Challenge 4

Welcome to the high school challenge page for Challenge 4 of the Fairchild Challenge! Read below to find challenge information, entry requirements, resources and more for the challenge.

Challenge 4: Environmental Justice and Engineering

Title: “Design for Justice”
For individuals or groups | Maximum points: 200

Due: Fri., Feb. 6, 2026 by 5 p.m.

Download the Challenge 4 Rubric Here

Your Challenge:

This challenge invites you to think like engineers, designers and changemakers as you develop innovative solutions to environmental justice issues. We encourage you to explore how environmental challenges such as pollution, limited access to clean water, climate-related hazards or waste buildup disproportionately impact certain communities. Some real-world examples that have already made a difference might include inventions like low-cost water filters that provide clean drinking water, solar-powered lanterns that replace harmful kerosene lamps and biodegradable packaging made from seaweed or plant fibers. Using these and other real-world innovations as inspiration, you will select an issue you are passionate about and begin brainstorming a product, system or tool that could help make the environment safer, healthier and more equitable.

To bring your ideas to life, we are asking you to create a visual representation of your invention. This can be done through a detailed sketch, a small prototype or a physical 3D model. Your final submission should clearly show how your idea works and explains how it addresses the environmental justice challenge they have chosen in a 2 page essay. Inventions must be original but can be influenced by or display improvements upon a pre-existing tool. Through this process, we hope you will practice creativity, problem-solving and ultimately design a product that takes into consideration how innovation can empower communities, mitigate climate impacts and protect the environment.

Entry Requirements: Submit up to 2 entries to the high school programs coordinator, Alyssa Mulé, at Phipps in person or via certified mail (submission can be made electronically via email to amule@phipps.conservatory.org):

• Challenge Entry Form
• Include school name and participating students’ names
• A visual representation of your invention in the form of a detailed sketch, a small prototype or physical 3D model
• A minimum of 2 pages typed (or 4 page handwritten) paper that describes how your invention works and what environmental justice challenge it is addressing
• Works Cited with at least 2 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 Climate Justice Movement: Injustice Issues & Examples - The Solutions Project
• About Green America | Green America
• Nourishing a growing world with biology | Novonesis
• Food Justice Fund | EngagePgh
• Rewriting the Narrative: Advancing Justice and Equity in the U.S. Food System - PMC
• The fight for clean air continues despite the EPA’s reversal on environmental justice : NPR
• Environmental Justice: Addressing the Burden of Air Pollution | American Lung Association
• The Intersection Between Climate Justice and Water Justice — NW Environmental Justice Center
• Environmental Justice Table - UpstreamPgh
• Environmental justice: the right to clean water - SELC

Standards:
Read below to find the standards for each grade level for Challenge 4 of the High School Fairchild Challenge

• Grades 9 – 12

Grades 9 – 12

• CC.3.6.9-10.C Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,  organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• CC.3.6.9-10.D Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a  specific purpose and audience.
• CC.3.6.9-10.E Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
• CC.3.6.9-10.F Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
• CC.3.6.9-10.H Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• 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.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.B Students who demonstrate understanding can critically assess and evaluate a technology that minimizes resource use and resulting waste to achieve a goal.
• 3.5.9-12.C Students who demonstrate understanding can develop a solution to a technological problem that has the least negative environmental and social impact.
• 3.5.9-12.D Students who demonstrate understanding can critique whether existing or proposed technologies use resources sustainably.
• 3.5.9-12.E Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate how technology and engineering advancements alter human health and capabilities.
• 3.5.9-12.F Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate a technological innovation that arose from a specific society’s unique need or want.
• 3.5.9-12.G Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate a technological innovation that was met with societal resistance impacting its development.
• 3.5.9-12.H Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate ways that technology and engineering can impact individuals, society, and the environment.
• 3.5.9-12.I Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
• 3.5.9-12.J Students who demonstrate understanding can synthesize data and analyze trends to make decisions about technological products, systems, or processes.
• 3.5.9-12.L Students who demonstrate understanding can interpret laws, regulations, policies, and other factors that impact the development and use of technology.
• 3.5.9-12.M Students who demonstrate understanding can develop a device or system for the marketplace.
• 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.O Students who demonstrate understanding can apply appropriate design thinking processes to diagnose, adjust, and repair systems to ensure precise, safe, and proper functionality.
• 3.5.9-12.P Students who demonstrate understanding can apply a broad range of design skills to a design thinking process.
• 3.5.9-12.Q Students who demonstrate understanding can implement and critique principles, elements, and factors of design.
• 3.5.9-12.R Students who demonstrate understanding can use a design thinking process to design an appropriate technology for use in a different culture.
• 3.5.9-12.S Students who demonstrate understanding can conduct research to inform intentional inventions and innovations that address specific needs and wants.
• 3.5.9-12.T Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
• 3.5.9-12.U Students who demonstrate understanding can evaluate and define the purpose of a design.
• 3.5.9-12.V Students who demonstrate understanding can apply principles of human-centered design.
• 3.5.9-12.W Students who demonstrate understanding can optimize a design by addressing desired qualities within criteria and constraints while considering trade-offs.
• 3.5.9-12.X Students who demonstrate understanding can implement the best possible solution to a design using an explicit process.
• 3.5.9-12.Y Students who demonstrate understanding can design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
• 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.AA Students who demonstrate understanding can safely apply an appropriate range of making skills to a design thinking process.
• 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.DD Students who demonstrate understanding can develop a plan that incorporates knowledge from science, mathematics, and other disciplines to design or improve a technological 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.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.QQ Students who demonstrate understanding can implement quality control as a planned process to ensure that a product, service, or system meets established criteria.
• 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.G Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., quantitative data, video, multimedia) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
• CC.3.6.11-12.C Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• CC.3.6.11-12.F Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
• CC.3.6.11-12.G Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the specific task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
• CC.3.6.11-12.I Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

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