CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – The competition is underway for about 80 local high school students.
They are competing in a nine-week 2024 Futureshaper Innovation Challenge. The students are part of the Carolina Youth Coalition (CYC). The assignment is for students to develop innovative ideas that will make Bank of America Stadium smarter and more sustainable. Students have been working with professionals to come up with a plan.
“What we are going to work on is transportation,” 10th Grader Charlene Scott said. “So, like having people go to busses instead of riding their cars and having so much traffic…there’s so much pollution. Charlotte – as a city – has a plan to have their air clean by 2050.”
Scott’s team thinks if fuel-efficient busses are stationed across the city, it will allow fans to park their cars and take busses to an event at Bank of America Stadium.
The process of coming up with an idea that could reduce air pollution has students engaged and thinking about the future.
“I really never looked into sustainability as much as I have now,” Scott said. “I’m definitely learning new phrases and how our world is being affected by stuff like pollution and carbon and stuff like that.”
The additional goal is for this competition will get students interested in the STEM field which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Leaders believe this experience can be beneficial.
“Math can be fun,” Honeywell Senior Director of R&D Innovation Alison Wyrick said. Engineering can be fun, and science can be fun. And it is really important to ensure that students know this and that they feel confidant amongst their peers – to want to remain engaged in STEM activities and know that it is a lucrative and beneficial path for them beyond high school.”
According to CodeWizardsHQ, there will be about 3.5 million STEM jobs available by 2025, but it is estimated two million jobs could go unfilled because of a skills gap. Leaders want students to know the median annual wage for a STEM job is $101,650 compared to $46,680 for a nonSTEM job. CYC leaders believe this information, competition, and partnering with Honeywell can help the students’ economic mobility.
“The vast majority of our students are from underrepresented schools,” Associate Dir. of STEM Mariah Alexander said. “Where they may not have all the resources – so even just being in the building at Honeywell – just seeing how those buildings work.”
Alexander thinks the students are enjoying coming up with ideas that could help Bank of America Stadium become more sustainable.
“Some of them are really into sustainability,” Alexander said. “And when they heard like the safer, smarter, sustainable – they really got hooked into that sustainable – because you know they are kids. They care about the environment and the world they are growing up in.”
Soon the teams of students will present their ideas to judges. The three top teams will be honored at the Panthers home game on December 15th.
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Source: wbtv.com
