Fundraising efforts by Byron Center West Middle School students have earned them a grand prize of $30,000 in a national education competition.
The 10-student team, led by teacher Justin Vande Pol, was raising funds to help improve the water quality in the Philippines, Haiti and Kenya. They won one of two $30,000 grand prize awards in the Lexus Eco Challenge, a nationwide contest that encourages students to learn about the environment and help improve it. In the challenge, students must define an environmental issue important to them, develop an action plan, implement the plan and report the results.
After brainstorming, the Byron Center team, called the E.T. Electrical Team, "zeroed in on promoting and providing water purification systems in Third World countries," Vande Pol said. The team decided to raise funds to send water filters to Haiti, the Philippines and Kenya to assist local villages in creating a more sustainable environment. The students competed against 31 other schools in the final challenge.
"The Eco Challenge team members took a multifaceted approach to accomplishing their global mission," Vande Pol said. "Locally, they communicated their message of water conservation and purification through a presentation via their science classes, conducted two different fundraisers including the decision to 'pay it forward' and donate some of their Round One winnings to the cause.
"Nationally, they contacted schools in other states and encouraged them to join their worthy cause," he said. "Globally, the team efforts culminated in providing water purification systems and/or wells in Haiti, Africa and to the typhoon-ravaged area of the Philippines, promoting sustainability."
The students earned $10,000 and a spot in the finals in the first round of the contest with their project of pedal-powered generators to charge their MacBooks.
With the $30,000 grand prize, the students, Vande Pol and the school split the money. Students earned $20,000 in scholarships, the teacher receives a $3,000 grant, and the school receives $7,000.
Pol praised his team's work. "The WMS students battled
through numerous early-morning meetings and snow days as they engaged in 21st-century
learning applying classroom knowledge to an unpredictable real world challenge,
and were rewarded with the $30,000 grand-prize victory," he said.
The Lexus Eco Challenge awards a total of $500,000 to teams across the nation. The only other Michigan school to place in the contest was a team from Whitehall Middle School that reduced food waste by developing a cookbook of leftover-food recipes, earning a first-place finish and $15,000.