LUC- project UNPLASTIC wins Dopper Changemaker Challenge
UNPLASTIC, a research project by Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) won the Dopper Changemaker Challenge 2019. LUC student Roos Kolkman represented UNPLASTIC during the semi-finals on Saturday.
Winning Project
Over the past semester, LUC students Roos Kolkman, Iris Iedema, Jiske van Oeffelt en Maria Clara have been working together the project on plastic pollution and education. Under the supervision of Thijs Bosker, Associate Professor in Environmental Sciences at LUC, they developed educational packages for teachers to educate and inspire their students on one of our biggest challenges yet: plastic pollution. The educational packages were developed for teachers teaching a wide variety of subjects, ranging from Biology to Economics and beyond. In order to get funds to truly establish an organisation dedicated to the improvement and facilitation of educational material on plastic pollution, UNPLASTIC joined the Dopper Changemaker Challenge.
Dopper Changemaker Challenge
The Dopper Changemaker Challenge is a thesis award competition during which students from around the world compete based on their graduation project or thesis. The aim of the competition is to accelerate the development of solutions to global issues regarding clean (drinking) water and plastic pollution. This year’s challenge took place in four different counties: the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Nepal.
Ferry Pitching
After the semi-finals, 10 Dutch and Belgian finalists had the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the jury and commuters while crossing the river in Amsterdamon a public transport ferry. LUC's UNPLASTIC Project won first prize. A grant of €5000 to further develop UNPLASTIC's ambitious plan to provide educators around the world with the necessary tools about plastic pollution to teach and inspire students, the change-makers of tomorrow.
UNPLASTIC provides the knowledge and tools necessary for teachers all over the world to educate their students on one of our biggest challenges yet: plastic pollution. Global education on plastic will inspire change and empower future change-makers. UNPLASTIC has divided a wide range of current information available on plastic pollution into specific topics. Each topic is divided in a set of modules that address concepts often explored within that topic.