Manitoba’s Road to Resilience

R2R Reports

R2R guiding principles

mb climate solutions

R2R Reports

R2R Guiding Principles

mb climate solutions

Student Design Challenge

Manitoba’s Climate Action Team, Educators for Climate Action, and Climate Change Connection have partnered to bring you a Student Design & Inquiry Challenge to help students explore the Road to Resilience.

In this inquiry and design challenge, students will research, design, and create carbon-reducing and/or resiliency systems in Manitoba, articulated in Manitoba’s Road to Resilience. Student can create small tangible models of a system, develop a Future City project, implement a system at their school, or create a digital model, such as Minecraft for education.

The goal of the Student Design Challenge

This is the front cover of the student design challenge. At the top is a green banner with background text that says, "Manitoba's Road to Resilience: Student Inquiry and Design Challenge". On the left is an Educators for Climate Action logo and on the right is the Manitoba's Climate Action Team logo.</p> <p>Below the header banner is text describing what the project is, and at the bottom there's an image of a river with a bike path beside it. All around it there are windmills.

Our goal is for students to develop and create innovative solutions that minimize greenhouse gas emissions and develop resiliency in Manitoba. By applying scientific and social principles for evaluating design solutions, students will explore and share ways to address the climate crisis and build local resilience in Manitoba.

There are important links between STEM learning and wellbeing, as “STEM is uniquely positioned to cultivate critical hope through solutions-based instruction that considers causes, impacts and responses to climate change” (UBC Climate Emergency).

Students will accomplish this goal through 6 tasks:

  • TASK 1 – Empathize: Look, Listen, Learn (research)
  • TASK 2 – Design problem
  • TASK 3 – Brainstorm solutions
  • TASK 4 – Evaluation
  • TASK 5 – Design and create
  • TASK 6 – Launch: Share and showcase

Challenge details

  • Students or classroom designs can be submitted no later than 11:59pm on April 11, 2025.
  • Submissions should include a short video (2 mins or less) and/or 2-3 photos describing the project learning and what students designed or created.
    Teachers can register their students/class below to be included into the challenge!
  • The challenge winner will be chosen based on their demonstration of innovation and creative solutions related to carbon reduction and climate resilience in Manitoba and presented with their $500 Climate Action Fund Award in April 2025.

Questions about the challenge? Please email educators4climateactionmb@gmail.com

Questions about the Road to Resilience? Please email info@climateactionmb.ca

Download Challenge Outline

Winners of the challenge will receive a $500 Climate Action Fund for their school, to be used for furthering climate action!

Register for the challenge

The Road to Resilience Student Inquiry & Design Challenge was designed by Scott Durling (Educators for Climate Action Manitoba) through the LAUNCH cycle framework and with the support from Chat GPT.

Outcomes and Curricular Connections

Science

Consider Cluster 0 Design Process/STSE outcomes and/or the 5 foundations for scientific
literacy:

Social Studies

Consider Social Studies Skills (S) outcomes, or Citizenship outcomes in your grade curriculum:

Mathematics

Consider applying the numbers, patterns and relations, and shape and space strands in your specific grade curriculum for identifying the problems of the climate crisis and for designing solutions. Furthermore, consider the the seven mathematical processes for applying math into the challenge (Communication, Connections, Mental Mathetmatics and Estimation, Problem Solving, Reasoning, Technology, Visualization):

Manitoba’s Road to Resilience Series

 This report series has been produced by Manitoba’s Climate Action Team (a coalition of climate and policy organizations) to provide provincial policy makers with solutions to help Manitobans affordably feed, shelter, and move themselves without fossil fuels

 

Learn more

Guiding Principles

 

These guiding principles helped shape Manitoba’s Road to Resilience. We would encourage you to integrate them into your student design challenge and inquiry projects as well!

 

Indigenous Leadership

Seek out and incorporate direction from elders and indigenous knowledge-keepers. Seek out and ensure free, prior, and informed consent. Comprising less than 5% of the world’s population, indigenous people protect 80% of global biodiversity.

A Just Transition for Workers

Provide a path for displaced workers in fossil-fuel dependent industries to find employment in alternative ways.

Holism

Recognize that our economy, society, natural environment, and culture are interrelated. Action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must take a holistic approach.

Recognize the Right of Nature to Exist

Persist and maintain nature’s vital cycles and support human life on earth. Protecting, reclaiming, and expanding natural areas is key to carbon sequestration and fighting climate change. Biodiversity must be protected and enhanced.

Social Justice

Populations socially excluded by discrimination based on race, gender, ability, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and age must be part of climate resilience so no one is left behind.