As a part of the design class, 3 grade 10 students in the school year 2019-2020 participated in the Changemaker Project and got funded to create a solar shade structure to power streetlights in one of Turin’s parking lots.

 

The Changemaker Project is a project that any student around the world can take part in and it encourages students to come up with a solution against problems around the world such as Discrimination, Social inequity, Health + Safety, Animal Welfare, and Environmental Protection. 

 

The students entered the competition with the group name, the New Lights, and they decided to do a project based on environmental protection. Specifically pollution. They chose pollution as it is a problem they face regularly as Turin is one of the most polluted cities in Europe.

 

New Lights Group formed by Sebastian S., Giovanni F., and Enzo B during their Grade 10 year and part of their MYP Design class, designed a shade structure to generate solar energy for lights in one of Turin’s parking lots. The structure gives ground clearance cargo trucks and good exposure for the solar panels to the sun. The solar panels collect the energy and store it in recycled car batteries during the day, and then use the stored energy to power the street lights during the night.

 

The New Lights were chosen to be in the pitch conference where they shared their pitch video in front of 5 judges and were then chosen to be funded.