Students from Tasmanian school Huonville High have won the Oceania Division of the Global High Schools Zayed Future Energy Prize.
Huonville High was one of 14 schools from the region competing for the prize which aims to inspire future generations "to be responsible, sustainable citizens".
Huonville team leader Toby Thorpe, 14, represented the school at the ceremony in Abu Dhabi and was presented with the USD100,000 award to make the school's designs a reality.
“The experience of the presentation was absolutely amazing," Toby said. “There were world leaders there from all over the world [and] I got to meet some of them.
"The ex-president of Iceland came up and congratulated me and the president of Kazakhstan presented me with the award."
The students come from an area which has traditionally relied on the forest industry until a recent downturn.
The Huonville team designed a range of sustainable solutions, including retro-fitting a school building from a 0.5-star energy rating to a six-star energy rating.
They will now also build a bicycle-powered cinema, a bio-digester, more solar panels and a windmill.
Toby said the prize money would transform the school and create new opportunities. “It means more opportunities for the school; it's going to give all the students a better opportunity for renewable energy education.”
Huonville High Principal, Geoff Williamson said the award would help build future leaders.
“It will have such an impact on the region as well, it's not just us as a school, but it is building the leaders of the future in sustainable practices”, Mr Williamson said.
"For the school it means we can implement the plans put forward and develop the school as a 'lighthouse' school for sustainable practices.
"The aim is for all the plans to be implemented, including the bicycle-powered cinema. The funding comes out based on what we produce throughout the year; the aim is to get as many done in the next 12 months as possible.”
Engineers Australia’s Tasmania General Manager, Dr Vicki Gardiner said that this is achievement is another example of the innovative nature that seems to be inherent in Tasmanian students.
“The ongoing success Tasmanian students have in programs such as The Global High Schools Zayed Future Energy Prize and F1 in Schools shows that we have a very capable group of future innovators”, Dr Gardiner said.
“The trick is now to not only keep the interest of these students in considering STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths] careers, but to also inspire and encourage the next group of students coming through primary schools.
“STEAM is mainstream knowledge and is required for Tasmania to have a talented and agile workforce that is able to meet the as yet unknown skills required by the State in 10-15 years’ time”, she said.
The Zayed Future Energy Prize competition started in 2008 and was created by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi.
Learn more about the winning project team from the YouTube video uploaded by the Zayed Future Energy Prize:
Image: The Huonville High School Sustainability Learning Centre, a place where students can practically apply their studies in sustainability.