KLS Student Receives 2020 Global Changemakers Seed Grant

As part of the Khan Lab School (KLS) Extended Day program this fall, 10 students took an elective class called Global Changemakers. These students worked with KLS Extended Day Coordinator Arden Simone to learn about 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 happy to announce that IL4 student Aditi J. is the first recipient of the KLS Global Changemakers Seed Grant! Her Tasteastic Spork project, a wheat-grain based biodegradable fork that will reduce the waste caused by plastic utensils, impressed everyone with 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 and creates many other problems for humans who work in factories that use plastic. I became sad when I learned about this, but then I 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 that edible silverware could 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 to use wheat flour, sorghum flour, and wheat bran to create her first round of experimental edible sporks. Her hope is to eventually scale up her production of biodegradable sporks 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.