A Boomerang Classroom product

Built by a 20+ year teacher · Early access opens 2026

Real students.
solving
Real problems.
with
Real solutions.

Boomerang Projects helps students manage extended research projects with structured peer feedback and rubric-aligned self-assessment. Research Reports, Team Presentations, Senior Capstones, Science Fair, honors theses — one workspace, every project type, with the guardrails teachers and students actually need.

Secure Early Access Why Boomerang

Already have access? Open the Boomerang Projects app.

Privacy-first · FERPA-aware · No third-party trackers in student-facing flows

A 3D illustration of a stack of research papers wrapped by a plum boomerang arc with a sage return chevron — the Boomerang Projects mark.

The philosophy

Notice the problem. Imagine the solution.
Then make it real.

The hardest part of any extended research project is the middle — when a student has a question, half a bibliography, an unfinished argument, and a deadline that suddenly looks closer than it did yesterday. Boomerang Projects was built around that middle. Give students room to notice, freedom to imagine, and a clear workspace to turn ideas into work a real audience could read or watch.

Freedom, with guardrails.

Independent research projects are student-led — that's the point. Boomerang Projects adds the kind of light structure that protects student agency instead of replacing it. Customizable timelines. Visible milestones. Quiet accountability.

Resources where you need them.

Citation tools (MLA, APA, Chicago), source-credibility scoring, your rubric — all live inside the workspace, so students and teachers stop searching the internet for what their own project already requires.

Solutions, not just problems.

Good research moves past what is toward what could be. Every screen is designed to keep that motion going — from a question, to evidence, to a recommendation a real audience could act on.

Who it's for

One workspace. Many project shapes.

Extended research projects come in many forms. Some require collaboration, some are a paper only, others end in a presentation or a defense. Boomerang Projects supports the workflow underneath all of them — and a research-based workflow that supports the AP Seminar approach as well.

📄

Research Reports

Individual extended papers — question, evidence, recommendation.

General Research Studio

📊

Team Presentations

Group projects that defend a position with sources and a multimedia deck.

Team Presentations Studio

📝

Argument Papers

Persuasive papers backed by evidence and counterclaims.

Research & Argument Studio

🔬

Science Fair

Question → method → data → conclusion, with a board or presentation.

Science Fair Studio

🎓

Senior Capstones

Year-long culminating projects — paper, product, or performance.

Senior Capstone Studio

📚

Honors Theses

Extended scholarly papers for honors program completion.

Honors Thesis Studio

🌍

IB® Extended Essays

4,000-word independent investigations in a chosen subject.

Portfolio Studio

🎤

AP® Seminar & AP Research

The workflow inside the workspace matches the AP Seminar and AP Research approach to research and presentation.

Research & Argument Studio · Extended Research Studio

Eight Studios

One workspace, tuned eight ways.

Inside Boomerang Projects, students work in a Studio matched to their project type. Each Studio shares the same research-and-writing workflow, with adjustments to deliverables, milestones, and rubric language.

Research & Argument Studio

for AP Seminar coursework

Extended Research Studio

for AP Research coursework

Portfolio Studio

for IB Diploma coursework

Science Fair Studio

for science fair projects

Senior Capstone Studio

for year-long senior projects

General Research Studio

for any extended research paper

Team Presentations Studio

for team-presentation projects

Honors Thesis Studio

for honors program theses

The product

Five moves, one workspace.

Boomerang Projects organizes the actual shape of extended research work — from a question, through credible sources, into a draft or a deck, with peer feedback and rubric-aligned self-assessment running the whole way. The screens below are mockups of the v1 build.

01

A student workspace built around the actual shape of the project.

One dashboard. The components your class is working on — Research Report, Team Presentation, Individual Presentation, Argument Paper, and more — each tied to your class rubric. Students see exactly what they're working on, what's next, and what the rubric will reward. Less guessing. More argument.

  • Plan, draft, defend — all in one workspace
  • Progress by project component, not by abstract checklist
  • One-click access to your class rubric
Boomerang Projects student dashboard — left sidebar shows Active Studio (Research & Argument Studio for AP Seminar coursework), Projects, Studio, Team, My Desk, and Research navigation. Main panel shows a Solo Workspace called ‘My research desk’ with this week’s kanban (To Explore, Reading, Drafting, Done), a conference thread with the teacher, and the student’s recent research-journal entries.
Student view · early-access build

02

Set the deadline. Get the path back.

Pick the final due date. Boomerang Projects works backward through the project type — Topic Lock, Perspectives Map, Bibliography, Drafts, Peer Feedback — so students always know what's due next. Relaxed, Standard, or Compressed pacing, exportable to CSV for the gradebook.

  • One date in. A full timeline of rubric-aligned milestones out
  • Three pacing modes to match your school calendar
  • CSV export for gradebook and lesson planning
Boomerang Projects Reverse Timeline screen — starts at the immovable final deadline (PT1 final to College Board portal) and walks every prior milestone backward in days: 7 days before for a revision pass, 14 days before for TMP delivery, 21 days for IRR/IWA drafts, 28 days for feedback rounds. Each milestone includes the ‘why’ so it teaches, not just schedules.
Student view · early-access build

03

An annotated bibliography that builds source literacy.

MLA, APA, and Chicago on a one-click toggle. Choose the source-evaluation method that fits your classroom — RAVEN, SIFT, or CRAAP — so source quality becomes a habit, not a last-minute check. Bibliography-level flags tied directly to rubric rows surface gaps before the rubric does.

  • Per-source scoring with your choice of SIFT, CRAAP, or RAVEN
  • Bibliography-level diversity flags tied to your rubric
  • One-click switch between MLA, APA, and Chicago
Boomerang Projects Annotated Bibliography screen — top metrics show 3 sources, 3.9/5 average credibility, 1 flagged source, and RAVEN as the active framework. Toggle row lets the student switch between RAVEN, SIFT, and CRAAP frameworks and between MLA 9, APA 7, and Chicago 17 citation styles. Each source row shows credibility sliders for R, A, V, E, and N and a one-sentence annotation. A bibliography-level flag warns the student that they need more sources for variety.
Student view · early-access build

04

A team board that keeps the group moving forward.

Group projects live on coordination. A shared board — Backlog, In Progress, Peer Review, Done — keeps every teammate's work visible. Each card carries a rubric row, an owner, and an estimate. Contribution Receipts roll the whole board up per teammate, so participation evidence is built in, not reconstructed at the end.

  • Kanban with Peer Review as its own column
  • Every task tagged to a rubric row your teacher defined
  • Per-student Contribution Receipts for fair evaluation
Boomerang Projects Team Presentation Planner — shared team kanban with Backlog, In Progress, Peer Review, and Done columns. Each card is tagged to a specific rubric row and assigned to a teammate. Top of the page shows team focus statement, open-tasks count, team size, completed-tasks count, and next rehearsal date. A green balance flag confirms workload is distributed evenly across the team.
Student view · early-access build

05

Your rubric. Your language. Built into every screen.

Teachers create rubrics in plain language — rows, levels, descriptors — then those rows show up next to the draft, on the bibliography, on the team board, and in self-assessment. Six starter templates (Research Report, Argument Paper, Team Presentation, Individual Presentation, Science Fair, Senior Capstone) get you to a working rubric in ten minutes, or build from a blank rubric.

  • Six editable starter templates — or build from scratch
  • Rubrics live inside the work, not in a separate document
  • Self-assessment maps to the same rows students see all year
Boomerang Projects Scoring Rubrics screen — six starter templates across the top (Research Report, Team Presentation, Argument Paper, Individual Presentation, Science Fair Project, Capstone/Thesis), each tagged by band (Team, Individual, Project). The Research Report rubric is open: 6 rows scoring context, analysis, evaluation, argument, organization, and conventions; each row scored 0, 2, 4, or 6 points with clear language for each level and a one-click ‘copy row’ button for sharing.
Teacher view · early-access build

A teacher-built workspace

Built around the rubric. Built around the student. Built for the way the project actually runs.

A teacher leading a research-project lesson at the front of a classroom.

From a classroom, not a conference room

Designed by a 20+ year high school English teacher who runs extended research projects every year. Every screen exists because a real cohort of students hit a real wall — and a real teacher had to solve it on a Tuesday morning.

A teacher conferencing one-on-one with a student over a laptop.

The rubric lives inside the work

Your rubric rows aren't buried in a help doc. They appear next to the draft, next to the bibliography, and inside the dashboard — in your own words.

A teacher working with a small group of students around a table.

Privacy by design

Minimal data collection. FERPA-aware language. No third-party trackers in student-facing flows. Student work is for the student and the teacher — not for a model, not for an ad network, not for anyone else.

Peer feedback by default

Students get faster, better feedback when peers are the first readers.

Boomerang Projects is built around a stance: on drafts, peer feedback comes first. Students learn more from giving a rubric-aligned response to a classmate's argument than from waiting in line for the one adult in the room. Teachers stay in the conversation through conferences, mini-lessons, and the triage queue — but the written feedback on individual drafts stays peer-based by default.

That's the default — not the only setting. Some classes work differently, and the workspace knows that. A class-level toggle lets you turn on teacher comments on individual drafts whenever the project type calls for it.

In the room

Research projects are a place where people think together.

Four students collaborating in a school library.
Two students at desks in focused independent work.
Students rehearsing a team multimedia presentation.
A teacher circulating through a full classroom of students at work on a research project.

Early access is part of the work

We treat early access like good research.

Honest about limitations. Open about implications. Curious about possibilities. The v1 cohort is small on purpose — so we can listen, refine, and ship features the classroom actually needs.

v1 · Early-access release

The research-project spine

  • Project-type picker with starter rubrics
  • Student dashboard with rubric-aligned progress
  • Reverse timeline with three pacing modes
  • Annotated bibliography with SIFT, CRAAP, or RAVEN per source
  • Team board with peer review column
  • Privacy-first auth, FERPA-aware language

v2 · After classroom pilots

The collaboration layer

  • Feedback Studio with rubric-aligned peer review
  • Conferencing notes tied to rubric rows
  • Department-level admin and roll-up reporting
  • Optional teacher comments on individual drafts (off by default)
  • District pilot pricing and SSO
  • Non-generative AI features only — no student-facing essay generation

Secure Early Access

Be one of the first classrooms to use Boomerang Projects.

We're onboarding a small first cohort of teachers running extended research projects in the 2026–27 school year. Early-access partners get free access during the entire early-access period and a direct line to the founder — your feedback shapes what v1 ships with.

Prefer email? Write directly to drew@boomerangclassroom.com. Every early-access inquiry is read by the founder.

"Boomerang Projects came directly out of running extended research projects with high schoolers — out of watching students do their best thinking when the workflow stopped getting in their way. The tools we put in classrooms should reflect the best of teaching: trust, judgment, and care. The freedom these projects are built on is worth protecting, and the structure that protects it is worth building well."

— Drew Snow, Founder & CEO, Boomerang Classroom
drew@boomerangclassroom.com