Earlier this month, our pupils in Year 6-9 took part in an exciting entrepreneurship competition called #HarrowIDEAS. The students’ were set a brief to generate and develop an idea that could ‘change the world’ whilst following a number of different steps helping them to build their entrepreneurial skill set.
The assessment team at 7billionideas had the greatest of pleasure reviewing all of the ideas submitted and have selected one winner from each year group to become one of four finalistes. Congratulations goes to:
- Barton (Year 6) – Edu-Institute
- Erin (Year 7) – Food To Go
- Audrey (Year 8) – The Floating Backpack
- Alicia (Year 9) – Hivemind
The winning idea selected by the Harrow School community will be turned into a children’s book and published on Amazon so they can share their idea with the rest of the world! To help generate some positive discussions and demonstrate the creativity of our students to the world, the way we will be selecting a winner is via an online poll. This poll will be open from 26th to 30th April on Harrow’s social media pages (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
Please take a look at the ideas and join in on the voting. We look forward to seeing the outcome shortly and well done to all of the pupils involved.
Barton (Year 6)
What’s my idea?
Edu-Institute is a machine with a built-in hologram that allows citizens around the world, no matter what race, gender or wealth, to have tuition. It’s a small black box- half the size of your palm, which makes it even more convenient to carry around. As well as being convenient, Edu-Institute is made up of different recycled plastics, helping our planet even more.
How will this impact the world?
- Reducing Gender Inequality– Gender inequality, along with many other problems, has been a crisis we face every day. With Edu-Institute, this major problem can be reduced: illiterate children and adults can be taught how to read, write and draw.
- Unemployment– With the help of Edu-Institute, underprivileged children and adults alike can learn to avoid unemployment, which causes several issues, such as poverty and stress. In addition to avoiding unemployment, this makes it easier for citizens to avoid a harsher lifestyle, such as living in the streets.
- Reduces poverty – Every year, 1.2 million children drop out of high school in the US alone, for many reasons, which include helping their families or taking care of someone with a disability. Not having a complete education makes it extremely hard to find a job and earn money, affecting many futures. Edu-institute allows children to continue their education even if they have to drop out of school. In impoverished countries, many children have to trek miles just to go to school, so Edu-institute protects these children from dangers and waking up at dawn.
Why should my idea win Harrow Ideas?
Although I am only in year 6, winning Harrow IDEAS will show that anyone can think of a great idea which could change the world. All we need to do is become a leader for a better world. ‘Edu-Institute’ can inspire investors and inventors alike to develop new products and new technological advancements.
My idea focuses on reducing gender inequality and poverty – major disasters we unfortunately have to face. So in voting for my product, we can hopefully rebuild the world into, not a place where children fear to face what’s going to happen the next day, but to a world where we live in harmony.
I acknowledge the fact that we wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a feat without scientists, and inventors collaborating with each other, but isn’t this just pulling us all together, forming stronger bonds?
Erin (Year 7)
Whats my idea:
Food to Go is a vending machine that aims to reduce global hunger by recycling the environment. My goal is for the machine to collect trash and trade it for food. The amount of garbage you throw away would equal the amount of food you get.
Why will this impact the world?
- Slowly saves the earth with each step: Everyday, one life is saved by picking up trash. However, in order to assist those in need of food, we also require their assistance in saving the planet.
- Feed the world’s hungry: Because world hunger is such a serious problem, this idea would benefit and save people all over the world, as well as poor families.
- For children in poverty, the rubbish is turned into paper and books: When trash is collected, it is compressed into paper and released as books for educational and informational purposes. Since many small children do not receive enough education as a result of their impoverished families.
Why should my idea win Harrow Ideas?
I’d like for people to support my idea because I’d like to bring food and wellbeing to families who are in need. My vision, I believe, has the potential to change the world and feed the poor. I’m sure not everyone will embrace and assist me in bringing this project to reality, but different solutions will benefit the Earth in different ways. However, I would like people to vote for me in order to save the environment and end world hunger.
Audrey (Year 8)
What’s my idea?
According to a recent estimate, 96% of students are carrying way too much on their backs. In fact, studies have shown that heavy backpacks can distort the natural curves in the middle and lower backs, causing muscle strain, shoulder aches and irritation to the spine joints and the rib cage. This could lead to diseases such as cancer of the spinal cord, arthritis, kidney infections, sciatica etc. The pain and damages caused by heavy backpacks can be very severe. This is why I present to you the floating backpack! The floating backpack is an environmentally friendly device used to help students carry heavy backpacks with the help of a hoverboard, it is powered by reusable solar panels which is very safe and will not harm the environment. It also includes a GPS tracker to ensure that you never lose your backpack. Additionally, this device also helps organise your backpack by creating a list of things you need to bring in your backpack for the day including homeworks or assignments that are due.
How will this impact the world?
- Prevent diseases caused by heavy backpacks: every year, at least 14,000 children are treated for problems related to backpack injuries. Over 5,000 students are sent to the emergency department just because of injuries caused by heavy backpacks yearly. With the floating backpack, students will never again get injuries caused by heavy backpacks and parents will not have to worry about whether their children will acquire back pain or illnesses, eliminating medical costs and consequences to society.
- Enhance student learning: schools are really big and all the backpacks look identical. With the help of GPS tracking, students will never lose their backpack or mix them up with another student. Time for locating backpacks saved, students can enjoy weight-free varieties of learning, extracurricular activities or community services.
- Encourage more people to use renewable fuels: the floating backpack is powered by solar energy. Solar energy is a renewable, free energy resource, it is inexhaustible and very sustainable and will not emit any greenhouse gases while producing energy. The floating backpack not only leads the world trend of applying renewable energy, it also contributes to environment safety and friendliness.
Why should my idea win Harrow Ideas?
Every day, students have to carry backpacks filled with workbooks, calculators, laptops, water bottles etc. As a student myself, back pain and shoulder aches as a result of carrying too much is common. So I began thinking of ways that we could prevent back pain caused by heavy backpacks. This was when the idea of the floating backpack came to my mind. With the floating backpack, the pain of carrying heavy backpacks through the flights of stairs through the vast campus relieved. My idea focuses on problems that are faced in everyday life that affect many without them even noticing, with this, I hope my idea can be put into application and allow more people to acknowledge the damaging effects of heavy backpacks and take action sooner.
Alicia (Year 9)
What is my idea?
A service that consolidates your account information and subscription details into a single, conveniently accessible platform in order to better manage internet activity and digital transactions. It would be made available as a website, app, and browser extension on all flagship devices. Ergonomically designed to streamline user experience, the interface would serve the purposes of : recording email addresses, recommending and storing resistant passwords, tracking online payment dates and summarising expenses. As a third party source, this service would provide more utility than the built-in browser storage (google password saving for example) since it is simpler to locate for any demographic, cross-browser, and has a multitude of additional features. While people would be sensible to be cautious of such promises, considering the possibility of company security leaks, other companies with similar utilities are generally reputable in the business of security, and are regularly audited for dependability.
How will this impact the world?
My vision isn’t exactly a revolutionary catalyst of societal impact, but it is my belief that such ideas should not be compromised and overlooked, since all innovations aim unequivocally to improve and adapt on various experiences, technologies and systems.
In this advancing age, one aspect of overall digitalisation is that everything from the prevalent popularity of on-demand streaming services such as Netflix, HBO and Hulu, to industry standard programs like Adobe require provisional installments, which can be challenging to manage and record manually, given the frequency of such business models and disparity in payment times.
Furthermore, a concern that relates generally to interaction with technology as a whole is cybersecurity. Providing a platform that helps integrate all of this by safeguarding sensitive information, monitoring credit card expenditure with an emphasis on ongoing payments so as to provide a painless cancellation process at the user’s discretion, is a tremendously valuable investment.
Why should my idea win Harrow Ideas?
As previously stated, there may remain an inconsistency within the issues that contestants have chosen to address, however, this is not proportional to the value of the proposal. It is my opinion that in addition to being a project with high degrees of practicality and feasibility, there are few products that appeal indiscriminately to all demographics; with digital welfare being such a prevailing point of importance, our market could range anywhere from young professionals to elders who may experience difficulties grappling with the intricacies of internet security. In summary, I would attribute the deservedness of this idea to its far-reaching potential and decently thought-out operating strategy.