This year’s project, the Water Challenge encouraged our students to work like scientists and engineers to tackle real-life water problems. Students researched global water problems to decide which issue they were going to explore further. They then worked on designing, testing and building their solution to the problem, ranging from ways to produce suitable drinking water to flood-proof housing.
The charity Practical Action, in association with Imperial College London, gave our students the context for the challenge by sharing some of the work they’ve done with local communities around the world to find practical solutions to the poverty they face. Scientists from Imperial College, London shared their ideas about how to take part in the challenge successfully.
The Water Challenge inspired our students to improve their skills, knowledge and attitudes to learning using our High Performance Learning approach. Students developed their knowledge and understanding of both water-related problems facing communities around the world and scientific processes used to find solutions to them. They developed their inquiry skills, used their imagination and creativity and demonstrated perseverance to find a solution that worked. You can view our school’s Water Challenge submission here.
Ten of our sister schools entered the challenge and students came up with exciting ideas about how to solve issues such as flooding and dirty water that affect people around the world. The judges were so impressed by the quality of the work it was difficult to choose our prize winners, but the Water Challenge entries have now been judged, and the winners announced.
Our school, the British International School, Budapest won the prize for best model. Our students were praised by Julie Brown, Education Manager at Practical Action for their determination to find a solution to the identified problem that not only worked, but could be adapted to the developing world in reality.
Congratulations to our sister schools, the British International School Bratislava, Collége Champittet and the British International School Shanghai, Puxi who won most innovative designs, most thorough research and most interesting experiments respectively.
To find out more about the winners, please watch the Water Challenge Results video above.
Congratulations to our students!