Swinburne Innovation Challenge

Twelve students from Year 10 recently participated in the Swinburne Innovation Challenge, a program designed to spark creativity and critical thinking through real-world problem solving.

Working in small teams, students were guided through a step-by-step process to identify a challenge, come up with an innovative idea, and build a prototype solution. For those keen to go the extra mile, there was also an opportunity to create a short video pitch to showcase their concepts.

Phase 1

Firstly, students formed groups and chose a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal that they would like to tackle. They then wrote a How might we? statement aimed at how to achieve the goal. 

Phase 2

In Phase 2 of the challenge, our enthusiastic students  enjoyed an excursion to the Swinburne University campus in Hawthorn. Together with students from a range of other schools, they researched their strategies to solve UN sustainable development goals. 

After this, all the participants headed into master classes on various subjects including Engineering, Product Design and Legal Studies. Within these master classes they engaged in active learning activities - from creating a bionic hand out of string and straws to creating a catapult out of Lego and elastic bands!

Experiencing the campus at Swinburne University was a huge highlight. Students explored high-tech labs, collaborated in modern learning spaces, and experienced a taste of university life – a valuable opportunity for those beginning to think about their post-school pathways.

Phase 3

Team Brunswick continued to create their prototypes working toward filming a 3-minute video to demonstrate its use.

The program really encouraged students to think creatively, work collaboratively, and apply their knowledge in practical ways. It was a great example of learning beyond the classroom and an inspiring experience for all involved.

Yu Xuan Du

Year 10

Our team worked on something we called Bin-It - an app that would track your daily trash output!

 

On the home page there was a graphic of a park that was littered with rubbish. Users could 'pick up' all the rubbish so the park could slowly be cleaned up to reveal a nice, clean space. 

Our app included:

• a Friends tab which could be used to track your goals, your friends goals or a community's goals throughout the week
• a page where could scan an item's QR Code which could then would tell you which bin you should put it into
• a page for locating Bins Near You. The would show you where nearby bins were located,  using Google Maps as a backing software

Our initial idea was to base our app off the Push Up Challenge app, citing most of our ideas for the Friends page and the Home page.  We also wanted to include a page where you could make or join a team. This team would raise money for a charity  of the user's choice.  That charity would then direct the funds towards some type of environmental activism.

 

Watch the Video Submission that we made to promote our idea!