I Environmental Contest: "Solutions for my Planet"

EARTH UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES “SOLUTIONS FOR MY PLANET” An environmental contest for ecological primary school children, to find solutions to tackle most emerging environmental issues in their schools and communities -Guácimo, Limón, Costa Rica.

“Solutions for my Planet" is an environmental competition aimed at promoting a culture of environmental awareness among primary school children and also creates spaces where children and teachers working together can find workable solutions to emerging environmental problems in their schools and communities. ©Willy Ramírez

This is an initiative designed by Johanny Pérez, a senior student of Agricultural Engineering at EARTH University in Costa Rica and recently selected as a Caribbean Climate Champion by the Climate Generation program of the British Council. In the framework of Johanny’s Graduation Project, this contest has been found to encourage the involvement of children, starting from local levels, on finding solutions to environmental challenges that impacts themselves and their surrounding neighborhood.

The contest is launched by the support of EARTH University and the Network of Schools United for the Planet, an organized structure of San Francisco de Asis High School in Guápiles, a community that surrounds the University. With the support of the network, five schools were chosen in the community to work preliminarily on this contest; these schools are: Colegio San Fco. De Asis, Escuela Central de Guápiles, Escuela San Martín, Escuela de Jiménez and Escuela Los Diamantes.

Firstly, it was held a meeting with two teachers from each school, presenting the contest and encouraging them to participate with their students. Children were trained on topics such as agriculture & sustainability, alternative energy & climate change and biodigesters as a technology for clean energy; serving as a basis to promoting environmental awareness among the 20 children involved in each participating school, making a total of 100 students directly impacted. Each student was committed to tell five people every week about what learnt, making a total of 2000 people indirectly impacted by the project.

This contest is still ongoing. The Jury is compounded by representatives of public and private educational institutions from Costa Rica, such as the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Ministry of Education and a Representative of the Costa Rican Private Natural Reserves. Winners will be chosen according to the originality, creativity, applicability, and sustainability criteria used on its formulation. Besides, it will be evaluated the power of convincement that children will show to present their solutions and its relevance on the finals of the contest.

Each school will present a proposal made by a team group selected by the teachers.

There will be three prizes; the first place will win an encyclopedia on environment, a pass for 20 students to visit the Ecological Reserve “Escalera del Mono” at EARTH University and a tour to the landfill, waste collection centers, wastewater treatment ponds on the farm livestock, biodigesters and paper processing plant on EARTH campus. Besides, it will gain a workshop on Recycling Agriculture with all materials included.

Second place will gain an encyclopedia on environment, a visit to an ecological reserve, a visit to a cable railway, and farming tools such as shovels, watering cans, seeds, pruning shears, rakes, and so on. The third place will gain an encyclopedia on environment, a visit to an ecological reserve for 20 students, maps and materials for environmental education and alternative energies.

Before the end of the contest it will be held a workshop with the 10 teachers, the 5 Principals of the schools and the Director of the Ecological Schools network, along with specialists in the field, to strengthen the pedagogical skills in teaching children about change climate, alternative energy sources, as biodigesters and sustainability, and also it will be issued according to the Schools Network for defining the strategy to include the experience and lessons learned from this contest on their programming work with the school members. In this way, ensures the continuity and the sustainable impact of this contest.

The final of the competition is this next September 29th at EARTH University campus in Costa Rica, with the participation of 100 students, the participant children, the Jury, teachers, and coordinators of the competition; besides, representatives of the organizations and companies that are sponsoring the contest. Among the special attendees include the musician Bruce Callow, officer of the British Embassy in Costa Rica who will be presenting a Star Show of a movie he is preparing called Odyssey 2050; in this presentation people see the EARTH from space, from the perspective of an alien allows audiences to appreciate the impact of climate change on our planet, yet entertaining.

Organizers are writing a proposal that seeks to present this initiative to the Director of Community Development Program at EARTH University, to include the contest in the planning of future activities of this Department, thereby ensuring the sustainability of this project.

This initiative led by this young activist shows the importance of promoting environmental awareness among people, especially children that are seeds for future generations on EARTH. Besides, teaching children on alternatives energies as biodigesters serves as an input for potential sustainable projects that could change the path of humanity. “Solutions for my Planet” is a contest for children that are leaders, children that want to change the world while being agents of change beginning from their local communities.