Last month we were thrilled to hear that TWO of our teams had made it to the final shortlist of 40 inspirational projects for the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize!

The national competition run by Nesta Challenges, encourages entrepreneurship in STEM for teams of 11-16 year olds as student teams are challenged to develop innovative ‘tech for good’ solutions to help solve society’s biggest issues.

This year there were over 150 entries from over 500 young people from which the panel of expert judges selected the top 40 finalists.

Both Green Groceries (Team Local Grocers) and LGBTQ+ Youth (Team Savage Cabbages) need your votes as the The People’s Choice Award is now live! Voting is only open for a limited time – from now until 5 pm on July 2nd 2021.

The winning innovation will receive £5,000 for its school or youth group to help further develop their innovative idea or invest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math’s) and entrepreneurial resources.

Team Local Grocers

Year 10’s Heather M, Abbirami Y and Ansley V who make up “Team Local Grocers” described their idea for the Living Greener category:

“Our smart bin was inspired by the idea of tackling the problem at the source. We wanted to make people think about their choices and the impact it will have on the environment before they bought products, making little changes in their habits to reduce their waste. It is a smart bin which helps a user reduce their waste and to recycle more. The product is attached to a waste and recycling bin found in everyday homes. The bin captures footage using a camera as well as other sensors and then identifies recyclable and non-recyclable waste using AI. This then connects to an app which tells a user how much they have wasted or recycled over time. This app makes recommendations of more eco-friendly versions of their waste products. Essentially, their idea uses smart data to create small changes consumers can make that can add up to a big eco-friendly consumer revolution, to help save the planet.” 

Team Savage Cabbages

The LGBTQ+ Youth team comprising Lollie R, Megan H, Felicity C, Tara M, Rachel A from Year 9, described their idea for the Living Together category:

” Our idea is an app that will help connect LGBTQIA+ youth, using a chat function, which will pair different users together allowing them to safely talk about their feelings, and provide support to LGBTQIA+ youth via helplines from other charities that they are going to work with. The aim of their app is to help reduce the amount of suicides by the LGBTQIA+ youth which is so prevalent in the community.”

The girls have all worked extremely hard on their ideas, as Mr Khan said, “I’m amazed by how innovative the girls have been in identifying a solution to an issue that affects us all.”

Please vote here and help spread the word! https://longitudeexplorer.challenges.org/vote/

Top tip: You can only vote for one idea (this is restricted to one vote per Internet Protocol (“IP”) address) so vote from your home wifi or use your mobile data if you are at school!