Districts across the nation are pouring in submissions for Schneider Electric’s K12 Bold Ideas Contest. The contest challenges districts to come up with their grandest, most innovative ideas for district modernizations and improvements. The district with the most innovative submission will receive up to $100,000 to help support their bold idea.
Ready to submit a bold idea? Do it here!
What is a Bold Idea?
Great news, there’s no wrong answer for what a bold idea is for your district. It could be new windows and doors, a subaquatic research lab or literally anything in between.
We don’t want to limit your creativity or innovation; we want to capture your raw, bold vision for change. And since there’s no limit to the number of submissions you can make, feel free to formalize as many ideas as you want.
If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few exercises to get the ideas turning:
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Gather the goals of your district's community. Your bold idea may be something obvious the district needs to address. Or it could be a collective dream that the community shares. Get a pulse from the community and build out from there.
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Start with key challenges. There are very real challenges that districts across the nation share. A few of these include increasing student populations, funding challenges and facilities that are in desperate need of modernization. All of these challenges could be a solid starting point for you to build your bold vision around.
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Tap into district faculty and staff: District employees on the frontlines (teachers and administrators) have plenty of dreams about improvements they would make to the district if they could. Tap into these and look for shared challenges across the district.
What Have We Seen From Submissions So Far?
We’ve analyzed all the current submission data and are intrigued to see that 66% of the contest submissions to date are focused on student engagement.
Most of these student engagement submissions are based in some form of STEM education. As an organization with tons of highly technical needs, we know firsthand how crucial STEM education is. Today's elementary school students are our future engineers, project managers, and other skilled employees. That's why we're pleased to see all these STEM ideas.
Other trends we've noticed include:
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Instilling Innovative training ideas for faculty and staff
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Investment in outdoor learning environments
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Addressing much-needed facility upgrades across the district
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Adding specialized curriculums to address specific issues
What Does Schneider Electric Have to Do with K12 Schools?
Schneider Electric has over twenty years of experience helping school districts successfully advance their goals through energy and infrastructure improvement projects. We've partnered with more than 600 districts across the nation to uncover energy and operational savings that can be reinvested to modernize facilities, upgrade technology, build brand reputation and unlock additional funding.
And since we're asking you for your bold ideas, it's only fair that we share what our bold ideas are at Schneider Electric.
Our entire global organization is focused on the generational task of solving our current energy paradox. We're working to determine how we improve global sustainability and reduce carbon footprints, while also providing the irrefutable human right to have access to energy. We're challenging ourselves to rethink the future with this overarching bold vision. And such a bold vision requires bold ideas that are tangible and applicable today.