Beijing, China May 27, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - With an opening speech from MP Marcus Fysh, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education, the British International Education Association officially launched the 2022-23 BIEA International STEM Youth Innovation Competition ‘Greening Cities Sustaining Life’.
There is an acknowledged shortage of STEM skills in countries across the world. The British International Education Association STEM Youth Competition was developed to give students from any country an opportunity to apply their school-based learning to a context-driven, problem-solving challenge against their peers, and understand the significance of STEM skills to potential future career pathways.
In this year’s competition, we ask young people to focus on a city close to where they live. The goals are to help connect cities with future innovators and help young people to master life skills for making cities and communities more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
Cities have high densities of people living, working, and travelling in one area, to the detriment of the natural world. Creating sustainable cities for the future needs a deep, nuanced understanding of many different, fluctuating factors, and innovative approaches to design and planning. We are asking students to share their ideas for designing cities and to consider how the buildings, transport, and green spaces of the future, might be developed to ensure people and the planet can exist in harmony. Can we create a future where fossil fuels have become a thing of history, and only renewable energy sources and sustainable materials are used?
The competition theme in 2022-23 has three major strands:
- Sustainable Cities
- Revitalising Landscapes
- Greening Transport
The competition reaches young people between the ages of 6 and 18 from across the world and encourages them to think critically on a wide range of topics, from urban inequality to affordable housing, from inclusive growth to pollution and climate change, to learn about ESG (Environment, Society and Governance) and to position themselves at the forefront of sustainable urban development.
The BIEA is working with city leaders, planners, and local governments from around the world. The spotlight will shine on participating cities including Chongqing (China), Nassau (Bahamas), Bogota (Columbia) and Kukes (Albania) and many more, allowing young people from different places to learn about the opportunities and challenges facing different cities across the world.
All of the 2022 events will help students and teachers prepare for the 2023 competition. Teams from 30 countries and regions have registered so far, including the UK, Pakistan, UAE, India, Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Italy, and China.
The BIEA competition has been developed to be inclusive to all ages, genders, and nationalities, and strives to ensure that unequal access to resources does not prohibit students from successfully participating in the challenge.
We want to inspire more young people to see the relevance of STEM subjects for future employment pathways and help them to understand how STEM subjects can be applied beyond the obvious careers.
Unlike many competitions, the BIEA competition allows young people to be inspired by their peers across the world who have faced the same challenge and come up with different solutions.
Interview opportunities:
(STEM Education ) Dr Alex Holmes -- Head of STEM, the British International Education Association
(Climate Change) Dr Neil Jennings - Partnership Development Manager at the Grantham Institute, Climate Change and the Environment, at Imperial College London.
(City Sustainability) Cassie Sutherland -- Managing Director for the Climate Solutions and Networks team, C40 Group
(ESG/Corporate Sustainability Strategy) Professor Paolo Taticchi -- Deputy Director (MBA and Global Engagement) at UCL School of Management
(STEM education in schools) Miss Thandiwe Banda - Department Head of Science, Beacon School
Please contact Media Officer Helen at BIEA: hhu@biea.org.uk, 07766554217
Media Contact
BIEA STEM hhu@biea.org.uk https://bieacompetition.org.uk/
