OurEcho Challenge for Young Changemakers in the US

The OurEcho Challenge empowers and engages young problem solvers in understanding and protecting the amazing diversity of species essential for the future of the planet. Teams of young leaders tackle the decline in biodiversity head-on by identifying threats to natural resources in their communities and developing an innovative solution and action plan in the form of a sustainable process or prototype.

Components

• The two main components of the program include:
  • Teaching and Learning Resources to foster understanding and awareness of biodiversity and factors impacting biodiversity.
  • The OurEcho Challenge to inspire action toward preserving, protecting, and repairing biodiversity at the local level.

Prize Information

• The OurEcho Challenge has some exciting prizes that will allow student teams to bring their amazing ideas to life! All prizes will be awarded in the form of project grants to schools/organizations:
  • First Prize: $5,000
  • Second Prize: $2,500
  • Third Prize: $1,000

Teaching and Learning Resources

• EarthEcho has developed and curated a suite of educational resources to support students’ understanding of the important role biodiversity plays in sustaining the delicate balance of systems on the planet. All resources are free to use regardless of whether students are participating in the competition portion of the OurEcho Challenge.
  • Biodiversity basics lesson plans
    • For educators looking to use the OurEcho Challenge as the deep-dive solution for teaching biodiversity to their students, they have developed a suite of research-based and standards-aligned lesson plans leading students from the basics of biodiversity all the way through building solutions and action plans to foster and protect this element of the world.
      • Step 1: What is biodiversity?
      • Step 2: What are different types of biodiversity? What species pose challenges to biodiversity?
      • Step 3: What are mitigating factors to strengthen biodiversity?
      • Step 4: Next Steps? What can I do to meet the challenge?
  • Activity Starters
    • For classroom or informal learning environments looking to integrate biodiversity into existing curriculum or programming in a more informal manner, consider these quick and interactive activity starters to introduce biodiversity in fun and dynamic ways.
      • Invasive Species
      • Healthy Ecosystems
      • Intergenerational Biodiversity Investigation

Eligibility Criteria

• The Contest is offered only within the 50 United States and the District of Columbia to students, each of whom must be age 13-16 at the time of entry submission.
• Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, Administrator, and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising, and promotion agencies (aforementioned individuals and organizations collectively, the “Contest Parties”, including any entity involved in the development, administration, or implementation of the Contest), and members of the immediate families (spouses and parents, children, and siblings and their spouses) and persons living in the same household of such individuals are not eligible.
• For the avoidance of doubt, children and siblings of employees of any of the Contest Parties are not eligible to participate.
• Students participating as a team of 2-3 Students may be referred to herein as a “Team”. Any former OurEcho Challenge grant winner must not re-use their prior winning OurEcho Challenge entry materials to enter this contest.
• Any determinations of eligibility will be made by the Administrator, whose decisions are final and may be made at any time. Void outside the eligibility area and where prohibited.

For more information, visit EarthEcho International.