TORRANCE, Calif. – Dec. 10, 2013 – Trading cell phones for calculators, and fashion trends for lab coats, 32 middle and high school teams were selected as finalists for the Lexus Eco Challenge – claiming a $10,000 prize to be shared among the team, teacher and school. The winners will now compete in the Final Challenge for a chance to win one of two $30,000 grand prizes and eight $15,000 first-place awards. The Lexus Eco Challenge is an educational program and contest that inspires and empowers young people to learn about the environment and take action to improve it.  Lexus will award a total of $500,000 in grants and scholarships throughout this year’s program.

Lexus awarded 16 teams for the “Land and Water” challenge and 16 more for “Air and Climate” challenge. Winning submissions included:

• Team 696, of La Crescenta, California, built and launched a weather balloon to collect data to speed regrowth in a local wilderness area. 
• The Trash Terminators 2.0, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, partnered with a composting facility to set up a composting initiative, successfully diverting more than 80% of their school's trash by recycling and composting.
• The Green Team, of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, constructed a bioreactor to research algae as a renewable energy source.
• Team Solar Plug Solution, from Salt Lake City, Utah, implemented a solar outlet in their school’s outdoor classroom to help conserve energy and excite the students about solar energy.

“Through the Lexus Eco Challenge teens continue to prove they can change the world, starting with their community,” said Jeff Bracken, Lexus group vice president and general manager.  “In the Final Challenge of this competition we task the teams to impact the world at large. It’s exciting to see teens put their passion behind a plan.”

For each of the challenges, teams were required to define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.  The finalist teams that best addressed environmental challenges associated with land/water and air/climate are: 

 

Land and Water Finalists
High Schools
Region	School Name	Team Name	School City, State, Zip
Eastern	Arlington High School	Mission: Mitigation	LaGrangeville, NY 12540
	Pinelands Regional High School	Pinelands Eco Scienteers	Tuckerton, NJ 08087
Southern	Hoover High School	Team Cahaba	Hoover,  AL 35244
	Coppell High School	IB Coppell	Coppell, TX 75019
Central	Parkway North High School	Waste Busters	St. Louis, MO 63146
	Bartlett High School	Greengineers	Bartlett, IL 60103
	St. Ursula Academy	St Ursula Arrows	Toledo, OH 43606
Western	Clark Magnet High School	Team 696	La Crescenta, CA 91214
	Clark Magnet High School	EcoNarcs MkII	La Crescenta, CA 91214
	Guajome Learning Centers – Guajome Schools	The Preservation Foundation	Vista, CA 92083
Middle Schools
Region	School Name	Team Name	School City, State, Zip
Eastern	New Egypt Middle School	Eco-Mythbusters	New Egypt, NJ 08533
Southern	Whiteface Middle School	Arsenic Arresters	Whiteface ,TX 79379
	Evans Middle School	The Green Jobs Team	McKinney, TX 75070
	Guy B Phillips Middle School	Trash Terminators	Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Central	Charles City Middle School	Muscles	Charles City, IA 50616
Western	All Saints' Episcopal Day School	Eco Tigers	Phoenix, AZ 85012

 
 

Air and Climate Finalists
High Schools
Region	School Name	Team Name	School City, State, Zip
Eastern	Daniel Boone High School	Go Clean, Go Green, Goooooo Algae!	Birdsboro ,PA 19508
	Grafton High School	Phineas & Ferns	Yorktown, VA 23692
Southern	Southside Christian School	Window Team	Simpsonville, SC 29681
	Newberry High School	NHS Renewables	Newberry, FL 32669
Central	Visitation Academy	Visitation Vivettes	St. Louis, MO 63017
	New Buffalo High School	Psionic Mushrooms	New Buffalo, MI 49117
Western	Clark Magnet High School	EcoNarcs Mk 2	La Crescenta, CA 91214
	Clark Magnet High School	Enviros	La Crescenta, CA 91214
Middle Schools
Region	School Name	Team Name	School City, State, Zip
Eastern	Christa McAuliffe P.S. 28	Tunnel Savers	Jersey City, NJ 07307
	Newtown Middle School	Mean Green Machines	Newtown, CT 06470
Southern	Lawton Chiles Middle Academy	Ghost Busters	Lakeland, FL 33801
	Leonard Evans Jr. Middle School	Passive Solar Sunday	McKinney, TX 75070
Central	Byron Center West Middle School	Electrical Team	Byron Center ,MI 49315
	Whitehall Middle School	iCompost@WMS	Whitehall, MI 49461
Western	Olympus Junior High School	Solar Plug Solution	Holladay ,UT 84117
	Olympus Junior High School	Windustry	Holladay, UT 84117

To learn more about the winning teams, visit: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750833
 
For the final challenge, all 32 finalist teams will be asked to reach beyond the local community and inspire environmental action around the world through innovative ideas that are communicated to a wide audience. From the Final Challenge entries, eight first-place teams and two grand-prize-winning teams will be selected and announced in February 2014.
 
In addition to the ongoing contest, the Lexus Eco Challenge also includes educational materials created and distributed by Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, to encourage teachers to integrate creative lesson plans about the environment into their classrooms.  For each challenge, the Web site (www.scholastic.com/lexus) has lesson plans and teacher instructions, including questions to help guide a discussion about the current challenge topic, facts about the topic, and guidelines for a specific classroom project. 
 
The Lexus Eco Challenge is part of The Lexus Pursuit of Potential, a philanthropic initiative that generates up to $3 million in donations each year for organizations that help build, shape and improve children’s lives. 

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