The following project suggestions can be taken up by students alone or with the help of teachers and mentors. These suggestions promote understanding of Regenerative Economics through creativity, collaboration, communication, research, and service. The suggestions can also inspire other engagement ideas from students.
For graded projects, teachers and students should agree on the assessment criteria based on the type of project and school or programme guidelines.
Suggestions are tagged by relevant section to help students match ideas to their interests.
Household garden
Turn part of your school or home space into a vegetable, herb, or pollinator-friendly garden. Learn how food production links your household to ecosystems. Keep a diary of planting, growth, and harvest.
Even without a garden, households can create spaces for pollinators, birds, and insects. Research which plants are native and supportive of local biodiversity. Keep a log of visiting species.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4
Household resource stewardship
Measure how much water / or energy your household uses (reading metres, accessing water bills, observing and interviewing household members) and explore ways to reduce it. Track changes over time. Reflect on the effectiveness of certain strategies and the impact on local/global ecosystems
Measure how much plastic waste your household produces (weighing, counting pieces in different categories) per week, over a number of weeks. Find patterns and explore ways to reduce it. Track changes over time. Reflect on the effectiveness of certain strategies and the impact on local/global ecosystems.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4
Composting for soil health
Set up a compost system at home or in a shared community space. Learn what can be composted, how to balance materials, and how composting supports soil biodiversity. If your area has community composing services or sites, find out more about how they operate, interview the people involved to find out the opportunities and challenges of composting in your area.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4
Repair and reuse challenge
Work with family or friends to repair broken items, repurpose materials, or swap items you no longer use. Track how much waste you save from landfill.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4
Learn a householding skill
Choose a skill that supports household self-provisioning or reduces reliance on external markets, for example, cooking from scratch, sewing clothes, basic carpentry, bike repair, or food preservation. Learn from a family member, friend, community workshop, or online tutorial. Practise it until you can produce something useful for your household. Reflect on what you learned and how it changes your view of household resilience.
You could also pair up with an older or younger person in your community to share household skills like cooking, sewing, budgeting, gardening. Document the exchange with photos or short interviews.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.1
Neighbourhood care map or care walk
Identify and map the people, groups, and services that provide care in your neighbourhood. Highlight gaps and strengths.
Raise awareness of the different types of care in your community by creating a care walk and offering to host the walk, once or regularly, in your community. By doing this, you help to carry out the 5Rs, specifically to recognise care work and make it visible.
Sections: 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.2.4
One week in my household economy
Record the ways your household produces, consumes, shares, and cares for people in one week. Use one or more primary research strategies to gather information. Present your findings as a short video, illustrated diary, or infographic.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.3.4
Stories of care
Interview family members or neighbours about the care they have given or received, and what it has meant in their lives.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.3.4
Note: many of the activities in the creative storytelling and documentation section can be turned into an exhibit, especially if a number of students undertake the project and can exhibit their work together.
Who cares? An exhibit on carers in students' lives
With other students create an exhibit that profiles one or more carers in students' lives, along with more general information on the role of households for human wellbeing and other areas of the economy.
Sections: 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.4.1
Photo exhibit on household diversity
Create a photo display showing the variety of household forms in your community: single-person, extended families, shared flats, multi-generational homes. If you can, interview people in a variety of household forms and Include short captions explaining how each organises work and resources.
Sections: 2.1.2, 2.1.3
Households and their connections
Design a visual showing how a household links to markets, the state, the commons, and Earth systems. Use drawings, diagrams, or collages.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.2.4
Note: developing games and simulations is very challenging. But imagining how games and simulations could work, even in the absence of full development, helps develop critical and creative thinking.
Household budget simulation
Create a role-play game where players must manage a household budget under changing conditions: unexpected bills, loss of income, or support from neighbours.
Sections: 2.1.4, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 2.4.4
Care allocation game
Develop a game that shows how household care responsibilities can be shared, and what happens when they are not.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.4
Household time-use survey
Track how much time people in your own household spend on paid work, unpaid care, self-provisioning, and leisure. Compare the results by gender, age, or role in the household, and/or with other households if others feel comfortable doing so. Discuss what patterns you see and why they might exist.
Sections: 2.1.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.4
Household resilience study
Investigate what makes some households better able to cope with shocks (e.g. job loss, illness) than others. Present your findings with suggestions for strengthening resilience.
Sections: 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 2.4.4
Develop your own research question about your household, or the relationships between your household and other provisioning institutions or Earth systems.
Sections: all Topic 2
There are many primary research techniques you can use to find out about your household and its connections to community and Earth systems:
Interviews, possibly with prompts
Warm data lab - Note: a warm data lab should have a trained host.
You should always try to get consent from participants in research if you can.
Future household design
Imagine a household in a regenerative future. Draw or model its physical space, describe how it meets needs, shares work, and connects to Earth systems and its community.
Sections: 2.4.1, 2.4.4
Reimagining work and care
Create a short story or comic showing a day in a future where work and care are balanced fairly across society.
Sections: 2.3.1, 2.4.2
Shadow a care worker
Spend time with someone who works in childcare, elder care, or community health. Learn about their role, rewards, challenges, and what supports they need.
Sections: 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3. 2.4.4
Care economy job exploration
Research one job in the care economy (childcare, healthcare, eldercare, social work). Create a short profile explaining what skills it requires, what it pays, and why it matters.
Sections: 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 2.4.4
Household care campaign
Design a small campaign (poster series, short video, or social media posts) that raises awareness of the importance of unpaid care work in your community. Highlight how policies like childcare, eldercare, paid leave and flexible working could make households stronger.
Sections: 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3 2.4.4
School household support audit
Investigate how your school currently supports students’ household responsibilities (e.g. flexible deadlines, access to meals, family support services). Propose one improvement and present it to school leadership.
Sections: 2.2.1, 2.2.3, 2.4.1, 2.4.4
Care diamond in action
Use the 'care diamond' framework to identify how households, markets, commons, and the state provide care in your community. Then make a short recommendation for rebalancing the diamond to better support households.
Sections: 2.2.4, 2.4.1. 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 2.4.4
Letter to a decision-maker
Write a persuasive letter to a local representative, council, or youth council explaining one concrete change that could strengthen households (like subsidised housing, access to clean water, or childcare support). Share your letter with peers for feedback before sending.
Sections: 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 2.4.4
Community dialogue on care
Organise a small dialogue event (in school or a community group) where students, parents, and teachers discuss how household care responsibilities impact learning, wellbeing, and equality. Document the conversation and propose one follow-up action.
Sections: 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.4.2