A TEAM of Nowra Public School students are ready to compete against their counterparts from across the state in the award-winning Game Changer Challenge.
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The Game Changer Challenge has its roots in the design thinking discipline - design thinking is a human-centred approach to solving complex problems, with empathy and collaboration at the heart of the process.
The Nowra Public team of Year Six students, Emmi Daniel, Lizzie Davis, Poon Panapunnang, Blake Holbrow and Mah Rukh Kashif, known as the Eco Minions, have been crowned Regional South champions after taking out their virtual heat.
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They Eco Minions will be one of eight primary and eight secondary school teams to take part in the state final, sustainability challenge Game Changer ultimate final in December.
Now in its fourth year, the challenge provides primary and secondary students with the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to solving a real-world 'wicked' problem, translating learning from the classroom into a real-life context.
Teams choose between a Create stream or the Advocate stream where they either devised a product-based solution to answer "How might we transform discarded items into something useful, beautiful or upcycled?" in the Create stream, while the Advocate stream undertook action research, creating social change through Implementation Thinking and persuading others by answering "How might we rethink the use of single-use plastics in our community?"
The Nowra team went down the Create stream and decided to tackle the issue of textile and clothing waste and transformed discarded items into something useful, beautiful or upcycled.
Through research they discovered that 85 per cent of clothing goes into landfill.
The Nowra team aimed to utilise the unwanted clothing into a useful and cost-effective product that would assist people in the community.
The team upcycled unwanted clothing into protective coverings (like bibs) for the disabled and elderly.
"But the protective coverings look like regular clothing rather than bibs, face wipes, aprons or collars, giving their wearers greater dignity," said Nowra Public Assistant Principal and team co-ordinator Bec Christensen
The protective coverings look like regular clothing rather than bibs, face wipes, aprons or collars, giving their wearers greater dignity.
- Nowra Public Assistant Principal and team co-ordinator Bec Christensen
"It has been incredible to see what these young minds can do and how they can look beyond issues in a school and realise how they can have an impact outside school walls," she said.
"The students came up with and discussed a number of projects before eventually settling on the project. They wanted to pick something they knew didn't exist.
"The team developed the idea of a protective covering that didn't stand out on the person wearing it - as it was made out of recycled clothing, the covering blended in with the clothing the person was wearing."
They have called their idea Cover Apparel.
Team member Blake, even took it upon himself and learnt how to sew from his mother, and created the group's prototype.
"It is just so inspiring to see the way these students have tackled the issue and come up with a practical solution," Ms Christensen.
"We are all very proud of what they have achieved."
Ahead of the state finals the team is looking to try their prototypes in the local community.
COVID restrictions meant the competition has been staged virtually, with teams submitting video applications, outlining their approach to the problem.
This year, almost 400 teams of students took part in the competition, with the original video entries reduced to just 96 teams for the virtual heats, which was further reduced to the eight state finalists in each division.
It is just so inspiring to see the way these students have tackled the issue and come up with a practical solution.
- Nowra Public Assistant Principal and team co-ordinator Bec Christensen
Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said the Game Changer Challenge encourages students to develop critical and reflective thinking skills while collaborating in a team.
"This challenge is all about design thinking and future-focused skills that will push students to become creative problem solvers," Ms Mitchell said.
"Students will learn empathy while understanding how to find solutions for problems that can help change the world in big and small ways."
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