GEMS World Academy students, global winners of DECA Idea Challenge 2015
Four grade 8 girls from GEMS World Academy Dubai have actually become worldwide winners of the DECA Idea Challenge 2015.
The competition received over 2,230 team submissions from 8,456 students worldwide. Matilda Siri, Mada Otte, Joelle Hull and Danielle Long were proclaimed world champs of the high school classification.
The DECA Idea Challenge is an energising, experiential exercise that attempts elementary through college students worldwide, to produce an innovative and sustainable new use for a commonplace item. They then have to pitch their idea in a 3-minute YouTube video discussion-- all in 8 days. This year's product was cardboard boxes.
The team from GEMS World Academy team, motivated by their design teacher Simon Kuznetsov, searched for ingenious ideas that would really benefit individuals's lives; and created 'The Shades', a sun shelter focused on labourers and design workers in Dubai.
Living in the UAE, the women were inspired by the numerous news stories in the local press about how as much as 10 people daily suffered heat stroke, as they would be exercising in the sun.
"After experimenting throughout lunches and after school with various ways in making the shelter, the students finally developed an inter-locking design which achieved success, utilizing just cardboard and a couple of meters of string which would tie the pieces together.
"They also produced a small card design so they might explain to others how to build the structure," said Kuznetsov.
On learning the news, Eileen J. Councill, Secondary School Principal at GEMS World Academy, stated: "I am unbelievably impressed with the creativity and empathy of these women to aim to enhance the life of design workers in Dubai.".
"This easy yet innovative design, utilizing common products, plainly demonstrates their ability to believe strategically and worldwide. These students are a fantastic representation of the IB Learner Profile.
Several UAE schools, including 14 GEMS schools, sent entries this year. Each global winning group will be identified on both the Global Entrepreneurship Week and DECA Inc. sites and will receive a monetary award.
GEMS schools have taken part in the DECA Challenge for the past 3 years as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.
The GEMS Innovation Research and Development group offered design believing resources to schools to help improve the process and to link it to the schools' overall efforts to foster the next generation of pioneers and job developers.
