Children’s Carbon Control

The winners of the Carbon Control competition were announced at the beginning of this week (9th October) at an awards event held by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (RSA). The competition, held this summer term, was funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and was supported by Tesco. It involved children submitting their ideas for combating climate change.

The competition involving 7 to 14 year olds saw 240 competition entries. The top prize was a green makeover to the value of £20,000 for the winning school. A team of experts will design and fit measure to make the school a beacon for carbon friendly learning. The winning idea for this makeover was for energy to be created from the school gym in order to power school electricity.

Other winners were:

1. Most popular project as voted by peers
Jack Wieland, aged 13 from the South East
Winning Idea: That everyone at school should remind each other to switch their computers off at the end of the day to save energy
Prize: A trip for his class to visit the Eden Project in Cornwall

2. Best in 7-9 age group category
Hassan Bhatti, from Small Heath School, Birmingham
Idea: To encourage pupils to bike to school to save carbon emissions and improve health
Prize: Trip to Sherwood Forest with group of friends for a day of environmental education with Robin Hood

3. Best in 10-12 age group category
Melanie Ozcan, from North East
Idea: To change all the school lights to energy saving bulbs and have a light monitor for each class to turn off the lights when the room is empty
Prize: A day for the winner and her class at Adventure Ecology headquarters for arts and environmental education

4. Best in 13-14 age group category
Jamie Wright, from Wales
Idea: To have child friendly cycle paths to schools and shops
Prize: Visit to an organic farm and a grow your own vegetable box

5. Overall runner up from age group categories
Redmond Coulter, aged 11, London
Idea: A solar panelled green house to create light from plants at night
Prize: An organic food hamper

6. Overall runner up to main prize
Stuart English, aged 13, North West
Idea: To create energy from storm water and to power a water turbine for school electricity
Prize: A trip to the Centre for Alternative Energy

7. Runner up
Naomi Reddocks, aged 11, East Midlands
Idea: To install solar power for every street light
Prize: An organic food hamper

Children’s Carbon Control

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