Atlanta Middle Schoolers Win Grants for Climate Solutions

While adults debate climate policy, Atlanta middle schoolers are already fixing the problem in their own backyards.

The Green Heart STEM Challenge, run by the Captain Planet Foundation, asks students in grades 6 through 9 to identify environmental issues in their own communities and develop real solutions. No hypotheticals, no abstract assignments—just kids looking at their neighborhoods and getting to work.

Student teams don't just sketch ideas for a grade and move on. They work with professional project managers from companies like Accenture to build realistic plans and budgets. If their proposals are strong, they receive actual grant money to implement them.

The results are already visible across metro Atlanta. Teams have launched composting programs in school cafeterias, restored native plants along creeks feeding the Chattahoochee River, and created repair stations that help students fix items instead of throwing them away.

One Dekalb County student, Maximo Luciani, designed an erosion control project for Bubbling Creek that impressed funders so much it earned additional support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund. His solution uses live stakes—living plant cuttings that root into streambanks—to stabilize soil naturally.

The program's secret weapon is its local focus. Captain Planet Foundation President Leesa Carter-Jones says students aren't asked to solve global warming as a concept. They're asked what needs fixing where they live, study, and play.

That approach works especially well in Atlanta, where science curriculum already emphasizes watersheds and ecosystems. Students connect classroom learning to the creek behind their school or the cafeteria waste they see every day.

Professional partners treat student teams the same way they'd treat adult collaborators. Students submit progress reports, manage timelines, and defend their decisions. The accountability is real because the work is real.

The Ripple Effect

These middle schoolers are proving you don't need a graduate degree to make environmental progress. When students see problems in their neighborhoods and get the tools and trust to fix them, they deliver solutions that actually work.

Their projects improve local ecosystems while teaching them skills most people don't learn until college or their first job. They're becoming the kind of problem-solvers Atlanta will need for decades to come.

Atlanta's next generation of climate leaders isn't waiting for permission to get started.