CAVU and the Climate Innovation Challenge
CAVU envisions a world in which young people feel hopeful about their ability to have a positive impact on the climate crisis in their communities.
CAVU’s Climate Innovation Challenge © (CIC) engages youth to realize their own agency, create their own story, and build innovative climate solutions in their communities. CIC provides opportunities and tangible skills for students to take action as they enter a climate-challenged future for the betterment of themselves, their communities, and our planet.
CAVU believes that engaging youth in solutions-based education provides students with a sense of agency and HOPE.
Creating a Movement of Hope and Agency
- Hope Fuels Innovation and Learning – By combining STEAM education, storytelling, and climate action, CIC equips students to become real changemakers in their communities. The Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC) isn’t just a program—it’s a catalyst for students to transform their hope into action.
- Giving Students a Sense of Agency – We believe that hope is the foundation of agency. CIC provides young learners with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to create solutions for climate change in their communities, showing them that their voices and ideas truly matter.
- From Ideas to Impact – Through research, problem-solving, and creative video production, students bring hopeful solutions to life. The culmination of the challenge celebrates their work, showcasing their visions for a better world while awarding cash prizes to top entries.
- Storytelling as a Vehicle for Hope – The CIC curriculum © prompts students to define what is vulnerable in their community and what they care most about. They have to discover their own “entry point.” Climate solutions start with their own story. CIC teaches students how to communicate their messages through digital media by equipping them with storytelling and video production skills. This way they not only inspire action in their own communities but also in others.
- Education for a Future Worth Fighting For – The CIC Curriculum © aligns with US Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core ELA standards, ensuring students gain meaningful, future-ready skills. It’s a curriculum designed to prepare them for both their educational journey and the professional world ahead.
My students now have a much better understanding of the world they're growing up in. CIC is an opportunity for their first exposure to climate change to be an empowering one rather than hopeless.
CIC provides educators with a well-designed, project-based learning experience, a local community of support, and a global audience to showcase and celebrate our learning!
I've participated in CIC since its inception in 2019. It's been a formative experience for my students and for me as an educator.
Above all, CIC encourages the development of critical thinking in my students by challenging them to create impactful storytelling around solutions to the realities of climate change.
CIC gives my students and I greater insights into what we can do as a school community to create positive local change with regards to our global climate.
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