Ten primary schools across Surrey, Middlesex and Doha, Qatar are taking part in an inaugural competition to help tackle climate change. Working with experts in the sustainability industry, students are creating plans for how their school and/or community can reduce their negative environmental impact.
Working in teams, students ages seven to 11 are first tasked with identifying an environmental issue such as global warming, fossil fuels, alternative energy sources, plastic pollution, or food waste. Once their topic is selected, students create an actionable proposal to present a solution on the local level with ideas of implementation by teachers, students, local agencies, or the community.
Each participating school will select a team to send to the live final in March, hosted at ACS International School Cobham. Teams which progress to the final will be assigned a mentor with expertise in environmental sustainability to help further develop the plan. Proposals are then presented to a panel of industry judges and are evaluated on creativity, out of the box thinking, depth of development, and feasibility. A range of exciting prizes will be available to help winning teams put their proposals into action and to further students’ knowledge and understanding of environmental issues.
Graeme Lawrie MBE, Partnerships Director, ACS International Schools, said, “The inaugural ACS Future Impact competition promises to be full of excitement and learning, raising awareness of the broad range of environmental issues threatening the planet while recognizing that the ideas of young people have the potential to change the world. We’re pleased to be able to facilitate a deep dive into the environmental issues that students care about, while giving them an opportunity to develop key life skills such as research, teamwork, cooperation, and presentation and public speaking. We’re looking forward to seeing what solutions the teams come up with!”
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