Edible Food Packaging Design Scoop Top Award at International Youth STEM Competition
At the BIEA STEM 2021 Award Ceremony on 22 September 2021, students showcased their innovative ideas to package school and work lunches.
The 2021 competition theme incorporated UN’s Sustainable Development Goals & COP26 mission, teams were challenged to investigate the plastic pollution crisis and develop sustainable food packaging both on a local and international level. The budding scientists aged 9-18 showed great enthusiasm to take climate action and make a positive impact in their communities. No less than 40 innovative packaging materials were developed including corn, orange peels, onion husks, durian, algae films, beeswax, corn-starch, glass wool and many more. Many designs were made into prototypes with well-conducted experiments to test the design potential, including insulation, fragility, flexibility and temperature tolerance etc. Dr Alex Holmes, Head of STEM at BIEA was impressed: “It’s incredible that these youngsters some aged under 10 have come up with these designs and able to explain the development process clear to real scientists.”
Competition finalists from 13 countries, including the UK, UAE, China, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland and Azerbaijan, all delivering exceptional presentations to the judges, enlightening the panel with what's happening in their regions.
Lead judge Peter Gallivan from the Royal Institution said: “It has been a privilege spending time talking to young people all across the world about their ideas to help save the planet. The climate crisis is one of the greatest scientific challenges faced by humanity, and so it is inspiring to see the passion, enthusiasm and creativity shown by all the teams entering this year’s BIEA STEM Competition. The future will I am sure be a much greener place with some of these young people in charge!”
The Grand Prize was won by a team of three 16-year-olds from Sin Min School in Malaysia. The trio - Ashton, Adrian and Vincent were thrilled over their win, "It's been a really hard year, we are still in lockdown, so had really limited time to get together and get the materials we needed for the prototypes. We have a huge plastic problem in Malaysia, it's affecting people's health and our environment. We just want to do something in our power to make a difference." They developed an agar container to hold food and also edible corn-starch cling film strengthened with eggshells. A detailed report on the local plastic crisis was also documented. Their prototype video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/OLbbUtPiDD4
The UK teams did well in the competition, with 17 years old Arabella Eales from London taking the Chairman's Award, an aspiring material scientist created a packaging box using eco cellophane and homemade biodegradable glues. Speaking of her experience, 'doing the project has made me even more determined to pursue a career in science, we talked about climate change and plastic pollution all the time, but we need real skills to make a difference and my calling is to be a female engineer!'
Team Quadrifolium from Tonbridge Grammar School wowed the judges with their picnic blank made using crisps packaging. Best girlfriends - Sree, Sanjaya, Soha and Adit took inspiration from their Asian cultural heritage, developed their prototypes based on Seaweed and Sugar cane bagasse. During their research, they were shocked that only 4% of plastic is recycled in Kent and they are now working in school to raise awareness of plastic packaging issues among students and their families.
David Hanson, BIEA’s STEM Chairman, commented on the young students’ performance as ‘showing a level of great maturity and consideration to the current ecological issue facing the world’.
The UK and US government research indicate, 80% of the future jobs will involve science and maths. It’s therefore ever more important and urgent for young people to build up their Science Capital. With the international STEM competition at the heart of the BIEA STEM programmes, BIEA has been working in partnership in local regions to develop initiatives that enthuse and engage youngsters in STEM learning, and secure their knowledge in critical STEM skills.
Examples of other Award Winners:
Malaysia juniors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Tggn2R42s -- delightful presentation of coconut food containers
Azerbaijan: https://youtu.be/e-kqP8GN5Vk -- well-conducted research & experiments using onion husks, peanuts husks etc
India 10-year-olds: https://youtu.be/2cEWmuNslLE -- articulate presentation including analysis of plastic damage to human health
Malaysia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280ATj7HPwk -- excellent prototype using local resources such as durian, tapioca
China Finalists: https://youtu.be/qcg9adJYxLA -- a compilation of several teams
UK 10-year-olds: https://youtu.be/6oIjlqA8qpU -- shows school/teacher encouragement is key maintain students' interests in STEM