Glocal Challenge

2020 EF Glocal Challenge Winners

What is the EF Glocal Challenge?

The EF Glocal Challenge is a contest-based program facilitated by EF Education First, the City of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Public Schools to help high school students learn critical 21st Century Skills, gain global competence and receive real-world experience in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math). Each year, we ask Cambridge Rindge and Latin School students to solve a challenge locally in Cambridge that has global implications. Through the Glocal Challenge, CRLS students will be placed in teams of 3-5 students, spend time learning about environmental issues globally and locally, invent a creative idea to solve the challenge in Cambridge, and then pitch their idea to expert judges. The winning student teams will receive seed funding from the City of Cambridge to kick-start their projects, and paid internships with the City. Learn more here.

2022 Challenge

Due to COVID-19, there will not be an in-school program during the 2021/2022 school year. We are currently planning for a summer 2022 program via the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program, so stay tuned for more information on that!

For more information

To learn more about the Glocal Challenge, please contact Jennifer Lawrence, jlawrence@cambridgema.gov, 617-349-4671.

 

 


Fall 2021

The Faucet Failures

The Faucet Failures team was very busy this summer and fall updating their video game. They gathered tons of feedback from community members, classmates, friends, and teachers. They did this by asking friends and peers to try out the game and fill out a survey, creating posters and hanging them around the city, and emailing their former science teachers to have their students play the game and fill out a feedback form.
Based off the feedback they gathered, they made a number of changes to the game. These changes include:

  • A new mini-game
  • Instructions for all mini-games
  • More trivia questions that are also organized into difficulty levels
  • Contacted game developers to fix glitches and any technical issues the video game had

Throughout the summer, the team also worked with the Charles River Conservancy and their researcher Max Rome to design two models/prototypes and blueprints for a second floating wetland along the Charles River. To do this work, they kayaked to the current wetland and met with Max to learn about the logistics and science behind the current installation. They then to discussed possible ways to create a new wetland based on feedback they gathered from the community regarding the design, location, size, and plants options. After completing their models and blueprints, they presented two final ideas to the Charles River Conservancy at an end-of-summer formal presentation. Their designs will be taken into consideration when the Charles River Conservancy begins their design of the new floating wetland on the Charles River.

Project GreenPlate

Fall 2021 Update to come soon!

2021 Summer Winning Teams

Congratulations to all five participating teams for doing such an amazing job through an unprecedented Glocal Challenge!

  • Cooler Courts: Pitched an innovative idea to do thermal imaging around basketball courts to determine where more trees need to be planted to make a better playing environment.
  • Leaf Team: Came up with an outreach and engagement event organized around a viewing of The Lorax, lots of movie-night treats, and education.
  • We Mean Green: After talking with lots of folks in the community, this team decided that an event around creating bird houses would be the best venue for engaging families in urban forestry education.
  • The Hidden Leaf: Proposed a new idea to build appreciation of trees in Cambridge by installing seating areas and outfitting them with board games and trivia in and around stands of trees.
  • Tree Whisperers: Created an educational campaign along greenways in our community to place signs on trees asking community members to take action. 

And a special congratulations go to our two winning teams, The Hidden Leaf & Tree Whisperers! These teens have an opportunity to participate in a fall internship to implement their winning ideas (not to mention major bragging rights). 

For more information

To learn more about the Glocal Challenge, please contact Jennifer Lawrence, jlawrence@cambridgema.gov, 617-349-4671.

 

Glocal in the News & Social Media

Sasaki Foundation Speaker Series: "Celebrating Earth Day Along the Charles River"

Charles River  Conservancy: "Floating Wetland Video Game Debuts at Science Festival"

CCTV: "Glocal 2020: Real-World STEAM Experience for High School Students"

Cambridge Chronicle: "EF Glocal Challenge surprises all Cambridge finalists with Panama trip"

Cambridge Chronicle mention: "Cambridge transforms 150 parking spots into creative spaces"

Scout Cambridge: "Meet the Students Who Are Shaping the Future of Transportation in Cambridge"

Cambridge Chronicle: "Cambridge Students Pitch Innovations"

The Cambridge Life blog: "CRLS Students Work to Solve Local Challenges that have Global Implications" 

EF Education First: "Tackling Public Transportation Challenges at EF's Glocal Challenge"

What is the EF Glocal Challenge?

The EF Glocal Challenge is a contest-based program facilitated by EF Education First, the City of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Public Schools to help high school students learn critical 21st Century Skills, gain global competence and receive real-world experience in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math). Each year, we ask Cambridge Rindge and Latin School students to solve a challenge locally in Cambridge that has global implications. Through the Glocal Challenge, CRLS students will be placed in teams of 3-5 students, spend time learning about environmental issues globally and locally, invent a creative idea to solve the challenge in Cambridge, and then pitch their idea to expert judges. The winning student teams will receive seed funding from the City of Cambridge to kick-start their projects, and paid internships with the City.

Learn about the Glocal Challenge Finals here

 

Summer 2021 Glocal Challenge

We met outdoors for 6 Mondays over the summer and had an amazing time meeting with Green Cambridge, the Urban Forestry Division of the Department of Public Works, Skooby Laposki, and MIT! Participants of the Glocal Challenge learned valuable skills around design thinking, urban forestry, community engagement, empathy-building, personal bias, and much more. Winners got major bragging rights, trophies, internships, and seed funding to implement their winning ideas.

2021 Winning Teams

Congratulations to all five participating teams! What an amazing job this group did through an unprecedented Glocal Challenge in the midst of a pandemic.

  • Cooler Courts: Pitched an innovative idea to do thermal imaging around basketball courts to determine where more trees need to be planted to make a better playing environment.
  • Leaf Team: Came up with an outreach and engagement event organized around a viewing of The Lorax, lots of movie-night treats, and education.
  • We Mean Green: After talking with lots of folks in the community, this team decided that an event around creating bird houses would be the best venue for engaging families in urban forestry education.
  • The Hidden Leaf: Proposed a new idea to build appreciation of trees in Cambridge by installing seating areas and outfitting them with board games and trivia in and around stands of trees.
  • Tree Whisperers: Created an educational campaign along greenways in our community to place signs on trees asking community members to take action.

And a special congratulations go to our two winning teams, The Hidden Leaf & Tree Whisperers! These teens won the chance to participate in a fall internship to implement their winning ideas (not to mention major bragging rights). 

2020 Glocal Challenge Winners Implement Projects with new team members!

The Thrifting Project

(formerly known as The Water Coolers)

Check out this amazing video about the water wasted in the fast fashion industry, created by The Thrifting Project and produced by CCTV.

Ruri, Phoebe, Victoria, Alif, Katerin, Zahab, Bethel, and Saffiya worked hard all summer and school year to educate Cambridge residents about the excessive water waste of the fast fashion industry. They created a video with CCTV (forthcoming!), designed posters to put up in Cambridge, and created educational articles and materials to teach residents about the fast fashion industry's impact on our changing climate. They are continuing this school year by creating more educational materials, including participating at STEAM It Up week to educate students about water waste and the clothing industry, and co-hosting a winter clothing drive with Mayor Siddiqui.

Project Green Plate

(formerly known as The Cambridge Freshies)

Project Green Plate were BUSY this year and created multiple videos about their work. Here's their Meatless Mondays Madness Earth Day event. And to see all of their videos, check out our YouTube channel

This summer and school year, Project Green Plate has continued the process of creating and implementing a campaign to encourage CRLS students to eat less meat. Through education about water use in meat production and sustainable food choices, the team hopes to reduce the “water footprint” of CRLS and eventually more schools in the CPSD system. Some of the things they have been working on include:

• A punch card program that will result in participants winning prizes
• A virtual kickoff event with a chef leading a cooking demonstration
• Healthy meatless recipe videos
• Resources to find healthy and/or meatless options in the Cambridge + Boston area

Throughout the school year, they are creating more videos, working with Cuisine en Locale to host a virtual kick-off event, and collaborating with the Grab & Go Lunch team to gather feedback on vegetarian eating.

Aquality 5

Aquality 5 made a BEAUTIFUL video about stormwater, flooding, and what renters can do to prepare, produced by CCTV. 

Over the course of the year, Aleahna, Ava, Gemma, Elaine, Elena, Ymari, and Nishat created a marketing campaign to educate renters in Cambridge about the impacts of increased flooding due to climate change. They created a series of posters and worked with CCTV to make a video (forthcoming) specifically for the 75% of Cantabridgians who rent their homes. This school year, they care continuing their work by creating a series of advertisements to be placed in bus stops and Bluebikes stations around town, targeting renters.

Faucet Failures

These folks made a VIDEO GAME. That's right - a real, playable, learning tool in the form of a video game. It's not yet complete, but we can vouch for how awesome it is. Here's a link to their presentation at the Science in the City festival (they start at about 2 hours, 23 minutes). 

Orlando, AK, Labeeb, Raymani, and Max worked diligently all summer long to create a video game based loosely off of the newly installed wetland in the Charles River. They have been working with the wetland's creators at the Charles River Conservancy. This fall, they are working with a video game designer to take their custom drawings and ideas and turn them into a functioning video game!

 

Two New Teams Join the School Year Glocal Challenge Program in 2020-2021

Bike Education

The bike team learned enough about bikes and the rules of the road to make their own educational video! They presented at Science in the City (they start at about 2 hours and 11 minutes) and at two separate Cambridge Public Library events. We are so proud. 

A new team this past summer, the bike education project seeks to engage more people in our bicycle education program! This summer, the program was attended by Joseph, Alex, Oscar, Ifrah, and Feda - the entire team learned the basics of maintaining their own bicycles, and some were even able to rebuild their own bike! The team is joined this school year by Rodas, who is also working on a CRLS website to help students get the resources they need to bike to school.

Putting Away Water Waste

Read the team's end-of-year report!

This team, made up of CRLS Juniors Chloe, Cian, and Kathryn, are working to create resource guides for locally-managed (and often publicly-owned) golf courses to better-understand water waste at their sites. They are currently working with the City of Cambridge Fresh Pond Golf Course to learn best practices and draft their guide.

 

2020 EF Glocal Challenge Winners Announced

Contest-Based Program Gives Students Real-World STEAM Experience

Cambridge, MA, January 23, 2020 -- The City of Cambridge congratulates the participants of this year’s 2020 EF Glocal Challenge on the theme of, “Water, Water Everywhere, and not a drop to waste...How can Cambridge residents take action to address the Global Water Crisis?”

Eleven teams competed to win the chance to implement local solutions that impact the global water crisis here in Cambridge. Forty students pitched their ideas at the Semi Finals on Tuesday, January 21, where 4 teams were chosen by experts from Cambridge and beyond to compete in the Finals competition. All students then presented again to the public during the Student Exhibition on Wednesday, January 22, where one final team was chosen by the community to present. The five finalist teams were then invited to present to a live studio audience and a panel of expert judges at the Finals, directly following the Student Exhibition. All five Finalists win the competition, earning paid internships and funding to implement their ideas. Additionally, two teams won trips to travel on an EF Tours STEM tour to Panama and Costa Rica this June. 
 

A special congratulations go to the five winning teams from this year’s challenge:

  • Cambridge Freshies: Meatless Mondays in local public schools to reduce water waste from the meat industry. Most of the funding will go towards marketing and it will pilot at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
  • Water Coolers**: Pop up clothing swaps in Cambridge public parks and private open spaces to decrease the amount of water used for fast fashion. Additional amenities include an on-site tailor and local clothing partners.
  • Aquality5: Educational and marketing campaign to educate renters who live in Cambridge neighborhoods vulnerable to flooding the steps that they can take to become more resilient.
  • Pond Protectors: Creating innovative mechanical tools to improve upon existing invasive aquatic species removal products.
  • Faucet Failures**: An app-based game designed for Cambridge Public School elementary students to learn about the global water crisis and its local impacts on pollution and water conservation.
Students were paired with experts in the field as they crafted work plans, prototyped their ideas, and finally, implement their proposals over the summer with the city’s Community Development Department. This internship program was made possible by funding from the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program at the Department of Human Service Programs.

** Signifies team traveling to Panama and Costa Rica. Due to COVID-19, winning teams will travel in 2021.

 

EF Glocal Challenge Winners 2018-2019! 

60 students participated in the challenge last year, forming nine creative and inspiring teams! All nine teams designed innovative proposals for communicating the realities of climate change in our community by 2021.  

All nine participating teams pitched their proposals to a panel of industry expert judges on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 during which four finalists were selected.  On the evening of January 23rd, the teams pitched their ideas to the public at EF Education First headquarters in Cambridge, MA, leaving the final fifth team up to the public vote! The five finalists then all presented to a panel of expert judges and this year's Glocal Challenge Winner, Team Climate Change Impact Attack was selected!

All Glocal Finalists earned a paid internship with the Cambridge Community Development Department and $3000 of seed money to implement their ideas!

Also, during a surprise announcement by Cambridge City Manager, Louis DePasquale, all five finalists also won a trip to Panama!

If you see this year's Glocal Challenge winners around the City, please be sure to congratulate them and ask them to share their winning ideas! 

Glocal Winner!

Team Climate Change Impact Attack

Georgia Voyiatzis, Gabe Herman, Alex Kim, and James Shaw

Climate Change Impact Attack

 

Finalists!

Team Captain Change the Planet!

Simeon Lichtenstein, Simon Simpson, Benjamin Driscoll, Lara Garay

Captain Change the Planet

Team Lifeguards

Kenny Figueroa, Sarah Ikram, Sharon Bosco, Zineb Bouhi

Lifeguards

Team No Back Up Plan(et)

Piper Larin, Aleahna Lartey, Sophia Price, Leo Austin-Spooner

No Backup Plan (et)

Team Studio 33.3

Ezra Barneson, Raj Kirpalani, Simone Dobrin, Hope Perrine

Studio 33.3

Glocal Challenge 2017-2018

The Glocal Challenge for 2017-2018 was, "How can we improve sustainable transportation in Cambridge by 2020?"  Throughout the Glocal Challenge, 133 CRLS students were engaged in 8 weeks of intensive learning about transportation and how to make it more sustainable and equitable locally and globally. Students were placed in small teams and used design thinking to formulate creative solutions to improve sustainable transportation in Cambridge, which resulted in them pitching their solutions to a group of expert judges. Five teams won the Glocal Challenge, resulting in paid summer internships with the City of Cambridge, seed funding to implement their projects during the summer, and an all expense paid trip for two of the winning teams to the EF Global Students Leaders Summit in Berlin, Germany.

The five winning teams spent 6 weeks interning with the City of Cambridge Community Development Department this summer to implement their sustainable transportation improvement projects. You can read all about their amazing accomplishments below!

Live Bus Team: Their project goal was to provide 13 local businesses in Cambridge with tablets for displaying real-time public transportation tracking information for their storefront windows. They conducted over 96 surveys throughout Cambridge to determine where residents thought the displays would be most useful. Using that data, they pitched their product to 30 businesses in Cambridge and 13 out of 30 agreed to pilot the display for one year! Then, the team created a website that displays the real-time schedule information for the bus stops within the vicinity of those 13 businesses!

Glocal Challenge Team Live Bus installing real time transit screens in Cambridge.

 


Two Lanes Team: The team's project goals included conducting a feasibility study of a separated bike lane on Broadway in Cambridge, resulting in a consultant's report for the City of Cambridge, and increasing community awareness for the construction of the separated bike lane on South Massachusetts Ave. They conducted over 140 surveys from Cambridge residents regarding bicycle safety and utilized that data to inform their recommendations to the City of Cambridge. 

In conjunction with the City of Cambridge and the community group Cambridge Bicycle Safety, implemented a separated bike lane pilot along Broadway in front of the Cambridge Public Library and CRLS. Their pilot goals included: improving bicycle safety along Broadway and collecting data on the usage of a separated bike lane. 

Connect Cambridge Team:  Throughout the summer, Connect Cambridge utilized creative storytelling and community engagement techniques to successfully establish their three project goals. The team participated in creative forms of outreach to increase community engagement and awareness for the construction of the Mt. Auburn Bus Priority Lane, which was one of their project goals. They rode the 71 and 73 bus lines 8 times over 6 weeks, passing out over 200 postcards to bus riders about the bus priority lane features coming to Mt. Auburn.  Conducting a feasibility study of installing a rush hour bus priority lane on North Massachusetts Ave. for the City of Cambridge, was the second goal the team accomplished this summer. The results of their study will result in the creation of a bus priority lane pilot on N. Mass Ave. on Park(ing) Day, September 21, 2018, which was the team's final goal. To visually tell the story of their outreach journey on Mt. Auburn and the story conveying the need for the N. Mass Ave. Bus Priority Lane, they created two story maps! 

In conjunction with the City of Cambridge, the MBTA, and EF, implemented a pilot bus priority lane along North Mass Ave. during the morning and evening rush hours! Their project goals included: reducing bus bunching; making commuting faster; and increasing the reliability of the bus! 

 

Connect Cambridge implementing bus priority lane pilot on N. Mass Ave. in Cambridge.

 

 

Cam Tran Team:  The Cam Tran team experienced a great project pivot over the summer. Their original goal was a create a way finding app based on bicycle level of comfort and safety not just speed. After weeks of surveying Cambridge residents, their data indicated that 50% of people felt uncomfortable cycling in the city. The team decided the best use their time and data was to suggest level of comfort improvements to an existing platform used by people that cycle, Google Maps. This resulted in the team creating a business pitch and pitching their ideas to the Google business and maps team! 

Check out their business pitch here! 


Transportation Transformers Team: During their summer internship, Transportation Transformers worked closely with Blue Bikes and the City's Environment and Transportation Division to create a youth discount program for Cambridge youth between 16-19 years old. A Blue Bikes annual membership is $99, but thanks to the team's great Glocal project goal and hard work over the summer, youth can now only pay $25! The team will continue working towards their project goal to sign youth up for discounted Blue Bikes memberships throughout the school year. 

Sign up for a $25 annual Blue Bikes membership here! 

Email transportation@cambridgema.gov with your name, address, and birthdate to verify eligibility.


Glocal Team Transportation Transformers



Glocal Challenge 2016-2017

The challenge for 2016-2017 program was: “How can we reduce food waste in the Cambridge community?”  Through the Glocal Challenge, CRLS students were placed in teams of 3-5 students, spent 8 weeks learning about issues of food waste and food security globally and locally, invented a creative idea to reduce food waste in Cambridge, and then pitched their idea to expert judges. The top three winning student teams received a trip to Italy for the EF Global Student Leaders Summit and the top five teams received seed funding from the City of Cambridge to kick-start their projects during their paid summer internships with the City. Additionally, all participants earned 10 community service hours.  

So in summer 2017, the five teams got to intern with the City of Cambridge Community Development Department and implement parts of their projects with the seed money they won. The summer internship for the winning teams started on Wednesday, July 5th, 2017. You can read on below for more information about what each of the teams did!

Door_knockingTablingDeer_Island

The Biodiesel Team

During the summer, the biodiesel team conducted several outreaches to the local restaurants in the City, surveying them and providing more information about what to do with used cooking oil.

The Anaerobic Digester Team

The digester team researched and compared the economics, greenhouse gas emissions, and educational benefits of various food waste reduction and food repurposing methods for the City, including installing an anaerobic digester. The team then presented their research to the City. You can find their final report here.

The Expiration Dates Team

The expiration team created and distributed informational materials about expiration dates and saving money spent on wasted food at various outreaches. You can find their brochure here and also find more information on the lifespan of different kinds of food on eatbydate.com

The Compost Stickers Program Team

The Sticker team ran a sticker competition pilot program to increase citizen composting participation in the Curbside Compost Pilot and participated in door-to-door awareness outreach about composting. You can find their final reports here and here

The Waste Reduction Kit Team

The waste reduction kit team put together and distributed 200 units of food waste reducing kit to lower and middle-income households in person. The kit included items to help keep food fresh for longer as well as other educational materials for reducing food waste and increasing composting. Their final report can be found here

Glocal_Outreach

 

Glocal Challenge 2015-2016

The challenge for 2016-2017 program was to focus on energy use in Cambridge as part of the City's effort to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize. Between October and December of 2015, in teams of 3-5, students learned about energy use globally and locally, developed a creative plan to reduce energy in Cambridge, and then pitched their idea to expert judges. The top two winning student teams received a trip to Iceland for the EF Global Student Leaders Summit in March, and the top five teams received seed funding from the City of Cambridge to kick-start their projects during their paid summer internships with the City. Additionally, all participants earned 10 community service hours.  

Glocal_2016_studentsPower Saviors Winning

Power Saviors

The Power Saviors are a group of young, dedicated high school students who won the Glocal Challenge competition at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) in 2016. The Glocal Challenge is an 8-week competition hosted by CRLS, EF Education First, and the City of Cambridge to propose solutions to global challenges with local implications. In 2016, the challenge was to decrease energy use in our community by 2017 in order for Cambridge to win the Georgetown University Energy Prize. As winners of the popular vote, the Power Saviors worked with the Community Development Department to research the most effective locations for installing kinetic energy tiles in Cambridge. Kinetic energy tiles are tiles that generate energy after there is pressure applied to them (footsteps, bicycle wheels, cars, etc). The energy is then stored in a battery and can be used to power lights, appliances, or other utilities.

According to team members Nitant Rimal and Hassan Gudal, both CRLS Juniors: “We knew that some parts of Cambridge were heavily populated with tourists, students, etc. We decided to take advantage of this, and decided to propose kinetic energy tiles.”

In the summer, the students collected data by counting the amount of people who walk, skate, bike, or drive through Harvard Square, Kendall Square, Inman Square, and Porter Square. From the data that was gathered, it was determined that the best places to put the tiles were Harvard Square and Kendall Square. For example, in front of one restaurant in Harvard Square there was an average of 1,500 footsteps per hour. Each footstep generates about 4 watts, which is an average of 6,000 watts per hour. For context, it takes 10-20 watts to power a tablet for an hour.  In addition to the energy produced, the Power Saviors feel that the tiles are a great educational and awareness-building resource for Cambridge.

Team members Hayley Swope, Maroua Oudani, and Ginely Baltodano have been strong advocates for the project for the past year. “After winning the Glocal Challenge, the next step was to try to get funding through the City via Participatory Budgeting. We submitted our idea, and worked hard to get as many votes as possible. We went room to room in the school classrooms to gather many votes!”

The Power Saviors submitted their kinetic energy tile proposal to Participatory Budgeting over the summer.  And guess what? They won! The students were able to successfully advocate for $50,000 to be allocated for purchasing and installing energy-producing tiles during the next fiscal year.

You can find the original article here.

Kinetic Energy Floor

For more information about the Glocal Challenge and how to be involved as mentors or experts, contact Jennifer Lawrence at jlawrence@cambridgema.gov.