Challenge 2

Welcome to the high school challenge page for Challenge 2 of the Fairchild Challenge! Read below to find challenge information, entry requirements, resources and more for the challenge.

Challenge 2: Environmental Justice

Title: Reaching our Goals
For individuals or groups | Maximum points: 200

Due Date: Friday, Dec 11th, 2026 by 5 p.m. 

Download challenge rubric here

Your Challenge:

Climate action, quality education, and reduced inequities. These are just three of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Design Goals published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Since 2015, the 17 “UNSDG’s” have served as a framework for how to create positive, effective change for our communities and planet; currently and in the future. Those that adopt even a few of these goals are taking a wholistic approach to environmental challenges that considers the intersectionality of socio-economic status, education, health, and access.  

Your challenge is to create a short presentation on what two UNSDG’s you would use to solve the problems you see plaguing your community most. Your community might be your school, work, volunteer work, club, community center, or even your families. Work with peers to identify a challenge and research at least two UNSDG’s that best address the root causes of the problem you’ve identified. After identifying the solutions, relate them back to climate change. How would the UNSDG’s you chose subsequently tie in with broader climate change challenges? How can your local solution be applied on a broader scale? Where do you see the greatest need?  

Please submit your work in the form of a short slide deck (Canva, PowerPoint, etc.). In the presentation, please clearly outline the community challenge, relevant UNSDG’s (at least 2), what needs are being addressed, and how these solutions can be applied to create a greater impact in other parts of the world.

Entry Requirements:

Deliver to the high school programs coordinator at Phipps in person or via certified mail (electronic submission is not accepted for this challenge)

• Challenge Entry Form 
• Original slide deck that is labeled with students’ names and school name 
• Schools can submit a maximum of 3 original projects 
• Works Cited with at least 3 sources

Address:
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
The Fairchild Challenge c/o Alyssa Mulé
One Schenley Park
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Resources:

The following list of online resources may be used when preparing your entry:

 

• THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development 
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 
• Sustainability - Pittsburgh, PA 
• Sustainable Pittsburgh 
• Climate Action Plan 3.0 - Pittsburgh, PA 
• Removing Barriers to Learning | Literacy Pittsburgh 
• Top 20 for All the Wrong Reasons: Pittsburgh’s Air Quality Crisis - Women For a Healthy  
• Community Asset Density and Past-Year Mental Health Symptoms Among Youths | Pediatrics | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network Environment 
• Understanding and Combating Homelessness in the Pittsburgh Region | The Pittsburgh Foundation 
• Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh As Pittsburgh’s homeless crisis continues to escalate, finding solutions has proven difficult - Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh 
• World Health Day: Taking a closer look at Pittsburgh’s environmental health - Franco Harris Pittsburgh Center at Penn State 

 

Standards: 

Read below to find the standards for each grade level for Challenge 2 of the High School Fairchild Challenge

• Grades 9 – 12

Grades 9 – 12

• CC.3.5.9-10.A Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions. 
• CC.3.5.11-12.A Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to important distinctions the author makes and to any gaps or inconsistencies in the account. 
• CC.3.5.11-12.B Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms. 
• CC.3.5.11-12.F Analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, identifying important issues that remain unresolved. 
• 3.4.9-12.A Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze and interpret how issues, trends, technologies, and policies impact agricultural, food, and environmental systems and resources. 
• 3.4.9-12.B Students who demonstrate understanding can apply research and analytical skills to evaluate the conditions and motivations that lead to conflict, cooperation, and change among individuals, groups, and nations. 
• 3.4.9-12.C Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze and interpret how issues, trends, technologies, and policies impact watersheds and water resources. 
• 3.4.9-12.D Students who demonstrate understanding can apply research and analytical skills to systematically investigate environmental issues ranging from local issues to those that are regional or global in scope. 
• 3.4.9-12.E Students who demonstrate understanding can plan and conduct an investigation utilizing environmental data about a local environmental issue. 
• 3.4.9-12.F Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate and communicate the effect of integrated pest management practices on indoor and outdoor environments. 
• 3.4.9-12.G Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze and evaluate how best resource management practices and environmental laws achieve sustainability of natural resources. 
• 3.4.9-12.H Students who demonstrate understanding can design and evaluate solutions in which individuals and societies can promote stewardship in environmental quality and community well-being. 
• 3.4.9-12.I Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze and interpret data on a regional environmental condition and its implications on environmental justice and social equity. 
• 3.5.9-12.A Students who demonstrate understanding can use various approaches to communicate processes and procedures for using, maintaining, and assessing technological products and systems. 
• 3.5.9-12.N Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze and use relevant and appropriate design thinking processes to solve technological and engineering problems. 
• 3.5.9-12.Z Students who demonstrate understanding can recognize and explain how their community and the world around them informs technological development and engineering design. 
• 3.5.9-12.BB Students who demonstrate understanding can assess how similarities and differences among scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical knowledge and skills contributed to the design of a product or system. 
• 3.5.9-12.GG Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate how technology and engineering have been powerful forces in reshaping the social, cultural, political, and economic landscapes throughout history. 
• 3.5.9-12.HH Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze how the Industrial Revolution resulted in the development of mass production, sophisticated transportation and communication systems, advanced construction practices, and improved education and leisure time. 
• 3.5.9-12.JJ Students who demonstrate understanding can identify and explain how the evolution of civilization has been directly affected by, and has in turn affected, the development and use of tools, materials, and processes. 
• 3.5.9-12.MM Students who demonstrate understanding can troubleshoot and improve a flawed system embedded within a larger technological, social, or environmental system. 
• 3.5.9-12.NN Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze the rate of technological and engineering development and predict future diffusion and adoption of new innovations and technologies.

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