MIT Build Better Challenge: Champittet students present sustainable solutions at 2024 STEAM Fair

After months of preparation, our students in grades 6 to 10 shared inspiring proposals for a more sustainable future at Collège Champittet’s 2024 STEAM Fair. From energy-saving solutions to upcycling and green manufacturing, their innovative ideas blended scientific research with practical application.

Under the theme “Build Better”, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) invited our students to address challenges in three key areas: Biology and Seeds, Renewable Energy, and Sustainability and Manufacturing. Whether tackling the effects of climate change on agriculture, exploring alternatives to fossil fuels, or reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes, our students worked in teams to create sustainable solutions that could be applied to our daily lives.

Tackling sustainability challenges around the world

Our students in grades 9 and 10 explored sustainability challenges in specific countries, keeping in mind the policies and needs of their chosen country. Supported by our science teachers, our student teams carried out research, conducted experiments and built prototypes of their sustainable solutions.

At the STEAM Fair, they presented innovative ideas like upcycling used clothes, transforming old umbrellas into bags, making sustainable coffee capsules, developing plants resistant to desert winds, wind-generated energy and solar-powered boats. In addition, each group adorned their tent with posters, music, videos and decorations representing the cultures of their chosen countries: Brazil, China, Morocco, Canada, Turkey and Greece.

Protecting the environment in Switzerland

In grades 6 to 8, our students focused on finding ways to live more sustainably in Switzerland. Each class examined the environmental challenges, practices and laws of a particular Swiss canton. Our 6th graders studied how everyday objects can be made more sustainably; our 7th graders explored ways to end our dependence on fossil fuels and fight energy waste; and our 8th graders analysed how agriculture can be made more sustainable while fulfilling our food needs in light of climate change. Each group came up with practical solutions to protect our planet, from reusing old toothbrushes for cleaning and painting to producing facial masks from discarded banana peels.

Congratulations to our STEAM Fair winners – the Senior Class 10B, representing Canada, and the Juniors Class 8C, representing canton Vaud. We’re so proud of all our participants for working together and across disciplines to develop such great proposals!