Students from Frederick Irwin Anglican School have taken out a prestigious university teamwork award in Brisbane after presenting their idea to clean out clutter from the environment.
The school’s Opti-Minds Team competed in Brisbane’s Opti-Minds National Sustainability Championships, winning the Spirit of Opti-Minds Award.
The award, which was given to only five of the 109 teams competing for the national title, covered their approach to the 20/20 Ideas Forum, their teamwork and the way they respected and valued each other during the challenge.
At the 20/20 Opti-Vision Youth Forum, the Purple Team presented their topic, ‘GO GREEN’, which emphasised combining love of technology, smartphones and iPads, with a desire to get up, go out into the environment and geocache.
Primary learning teacher and Mrs Cheryle Rudland said that the Purple Team’s ‘GO GREEN’ idea was like a treasure hunt.
“When out in the environment, the Purple Team wanted people to be aware of all the ways they can help our lovely environment, and particularly CITO which is ‘cache in trash out’, therefore, helping our environment by collecting trash as people geocache,” she said.
“The Purple Team was a very dedicated group, and it was easy to see from the bond in the team why these students won their awards.”
The Purple Team competed in the Science Engineering discipline at the Curtin University for the Regional Challenge, winning first place, which allowed them to progress to the State Finals.
After a three hour lock up and performing to a panel of judges as well as competing in a spontaneous, unseen challenge, the Purple Team became WA State Champions for Primary Science Engineering, allowing them to book a spot in the national championships.
