Foundations' Joint Competition Inspires Amazing STEM-based Youth Projects

What happens when you encourage students nationwide to compete for STEM-focused grants to address environmental problems in their local communities, what happens?   The results of a recent Captain Planet Foundation environmental youth competition highlight some pretty amazing examples of creative, solution-based projects from students in communities from the west’s high desert to the central plains to the Great Lakes!   The whole idea behind the Ray C. Anderson Foundation’s and the Captain Planet Foundation’s special joint EcoTech Grant Program is to encourage students and educators to engage in hands-on, STEM-based environmental education and to re-connect our youth to nature. John Lanier, Director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, reiterates, “We want our young people to better understand the natural systems that sustain life and the role they must play in protecting and preserving those systems.”   Honoring Ray Anderson’s lifelong love of education and spirit of innovation, the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and the Captain Planet Foundation jointly sponsored a nationwide competition awarding EcoTech Grants to schools or non-profit organizations (Boys & Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, nature centers and other youth-related non-profits) that empower youth to create environmental change in their communities. The criteria behind the awards were to engage children in inquiry-based projects in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) that were innovative, used nature-based thinking or included new technology.   Read more.