CLIMACT FALL22
In the summer of 2022, Inspire’s ClimAct team conducted extensive user-research in four local schools to design an app that would motivate youth in the community to take action against Climate change. In partnership with Claremont Secondary School, Westmont Montessori School, Ecole Victor Brodeur, and Glenlyon Norfolk School, the team interacted with over 200 high school students. The Apprentice Garage members on this project uniquely spent a lot of time co-designing the app with students, as opposed to designing it for them. These in depth iterations of design and research sessions ultimately lead to an incredible MVP that was well-loved by teachers in the community and sparked local chatter about youth and climate action.
The app was so well received that these schools have chosen to integrate it into their highschool curricula. As a result the ClimAct team is now testing the live version of the app in schools to ensure it serves the need of educating students about climate change, as well as ensuring that the app provides enough functionalities for teachers. The app is especially integral in Claremont Secondary’s IGS (Institute for Global Solutions) program, which is a program for students with a special interest in global sustainability topics. This project also catalyzed a partnership between Inspire and Westmont Montessori school, which hosts the Westmont Prize competition; moving forward, top ideas in the contest will be pitched to the Inspire program so that more visions of our local youth can become reality.
TEAM MEMBERS
Gabrielle Aparecida Pires Alves
Master’s degree in computer science at the Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil
Manish Sihag
Graduate research student in the Computer Science department at the University of Victoria
Kezia Devathasan
Project Ambassador
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
A team of 4 students aged 12-15 all from different schools (Matteo Carere: 7th grade at Ecole Brodeur, Sebastian Damian: 7th grade at Ecole Brodeur, Thea Damian: 9th grade at Claremont secondary, Zeinab Guitouni: 9th grade at GNS). They entered the Westmont Design Challenge competition, which was a design challenge towards a sustainability problem, with no intention to win, but for the learning opportunities instead. They ended up winning first place in the competition with a video of our plan for the app.
They hope to make a difference with their app and help guide teens in the right direction in maintaining an eco-friendly environment. They hope to have a working MVP by the end of the summer and have it adopted in schools on the island in September!