles and even some fish are exotic animals. Now let me see how many hands on who knows some one who owns an exotic pet. |
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Clean Up BeachesHi, I am 11 years old. I love to read the Harry Potter series and I am passionate about my competitive swimming.
I’m here to tell you about our struggling beaches. WE need to be the voices for our oceans. They can’t speak for themselves, but we can. Can you please close your eyes for me and dream of our beaches being beautiful. Keep them closed. Now open them. See this, these are what most beaches look like around the world. Bad, huh. Trash bags are mistaken for jellyfish and SEA TRUTLES EAT THEM. Okay so we know that littering is bad and guess what some places do it daily and not noticing or caring. If you start to liter than your children will do it. If we keep doing this than our world would be like the movie Wall-E. Trash everywhere and us in space ships not caring about our world. Do you want that? Listen to this. My mentor Lori went to a vacation one time. She went to a beach and there was trash everywhere, so she started to pick the trash up. Kid after kid asked her why she was doing it. See those kids didn’t even know. Next thing. The BP oil spill. You may have thought that it was not a big deal. Well it is! It put fish, birds and even mammals at risk. Raise your hand if you have done of any of these things
I have to admit, I have done these things, and I feel guilty. We need to be the voices of our beaches So how can we help our oceans? If you live near your work and it is a walking distance, then walk to it only if it’s not storming outside so we can use less gas for our car! If you get those trash bags for the store. Then use them for a trash bag in your car. When it is all full throw the trash bag away. Thank you for listening and thinking about our beaches. |
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Stop Littering!Hello, I like to play video games and read comics and play soccer .
Hello, I like to read and enjoy life. We are here to tell you what happens to you’re gum wrappers and other litter that is thrown on the ground. Imagine that you throw a piece of trash on the ground . And you think it doesn’t matter. Then 60,000 other people through a piece of trash on the ground. Now it matters. Did you know that 75% of Americans have admitted to littering the last 5 years? In Canada a thing as small as a cigarette bud can cost you a 1,000$ dollar fine. Did you know in the ocean there is a pile of trash as big as Texas. And here in America its only $500$ hundred dollars for a cigarette bud fine. Did you know if that you litter a plastic six pack soda holder... if it ends up in the ocean a animal such as a penguin might stick its head up through one of the holes and then the penguin chokes and dies. Be honest with me and raise your hand if you have ever littered before. I myself have littered before until I knew how bad it was. We believe littering should be stopped Animals eat debris and get caught in them. Clean up effort groups have found birds, fish, and even cats tangled in fishing line bags and nets broken cans and glass can harm animals as well. Litter is not good a place with litter will atract more litter. About a 4 week ago my brother and I were walking to our friend's house and my brother had just finished a pack of gummies and there was a dumpster about 6 feet away and he through it on the ground. I asked him why he didn’t through it in the trash but he said he didn’t see the dumpster. Thank you for coming to listening to us this evening and keep the earth clean. |
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