What’s the most significant thing you’ve done when you were in high school? If you were like anyone else on the When in Manila team, chances are a lot of you responded with “I graduated!”
While graduating from high school is definitely a feat in itself, Shell has opened our eyes to an incredibly inspiring breed of senior high students who prove that, no matter what your age, you can make a difference in today’s world if you set your mind to it – and Shell NXplorers helps with that.
Photo from Shell
What is Shell NXplorers?
Shell NXplorers is an educational program specifically created to help the youth develop critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills. They challenge senior high school students to create solutions for the Food-Water-Energy (NEXUS) issues of the country. Sounds like a big deal, right? That’s because it is.
This platform was made for young talents to be positive agents of change and culminated with the Shell NXplorers: The Bright Ideas Challenge, where 10 teams of students presented prototypes of their innovative solutions for the country’s problems in food, water, and energy.
Here are the mind-blowing sustainable solutions of the Shell NXplorers 2023 winners:
Project Portabio
Gusa Regional Science High School won second runner-up in this challenge with their Project Portabio, which aims to provide renewable energy on the go. This project uses food waste as an energy source for portable power banks, not only eliminating extra waste but actually turning it into something for everyday use.
Team Portabio from Gusa Regional Science High School (Cagayan de Oro)
Project Sawod-Lawod
Tagbilaran City Science High School won first runner-up with their Project Sawod-Lawod. This innovation uses a solar-and-wind-powered desalination technique to turn seawater into drinking water. How awesome is that? Their prototype incorporates rotating mesh panels inside the container to increase the rate of condensation from the water vapor, providing the residents of Batasan Island with clean and safe drinking water from a readily available source.
Team Maomag from Tagbilaran City Science High School (Bohol)
The Veggie Crate Tracker and Mark-It App
Palawan National High School came out as the Grand Winner of Shell NXplorers. Their Veggie Crate Tracker measures the weight and freshness of produce while the Mark-It App notifies market vendors about the description of the harvests and tracks the surplus and shortage in each cluster. This innovation seeks to address the three problems in agriculture: surplus, shortage, and supply of produce.
Team FarmHer Innovators from Palawan National High School (Palawan)
“Our project aims to solve three problems that we have identified through our ocular surveys and observations in our community,” explains Anna Leonora Rodriguez, a member of the all-women team FarmHer Innovators.
We are completely blown away by the brains of these senior high students and absolutely love Shell’s initiative to show us just how far the youth can go in helping the country become a better place to live in.
“You are this country’s next generation of scientists and engineers. Equipping yourselves with strength in these subjects is tantamount to possessing the power to change the world,” Serge
Bernal, Shell Pilipinas Corporation’s Vice President for Corporate Relations, said to the participants. “I look to you to use that strength to become changemakers that help the Philippines and the world move forward.”
This year, the grand winner of The Bright Ideas Challenge (TBIC) Team FarmHer Innovators, won Php100,000 while their school received Php50,000 for the improvement of the institution’s STEM program.
The first runner-up, Team Maomag from Tagbilaran City Science High School in Bohol, won Php70,000 while their school received Php35,000. The second runner-up team, Team Portabio from Gusa Regional Science High School in Cagayan de Oro, took home Php50,000 while their school received Php25,000.
If you have kids of your own or are students yourselves and want to make a difference for the Philippines or even the world, we would highly encourage you to take up the STEM strand and take part in Shell NXplorers.
