THE Green Innovation Awards, a community based environmental competition which has been capturing the hearts and creative minds of students across the Northern Rivers for the last four years is expanding to reach Coffs Harbour and Mid North Coast schools for the very first time.

The competition provides teachers with a unique opportunity to engage their high school and primary school students in green innovation.

Designed to fit into the school curriculum, it empowers students to tap into their imagination and invent, develop and present innovative solutions for greener living.

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Founder and local Chiropractor, Dr Bridie Cullinane is excited to be bringing Gold Coast schools together with the wider community for positive change.

“It’s important that we come together as a community, inspire creativity in our students and generate the ideas that are the seeds to innovative solutions.

“Young people see endless possibilities, their vivid imaginations can solve every problem and with a little bit of encouragement from their teachers it’s incredible to witness what unfolds,” Dr Bridie said.

To give you a taste of the incredibly fresh and innovative ideas that have flowed from students across the Northern Rivers in previous years, high school students at St Marys College bred crickets as a sustainable food source and primary school students at Dunoon Public School created Australia’s very first spray safe app.

Empire Vale Primary School teacher, Ms Karen Rantissi, who has been involved with the Green Innovation Awards since it began, highlighted how inspired her students were by the variety of innovative projects from each school.

Being involved in the Awards has clearly had a lasting impression on Ms Rantissis’ students who built the first frog hotel in the Northern Rivers and checked in 15 green tree frogs.

Ms Rantissi went on to praise the Green Innovation Awards as a way to really engage students with the real world issues they are facing in a way that positively focusses them on finding new solutions.

“It’s really important that students feel that their concerns for the environment are being heard and that people in positions of leadership and influence are interested in their solutions.”

The Green Innovation Awards has caught the attention of local and state politicians, innovative business leaders and celebrities including Costa The Garden Gnome and multi-award winning and internationally acclaimed photographer, Craig Perry who have taken their time to listen to and encourage the student’s ideas.

Southern Cross University, major sponsors of the Green Innovation Awards have offered to further support teachers and students this year by holding an Enterprise Lab Day in Week 7 of Term 2.

Experts from local entrepreneurial groups, Southern Cross University experts and industry-leading research staff will be on hand to workshop students green innovation ideas.

Could your school take out the title of the most innovative school from the Gold Coast down to Port Macquarie?
Download your entry kit at www.greeninnovationawards.com.au.

Empower and inspire your students and our young environmental leaders of the future by registering your school, it takes less than two minutes and it’s free to enter.