We Can Change the World – Elementary School Competition - Siemens Foundation

Grant Name: We Can Change the World – Elementary School Competition

Funding Organization: Siemens Foundation

Grant Cycle: August 24 - March 15

Website: http://www.wecanchange.com/elementary-school/

Eligibility: Open to all elementary school classes in grades K-5 with a teacher/mentor (up to 50 students in a class).

How to Apply: The teacher/mentor must register and create a class to begin.  Then the teacher can work with his or her class to complete the application. Access application online, here: http://www.wecanchange.com/loginUser/

Application Materials:

Project Title:

Summary: (2-3 sentences describing your project)

Are you continuing work on a project that was begun before the Challenge opened in August 2011? Yes/No

Step 1: Learn

What issue are you and your students going to address (see Sample Projects for topic ideas) and why? Discuss any research, previous work, or data collected. The topic you choose should impact your classroom or school.

Limit your response to 250 words.

Step 2: Plan

How will your class address this issue? Include an overview of your plan, a description of the data that will be collected, and a prediction about how your class plan will impact the issue.

Limit your response to 800 words.

Step 3: Act

What did your class do? How did you work with your class to create and implement your plan? What were the results? Be sure to describe what data was collected and if the data reflected the predicted change. (Include any data tables and information as an attachment in Step 6).

Limit your response to 650 words.

Step 4: Share & Extend

What did your class learn? Explain how challenges were addressed, how what has been put into place will be sustained, and how others could replicate your work.

Limit your response to 650 words.

Step 5: Reflect

Were you able to effectively support your students' efforts to make a sustainable change that benefits the environment? Why or why not? Would you and your class have done anything differently if given the opportunity?

Limit your response to 400 words.

Step 6: Attachments

In this step you may attach supplemental materials to support your project application. Please follow the attachment guidelines provided below.

• PDF:

You may choose to upload one PDF containing materials to support your application. The PDF may be no longer than 12 pages in length, be no more than 50MB and may contain the following:

• PowerPoint slides
• Excel data tables
• Links to website(s) your team created to suppor this project (maximum of 2) and/or screenshots of this website
• Images that support your application
• Graphs, charts, etc.

Please do not embed video links in your PDF attachment.

Click here to access a free PDF converter.

• Video

Additionally, you may include the link to one YouTube video that is two minutes or less. To make the video private, click here. Videos will be reviewed for content, not the aesthetic quality. If your video is over two minutes, only the first two minutes will be reviewed.

Background: The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge offers students the opportunity to use science, math, and reading/language arts concepts and skills to create sustainable, reproducible environmental improvements. For example, students utilize their comprehension skills by reading and summarizing non-fiction texts.  Then they use their writing skills to write an action plan to solve a local environmental issue based on what they have learned. 

With the help of the Eco-heroes, students as a class can become Agents of Change. The five Eco-heroes on the website, Thera, Typhoon, Cirrus, Solara, and Aja, will help you provide encouragement and information for your class. But the most important eco-hero, you, will guide the class through the Challenge and help them reach beyond themselves and learn how to create change in your school environment.