Honors Praxis Labs strive to create an environment where students can gain real-world experiences through team research, critical thinking and problem solving. Through encouraging students to learn and apply their knowledge, the cohort develops a solution to a local problem based on the theme of the course.

With the theme of Equity, Culture, and Preventative Health, students in one Praxis Lab explored the social and cultural effects of health and its impact on the surrounding community. Throughout the year, they were given the freedom to study a wide variety of topics and collectively choose a local issue to analyze. This year, their project focused on helping prevent diabetes, specifically within elementary school students.

“We chose to focus on elementary schools because we felt as though these students are often overlooked,” said Alejandra Hernandez.

In groups, they worked to develop three new curricula, one for each elementary school age group, kindergarten to second grade, third to fourth grade, and fifth to sixth grade. Within each of these new curriculums, they tried to ensure that any teacher would be able to execute their educational plan without any issues as well as include all the educational requirements during their lesson and activities.

One of the most important and widely shared sentiments among the students in the cohort was their desires to make a positive impact on their immediate communities. As a result, the group actively sought out and gathered feedback from a variety of resources including the mentors of the course, nutrition specialists, and teachers to improve their course materials and educational plans. One of these guests was Amy Loverin from Team Thrive, a University of Utah-sponsored diabetes prevention program for high school students. Within this discussion, Loverin was able to provide insight on specific areas of the course work.

“Overall, these lessons are incredibly creative, and I loved the activities that students are able to engage in. However, I would suggest including a more direct connection between the nutrition concepts and the animal story” said Loverin after listening to the kindergarten/first grade educational plan.

Unlike traditional college courses, Praxis Labs are student-driven, which allows students the freedom and flexibility to lead their own discussions and apply the knowledge that they have learned as they see fit. Additionally, many of the students expressed how they connected this project to material they had learned in their core classes which helped not only improve the project but also create a personal connection to the work they were completing.

In the words of Professor Paul Estabrooks, one of the mentors of the Equity, Culture, and Preventive Health Praxis Lab, “[Praxis Labs are designed] for students who want to make a difference in the world, now, as a student. Be prepared to collaborate, lead, work, and create in areas that require a multidisciplinary approach to achieve. It’s super fulfilling but requires a lot of effort and perseverance.”