“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Inventure Academy’s Change Maker Challenge Season 6 – Top 3 & Special Commendations Teams

We are pleased to announce the  top three teams identified by our judges for “Scale and Sustain” funding

Team Name
School
Project
DIY Aquaponics
Saandeepani Academy for Excellence
Growing and use of chemical-free crops using aquaponics.
CEFA (Creative Education for All)
Inventure Academy
Inspiring Middle School students from underprivileged backgrounds to learn using creative avenues
Team Radha
Inventure Academy
Building financial literacy in underprivileged teens through a curated curriculum and awareness of available government schemes on fixed and recurring deposits.

It is wonderful to note that Team DIY Aquaponics – even though they did not get picked by judges for Round 3 – continued their changemaking work with passion, enthusiasm and their own funding. We were very happy to see them come back with a progress update on their changemaking journey before Round 3 and excited to include them in the Round 3 presentations. We also love the spirit of Team BrightLeaf and Team Beej who have informed us that they are continuing their journey on their own and will join us again in a later CMC after making more progress.

CMC 2022-2023 Commendations

In addition, the following two teams from Round 3 are being awarded an Inventure Commendation based on recommendations from the judges and supermentors, for the quantum of progress they made, for being hands-on and getting things done, while addressing a critical problem:

Team Name
School
Project
Education Supporter
Parikrma Center for Learning, Sahakarnagar
Working on creating awareness about autism in their school and improve/enhance the social skills of autistic students  to ensure they are included in various cultural activities.
Soilfit
The International School Bangalore
Greenwood High
Aims to improve farm productivity using IoT and AI to help farmers make better decisions through automation and better access to information.

Teams – Aquaponics, CEFA and Radha – granted the “Scale and Sustain” award are eligible for additional funding as they complete and update us on further milestones in their changemaking project journey. Total funding of INR 1 lakh is available for these Top 3 teams based on the needs of their project and the progress they make.

Congratulations to the top 10 + 3 wild card teams to have made it to the Round 3 of Inventure’s Changemaker Challenge 2022-23!

Here are the Round 3 presentations.

TOP 10 teams for CMC 2022-23 are as listed below: 

Team Name School Project
Team Parikrma Mobile Book Curator Parikrma Center for Learning, Nandini Layout Team Parikrma Mobile Book Curator is setting up a Circulating Library in the community to help the students/children to read books out of their syllabus. They want the students to understand the joy of reading by giving them access to read books out of their syllabus. They want to do this by setting up a book drive, a dedicated team who will support them in screening the books and taking help from the local authorities to set up the library. 
Team Pennywise Inventure Academy This team aims to build financial literacy in underprivileged teens using a curated curriculum and introducing available government schemes on fixed and recurring deposits. The sessions will help understand the importance of a regular saving habit and the ways in which one can go about increasing their wealth. The team will hold sessions in government schools and use role play, questionnaires, virtual money maker and introduce simple saving schemes at school to help parents open and operate savings accounts for their children.
Team Money Matters Inventure Academy Team Money Matters aims at providing financial education to bus didis of Inventure Academy in collaboration with Buzz Women. They aim at conducting workshops designed by Buzz Women to help these women in crucial elements like budgeting, financial awareness and investments.
Team Our Roads Inventure Academy Team Our Roads aims to develop an app to allow civilians to bring attention to potholes in the city.
Volunteers amongst the citizens will be asked to adopt potholes or pothole dense roads and they are working on ways to ensure that the government is forced to take some action. The team is planning to work with Whitefield Rising, a social work program, in order to fix the roads. At the same time, they will develop the app.
Team Soil Fit TISB
Green Wood High
Team Soilfit aims to improve farm productivity using IoT and AI.They would like to help farmers change the way they make decisions by automating soil health cards and giving recommendations on what crops to grow and what fertilizers to use.
Team Voice4u Inventure Academy
Sri Aurobindo Memorial School
Team Voice4u aims to provide mental and emotional support to people with disabilities. The team plans to build a community of people with disabilities and provide access to therapists and workshops to create awareness while maintaining anonymity and user privacy.
Team Education Supporter Parikrma Center for Learning Sahakarnagar Team Education Supporters want to work on creating awareness about autism in their school and improve/enhance the social skills of autistic students, and ensure they are included in various cultural activities.
Team Parikrma Feminine Hygiene Warriors Parikrma Center for Learning, Nandini Layout Team ‘Parikrma Feminine Hygiene Warriors’ wants to mass produce medically approved silk sanitary napkins using local expertise,to prevent dependency on synthetic sanitary napkins. This is aimed at the safe hygiene of females in the age group 12 to 40 who reside in and around Nandini Layout.
Team CEFA (Creative Education for All) Inventure Academy Team Creative Education for all (CEFA) aims to inspire middle school students from underprivileged backgrounds by engaging them in independent creative learning and using science experiment kits. 
Team NAVSETU KC Public School Jammu Team Navsetu plans to work with the children in the Roopnagar and Udheywala slums to teach them computer literacy skills and provide them access to libraries and fun-filled activities like drama, art, music, dance, storytelling and games.

Wild Card teams who also make it into Round 3 of CMC 2022-23 are as follows:

Team Name School Project
Team Hyrdolution Inventure Academy Team Hydrolution will conduct an audit to enable schools in Bangalore to build Rainwater Harvesting Systems. This will be done in consultation with professionals . The team looks at mobilising funds for the schools to build these systems if they need and coordinate with the schools to build them.
Team Starling Oasis International School Team Starling is working on protecting and increasing the declining mynahs’ and sparrows’ population through healthy habitats . They believe that this will balance the ecosystem and improve the quality of their neighborhood. They plan to do this in collaboration ith NGOs by using bird feeders, creating more terrace gardens and building mini bird homes.
Team Technowares Sunbeam School Varuna Team Technowares are aiming to build a firefighting robot that will be used in places which are difficult to reach for fire engines and too challenging for humans to access. Their robot, FEBO, will be a first aid. They are developing a functional prototype and the local fire brigade are willing to test it in the pilot phase.

Congratulations on being selected to the top 25 teams ( top 20 + 5 wild card entries) with project ideas for changemaker challenge (CMC) 2022-23 on sustainable solutions for an area of global concern including ‘Healthcare and Personal Well-Being’, ‘Education’, ‘Infrastructure’ or ‘Environment’. The project ideas have been selected keeping in mind clarity on problem definition, benefit, beneficiary, anticipated challenges, scope of impact and credibility.

Here are the Round 2 presentations.

S.No Final Decision School Names of Team Members Location Project Description
1 Top 20 Parikrma Center for Learning, Nandini Layout Bengaluru, India Health care and Personal wellbeing for the Parikrama student community
2 Top 20 Parikrma Center for Learning, Nandini Layout Bengaluru, India Education for the student community
Parikrma circulating library and Parikrma Kreeda Koushalya
3 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, India Audit for greenwashing
4 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, India Cotton clothiline using biodegradable, non-toxic, hypo-allergenic, and antimicrobial dye produced from the stems and leaves of organically grown tobacco plants.
5 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, Karnataka Low cost transportation of water from low lying areas to high lying area and recycle/reuse the water for domestic purposes.
6 Top 20 NIOS, PARIKRMA CENTER FOR LEARNING SAHAKARNAGAR Bangalore,India Literary skills, cultural and social activities for children of migrant workers.
7 Top 20 Inventure academy, Sri aurobindo memorial school Bangalore Moral support, awareness and education for newly disabled people
8 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, India Create safe space for people with mental health issues
9 Top 20 Inventure Academy, National Public School Whitefield Bangalore, India Develop an app to indicate to govt about the road safety issues and potholes
10 Top 20 Saandeepani Academy For Exellence Bangalore,Karnataka Acquiring and selling traditional and country seeds that are now rarely sold
11 Top 20 Oasis International School India, Bangalore Clean and cost effective energy sources into the lives of people who are at a social disadvantage.
12 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore,India Improve the financial literacy of the youth .
13 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, India Ensuring children from a different socioeconomic strata can access education regardless of location & gender
14 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, India Water more accessible to minorities in Bangalore.
15 Top 20 Oasis International School Bangalore and India Reduction of plastic usage in school campus
16 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore, India Colleage and career guidance for grade 11 and 12 students
17 Top 20 Inventure Academy Bangalore , India Financial independance for girls
18 Top 20 KC Public School Jammu (All Round Square schools) Jammu, India Benefit of slum children of Jammu with the purpose of imparting positive direction to their lives by sharing and celebrating joy with them through personalized connection and fun-filled activities, such as drama, art, music, dance, storytelling and games.
19 Top 20 Oasis International School Bangalore, Karanataka, India Protecting and increasing bird population in Bangalore specially mynahs and sparrows
20 Top 20 Sunbeam School Varina Varanasi India Protection of people from fire using robotic assitance
21 Wild Card Parikrma Centre For Learning , Sahakarnagar. Bangalore, India Sustainable healthcare for the underprivileged community children
22 Wild Card Saandeepani Academy For Exellence Bangalore, India Chemical free crops and growing using aquaponis
23 Wild Card Inveture Academy Bangalore, India Increasing the usage of public transport by creating a personal connect with BMTC staff
24 Wild Card TISB, Green Wood High Bangalore, India Soil health cards for farmers
25 Wild Card Inventure Academy Bangalore Easy access to fresh water

Going forward, your team will be mentored with the help of online workshops to further improve your project. Schedule of workshops is as follows:

Thursday 10 Nov 2022 4:45pm to 6:45pm CMC Workshop: Idea Research
Friday 11 Nov 2022 4:45pm to 6:45pm CMC Workshop: Project Definition
Monday/Tuesday 14/15 th Nov 2022 4:45pm to 6:45pm CMC Workshop: Project Pitch
Tuesday 15th Nov 2022 4:45 to 6:45pm CMC Workshop: Project Pitch

Register by Monday 10 October 2022

Our world in the year 2022 continues to confront challenges that deeply impact our lives. As we figure out our new normal post COVID-19 pandemic, some new and some old global issues have been simmering on the back burner, awaiting our attention and action. We live in a global community, demonstrated unmistakably during the pandemic, with our lives intertwined. Creative and effective solutions to challenges will not only benefit the local community but have a ripple effect across the globe.

Passive acceptance of critical global issues like well-being, access to learning, civic amenities and sustainability will cause devastating, irreversible damages with long term impacts. In addition to addressing the aftermath of the pandemic, critical concerns that have been put on hold, now manifest in higher magnitude. These areas of concern pose a threat to the fabric of human civilization and need to be addressed on priority.

The time to act is now!

We invite teams of 3 or more students from Grades 8 to 12, together with their parents and teachers (at least one  adult mentor), to explore sustainable solutions for any one area of concern including ‘Healthcare and Personal Well-Being’, ‘Education’, ‘Infrastructure’ or ‘Environment’.

Healthcare & Personal Well Being:  A healthy society is a productive society. If nothing else, the pandemic has taught us the significance of health and its impact on all other aspects of life. Health and access to healthcare remains a paramount challenge in all parts of the world. As a nation, India has high income disparity, equitable healthcare facilities and information is an additional void and hurdle to progress. Some challenges that we face today include use of technology/ AI to fuel an integrated healthcare system; level of health awareness and ways to enhance the same across socio economic strata; mental health challenges post pandemic, especially our children, and sustainable solutions; Covid victims’ families coping with grief and loss and improved access to healthcare awareness and facilities, to name a few.

Education: United Nations (UN) identifies education as the ‘basic building block of every society’ and declares ‘right to education’ as a universal human right. Learning and skill building transforms individuals and society by impacting health, livelihood, long term attitudes and behaviours. Some challenges that we face today include creating effective solutions for inclusion across location, gender and socioeconomic strata including remote learning; including children with disabilities into the fold for education; learning the necessary skills to survive and thrive in the new world post pandemic and many more.

Infrastructure- Civic Amenities: the backbone of a city or town, infrastructure is an enabler for various socio, cultural and economic activities. Quality of life in an urban environment is defined by the strength of the infrastructure- civic amenities like air, water, transport, electricity and health services. According to the UN, the urban population in 2050 in Asia and Africa is expected to rise by 61% of population living in cities compared to 2018. Some challenges that we face today are gaps in civic amenities in the cities; eco-friendly, sustainable solutions to the challenges in city infrastructure; stress on housing and civic facilities available for lower income immigrants; clean water access and availability; waste disposal design to minimise negative long term impacts that can then be replicated across communities and cities; drainage system be equipped to handle unpredictability in weather due to global warming; load on the transport system and ease congestion; environmentally friendly solutions to increased demand for power and the list can go on.

Sustainability & Environment: Planet Earth is on the precipice where lack of remedial action will result in destruction with no return. Effects of climate change and non sustainable processes can be felt globally in the form of extinction of species; changes in topography; crisis of natural resources like clean water and air; and toxic wastes.  Some challenges that we face today are carbon footprint contributing to the global endeavour to reduce rising global temperature; conservation and protection of  existing freshwater reserves; replacement of non biodegradable materials in commodities in everyday use with natural, biodegradable materials;  treatment and disposal of waste in an environmentally safe manner given that 33% of 2.01 billion tonnes of waste generated annually is not safely disposed of and reduction of food waste that will in turn reduce greenhouse gases. (UN estimates that 30% of food is wasted every year)

Your solutions for the challenges listed above (or other relevant challenges) could be the catalyst that shifts the existing paradigm to result in a better world. Please solicit perspectives and advice from experts and other stakeholders on what will constitute a long term, replicable and sustainable solution.

Inventure’s other innovative initiatives:

Inventure Academy RS Youth Parliament

The inaugural Inventure Academy RS Youth Parliament – Our World, Our Voice was held from 15 to 19 August 2018.

The conference was conceptualised by Inventure Academy to equip children with the Right to Participate (guaranteed by Article 12 of the UNCRC) in the world that they are inheriting and to enable them to be positive change makers. This was achieved by exposing our youth to different perspectives, dialogues between nations and the process of decision-making through a blended platform of the Model United Nations (MUN) and Model Parliament (MP). The conference exposed students to the process of how laws are created and implemented through the interplay between various stakeholders, including international organisations such as the United Nations, National Parliament, Media and Civil Society. This helped to demonstrate how citizens (including children) can have an impact and be a part of the solution.

Model Parliament

Inventure initiated the Model Parliament (India), a first time simulation of the interaction between the Central and State governments, the Economic Council and the Media. The objective of this was to enable students to understand the importance of dialogue in society and in our political system, and enabling legislation that empowers and takes advantage of our demographic dividend. Through debate, discussion and perspective building, student delegates from various schools deliberated in different Committees on pressing issues like Child Safety, Water Crisis, Economic Development and Youth Involvement in Politics. Post this exercise, Committees drafted Bills, keeping as close as possible to Parliamentary procedures.

Our Core Purpose

To instill in students the ability and conviction to realize their full potential
and be socially responsible citizens who excel anywhere in the world.