The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is currently open for K-8 teams. The challenge is for students to create local, sustainable, solutions to environmental problems. The challenge requires students to identify problems, brainstorm solutions, and put those solutions into action. After implementing the solutions students are required to analyze the outcomes and share the outcomes. You can find an overview of the challenge requirements here.

Student challenge teams can have up to four members. Members of the winning team will receive $10,000 savings bonds, an appearance on the television show Planet Green, and a selection of smaller prizes including a video camera. You can find a listing of the prizes and the contest’s rules here.

Applications for Education
The We Can Change the World Challenge could be a great way to get K-8 students involved in a real-life problem based learning project. Since the teams have to be limited to four students, you would have to have multiple teams within a classroom. Even if your students don’t enter the real contest, you could use the template provided to create your own in-school challenge contest.