About the Edison Challenge
Environmental commitment is a core value for Edison International. Our environmental concern is represented by our renewable leadership and support of programs that promote environmental health and education, such as the Edison Challenge.
The Edison Challenge, created by Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, and the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, offered students in grades 6-12 in Southern California Edison service territory the opportunity to take a hands-on approach to improving K-12 science education.
Scientific Fields
Students’ projects focus on environmental-science pursuits such as:- Energy transfer - How is energy transferred through wind, ocean currents, or water cycles?
- Energy conservation and energy efficiency - Why is this important, and what are some news ways we can conserve?
- Environmental protection and sustainability - What can we do to protect natural habitats and endangered species? What is climate change and what can we do about it?
- Renewable energy resources - What are the benefits of hydroelectric, natural gas, solar, wind, and nuclear energy?
- Air and water quality - What affects the quality of our air and water, and what are your ideas to improve this quality?
- Alternative transportation - What are the benefits of electric and biodiesel vehicles? What other alternative fuels are available?
Student Participant Requirements
Each Edison Challenge team was responsible for delivering many components, including:- Community Service – Student teams were asked to lead a larger group of their peers in a public service activity involving energy and the environment. They were encouraged to link it to educational activities in their science classes at the school, and required to submit a description of the community service project in their portfolios.
- Creating a Science Lesson Plan – Students were asked to work as a team to create and teach at least one new lesson plan for the science curriculum at your school (or for a lower grade classroom). The lesson plan was expected to use topics related to energy and the environment to illustrate or inspire students in science, and be related to their community service project. The idea for the lesson plan could come from existing curricula, other educational sources or, perhaps the best, from the team’s originality. A description of the lesson plan and any new new lesson components were to be included in the portfolio, along with a description of how the lesson plan fit into the class science curriculum, and how it met state science content standards. Finally, students were asked to describe how they taught the lesson in a classroom, how students responded to the lesson plan, and how it could be further improved.
- Developing a Creative Presentation – Each team was asked to create a visually compelling presentation, no longer than 10 minutes, to document the project. Visual media such as photos, videos, DVDs, CDs, websites, posters and physical mock-ups were encouraged. Any multimedia materials should not exceed 10 minutes.
- A Portfolio – The portfolio is a binder documenting the details of the community service and lesson plan components.
- Writing a Research Proposal (high school only) – High school teams were asked to write a 3 to 5 page proposal for an energy-related research project on any environmental science question or topic. The proposal needed to describe the issue or question, what the students hoped to learn, and how they would go about addressing it, including the methods and equipment that you would use. Students were not expected to actually do the project, just propose it!
Past Competition Winners
Learn more about past winners and finalists, and their award-winning projects.
2010 Winners and Finalists
2009 Winners
- High school
- Middle school
