IL4 Student Receives 2020 Global Changemakers Seed Grant
As part of the Khan Lab School (KLS) Extended Dayprogram this fall, 10 students took an elective class called Global Changemakers. These students worked withKLSExtended Day Coordinator Arden Simoneto learnabout the United Nations and their 17 goals for sustainable development.
The class used the design-thinking process to come up with solutions targeted to address specific Sustainable Development Goals.As part of their last Global Changemakers class on Tuesday, December 8, students presented their project ideas and competed for the chance to win the KLS Global Changemakers Seed Grant.
We are happyto announce that IL4 student Aditi J. is the first recipient of the KLS Global Changemakers Seed Grant! Her Tasteastic Spork project, awheat-grain based biodegradable fork that will reduce thewaste caused by plastic utensils, impressed everyonewith its creativity and attention to detail.
Aditi thoroughly researched the United Nations'17 sustainable development goals and decided that she wanted to help our world use less plastic. Aditi said that she started to become interested in the plastic problem a few years ago after she'd watched a documentary about plastic with her family. She was struck by the fact that there could soon be more plastic than fish in our oceans if humans don't change their habits.
"I learned that plastic fills up our landfills andcreates many other problems for humans who work in factories that use plastic.I became sad when I learned about this, but thenI thought maybe I could do something about it," Aditi said.
While watching a cooking show that featured a dish with an edible candy spoon, Aditi got the idea thatedible silverwarecould be used to replace plastic utensils.
"I'm going to use the money I won to conduct experiments to see what is possible for creating the spork," said Aditi.
Aditi will continue to work on this project with our Extended Day Coordinator, Arden Simone,in 2021. She plans touse wheat flour, sorghum flour, and wheat bran to create herfirst round of experimental edible sporks. Her hope is to eventuallyscale up her production ofbiodegradablesporks so all KLS students can use them to eat lunch.
A huge congratulations to Aditi J. and her Tastetastic Spork project! We're looking forward to following this project as it develops.