- Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Current Science News and Events
Four CMSD schools win Innovation Challenge competition
Congratulations to Bard High School Early College East, Campus International High School, Garrett Morgan High School and John Adams College & Career Academy! Each of these schools’ teams won $1,000 to implement their wellness intuitive.
65 students from across the Cleveland area participated in a free five-hour workshop event Case Western Reserve University, hosted by UnitedHealthcare and GENYOUth’s AdVenture Capital to develop innovative ideas that solve health and wellness challenges in their schools or communities.
A total of 10 groups of winners were selected to receive funding from UnitedHealthcare to become a reality. The CMSD winning projects were from the following schools:
- Bard High School Early College East: “Home and School Nutrition,” building an app to track physical activity to encourage students to exercise more and earn nutritious smoothies.
- Campus International High School: “Be Green or Be Gone,” to work with the nutrition staff at school to install a salad bar to encourage more healthy options during lunch
- Garrett Morgan High School: “Traffic Stop,” an idea to increase breakfast participation from 25-70 percent by starting an interactive open mic breakfast club.
- John Adams College & Career Academy: “Motivational Mondays,” to get students excited about nutritious smoothies by purchasing a “smoothie bike” and starting a plan to install a healthy vending machine.
UnitedHealthcare employee volunteer mentors worked alongside the students to help them develop innovative yet practical solutions. Through rapid prototyping and design thinking exercises, students refined their ideas into a pitch that they delivered to a panel of judges comprised UnitedHealthcare executives in what has been described as a "Shark Tank-style" competition. At stake for students was the chance to walk away with a $1,000 grant to bring their big idea to life.