Sustainable Solutions Roads of the Future Challenge Awards Ceremony 2023

On May 31st the Academy9 Team celebrated the Sustainable Solutions Roads of the Future Challenge at an awards ceremony for the finalists that entered for this years competition.

What is the challenge?

This challenge provides the perfect solution to incorporating learning for sustainability into teaching and learning. The Academy9 team invites any Scottish primary and secondary schools to take part in this challenge of creating the most sustainable road and environment possible.

In this challenge, pupils are tasked with designing their sustainable roads in line with the design criteria provided by the Academy9 team and applying as many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as possible.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of targets related to future international development. They were created by the United Nations and promoted as the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. There are 17 goals and 169 specific targets for those goals. It is important that the goals are considered when designing and building roads.

How to get involved?

From the outset of the challenge, teachers are provided with a comprehensive resource pack, including step-by-step lesson plans to introduce pupils to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to consider how these can be applied to an infrastructure project, such as designing and building a road.

This pack also includes tips and tricks for pupils undertaking effective research. Pupils are encouraged to use their imagination throughout this process – this is key for innovative solutions!

Click here to access the resource pack

With learning for sustainability now a core piece of the Curriculum for Excellence, this challenge provides an ideal opportunity to allow young people to develop their knowledge of sustainability as well as skills in team work, communication and leadership.

Get started with the challenge

Each school has up to 12 hours to spend on the challenge, it is flexible and up to the teacher to decide how to organise these hours.

The general tasks include:

reading through the UN sustainable development goals,
deciding on team roles, e.g. project manager, designer, researcher,
choosing the goals to focus on,
and incorporating the goals into designing your road.

The challenge

Pupils work incredibly hard on their road designs and models, made out of recycled materials, as well as their accompanying presentations through which they share the process of how they developed their roads.

They complete a project planner to track their process, check in with the sustainability mentor regularly to advise on the design and answer any questions before completing their physical or virtual road model.

The challenge offers pupils the opportunity to learn highly sought skills, such as design. And enhance their soft skills, such as teamwork, project planning and effective communication.

Throughout this process, pupils and teachers benefit from mentorship by industry professionals who specialise in sustainability. This mentoring programme is a unique opportunity for pupils to gain insight into how learning about the UN SDGs in the classroom can translate into a lifetime career of implementing sustainability measures and practices to protect and enhance the environment for existing and future generations.

Schools Judging

Participating Schools organise an internal judging round to pick 1 or 2 teams with the best presentation to go forward into the external judging

The teacher submits a video presentation of the selected team(s) for the external judging round. The Academy9 staff conduct judging using the judging proforma.

Judging Ceremony

Photos of the 2023 winners!

The successful teams are invited to the final round, which is an in-person ceremony where the teams from across Scotland present their road designs. There are also talks from industry speakers. Judging takes place at the ceremony and the best teams receive awards.

Prizes are available for most innovative design, most environmentally friendly design, best design for the communities affected, and best overall design (i.e., most sustainable).

What our attendees say

Next Steps

Ultimately our goal is to bring together young, bright minds to celebrate the creativity and ambition of our future sustainability leaders as they present and reflect on their designs and learning.