Solving with STEAM


Video contest invites students to think creatively about sustainability

A screenshot of the World of 7 Billion website shows previous video contest winners.

Students in Douglas County have the opportunity to compete and innovate with their peers around the globe in the World of 7 Billion video contest, which encourages the use of STEAM thinking to find solutions to pressing global sustainability issues.

Sponsored by Population Education, the video contest brings technology and creativity into middle and high school classes by challenging students to create a 60-second video connecting world population growth to one of three global challenges. This year’s topics are: Sustaining Water Systems, Ensuring Economic Opportunities, and Improving Climate Resiliency. Students are asked to share their sustainable solution ideas in the short video.

Over 80 cash prizes of up to $1,000 will be awarded to student winners and participating teachers will receive free curriculum resources from Population Education. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 27. Full contest guidelines, resources for research, past winners, a free student Activism Toolkit, and more can be found on the World of 7 Billion Website here.  

Below are possible sub-topics students can address in their videos for each of this year’s topics:

  • Sustaining Water Systems – Agricultural pollution, aquifer depletion, sanitation infrastructure, waste disposal, modifying waterways (dams, levees), safe drinking water.
  • Improving Climate Resiliency – Climate migrants, poor urban planning, extreme weather events, agricultural productivity, disease evolution, global inequity in climate adaptation.
  • Ensuring Economic Opportunities – Gender wage gap, global wealth inequality, workers’ rights, poverty cycle, microfinance, green jobs.

Population Education, a program of Population Connection, is the only national program with a strong emphasis on curriculum and professional development for K-12 educators that focuses on human population issues. Since 1975, the program has developed age-appropriate curricula to complement students’ science and social science instruction about human population trends and their impacts on natural resources, environmental quality and human well-being.

For full contest details, visit www.worldof7billion.org.

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