The Siemen’s We Can Change the World Challenge dares students in the K-12 grades to come up with ideas to solve environmental problems in their community. About 72 finalists are selected from the student teams that enter. We’re ecstatic to see that two teams from Georgia are finalists!: The Diamond Detectives from Coal Elementary School in Cummings and PuriTy1 from Greenbrier High School in Evans.

They will compete for more than $300,00 in scholarships, trips and other prizes.

The Diamond Detectives came up with an innovative way to recycle food waste. Their composting system will be adopted school wide next year for a new garden they are creating.

Meanwhile PuriTy1 created a system to detect detergent contamination in bodies of water. Interestingly enough, they found that bodies of water near Augusta, Gawere more polluted than water in Atlanta, Ga.

You can see from their projects that they met Siemen’s challenge to “use science, math, and reading/language arts concepts and skills to create sustainable, reproducible environmental improvements. For example, students utilize their comprehension skills by reading and summarizing non-fiction texts.  Then they use their writing skills to write an action plan to solve a local environmental issue based on what they have learned."

You can read their full profiles below: