Do Illinois high schoolers have what it takes to solve real-world problems? A group of students had months to research food system issues and find a solution as part of Northern Illinois University’s first-ever "Innovation Challenge."
We’re one hour from the presentations. Six months of work comes down to a five-minute presentation, but DeKalb High School senior Margaret Nenia says they’re not nervous — at least not yet.
"I'm excited now," she said, "I’ll be nervous later," as her group laughs.
DeKalb is one of five teams taking on the challenge.
Near the beginning of the school year, Nenia says they were presented with two big, broad problems related to the food system and told, pick one and go.
“Which I'm very thankful for," said Nenia, "because it left room for a lot of creativity in our solution."
The two options: antibiotic resistance in cattle and microplastics in seafood.
Senior Mohammed Al Fatih says their group landed on microplastics and, even though the cattle question seems a bit more relevant to rural northern Illinois, they found a way to connect their solution to their community.
“We specifically are focused on agriculture," he said, "because the seeds have a coating that has microplastics in it, which I didn't even know until we were introduced to this problem."
Coatings are used to improve germination and make seeds less fragile. The DeKalb students’ idea is to make these coatings out of shellfish and fungi instead of plastic.
A group from Romeoville High School attacked the same microplastic problem, but from a very different angle. Seniors Dylan Preston and Joey Chvoy say It took them months to find it. Professionals spend years researching this and sometimes it sends you down a rabbit hole to nowhere.
“Towards the start," said Preston, "oh my goodness, Joey and I would work long nights at Starbucks, and we kept seeing all these things that didn't lead to a solution." “It can get pretty pessimistic when you're researching all that type of stuff," Chvoy adds. "You see all the data about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
That’s the ocean’s largest plastic accumulation. It’s estimated to weigh 100,000 tons.
But then, after dead end after dead end, Dylan and Joey had a breakthrough.
“My hand still hurts," said Preston, "from that high five we did."
Instead of cleaning up microplastics, go right to the source.
“We learned about this thing called photocatalysis," said Preston. "It'll break down harmful substances," Chvoy explained, "including microplastics, which is what makes us believe we can make a self-dissolving plastic.”
Over the months, NIU-appointed mentors helped them turn that idea into a product. And, up to the last-minute, students and staff helped them make final tweaks.
But now it’s time to present, ”Shark Tank”-style, to a panel of judges. The Romeoville group is up first. Their presentation is a sales pitch.
"Our belief," said Chvoy, looking out at crowd and judges, with their website displayed behind them, "is that if we incorporate these photocatalysts, the specific one we're working with is called titanium dioxide, if we incorporate that into the manufacturing process of polyethylene, which is our type of plastic we're working with, then we can hopefully create a self-dissolving piece of plastic."
Judges ask how long it would take to dissolve. They say six months to a year in the sun. What about any harmful byproducts? They’ve thought of that too.
Every presentation is different. Some bring props, hand-made models or YouTube videos.
Now, it’s DeKalb’s turn. The group steps to the front and takes turns setting water bottles full of colorful beads on a table.
"Imagine," said Al Fatih, "that this water bottle contains 538 tons of microplastics, which is a weight comparable to 135 Asian elephants." "Now take 10 of those bottles," said teammate Saila Nataatmadja, "and what we have now is a representation of all of the microplastics found in our oceans."
Al Fatih and the team say, ‘One big culprit? Those plastic seed coatings.’
"We are here today," he said, "to propose an alternative to seed coatings made from a material known as chitosan, a biodegradable, all natural alternative made from shellfish as well as fungi. We're particularly focusing on fungi, just because it's easier to manufacture.”
After they wrap up, Al Fatih is feeling confident.
“It went better than I thought to be completely honest!” he said, laughing.
The Romeoville students were feeling good too, but the 5-minute time limit got to them.
“We didn't get to mention everything we could have," said Chvoy, "but everything we did mention was strong."
Now, it’s time for the awards. The top three get a cash prize. The winner also gets a scholarship to one of NIU STEAM’s summer camps.
Another group from Romeoville wins, led by students Anna Mola and Emily Rog. Their presentation focused on creative ways to help cow microbiomes.
Even though the months-long “innovation challenge” is over, some students aren't ready to stop working. Many, like Joey Chvoy, think their solutions have the potential to make real change.
“We had one of the judges actually come up to us and say we could get in contact," he said. "He loved our idea, and he said we could get in contact with some scientists and grad students at NIU. It could be possible to make this into a tangible idea, which I think is amazing.”
The organizers at NIU say that was the whole point; to help high school students attack these problems not as practice or for a grade, but to make an impact.
