Challenge 2
Welcome to the middle 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: Allies and Advocates
For individuals or groups | Maximum points: 200
Due Date: Fri., Dec. 5, 2025 by 5 p.m.
Download challenge rubric here
Your Challenge:
Throughout the world, young people like you are leading the way in protecting our planet. From organizing climate strikes to cleaning up beaches and speaking out for the environmental justice movement, youth activists are proving that age doesn’t matter when it comes to making a difference.
Your challenge is to research a young environmental activist who inspires you. This could be someone like Lesein Mutunkei, Amariyanna Copeny (“Little Miss Flint”), Xiye Bastida or another changemaker you discover. After learning about their story, you’ll create a zine—a small, handmade magazine—to educate your peers about your chosen youth activists and how they can take action too. Your zine can include drawings, fun facts, quotes, how-to guides and creative ideas for getting involved in environmental causes.
Zines are powerful because they’re personal, creative and easy to share. They’ve been used for decades to spread messages, share stories and inspire communities. Through your voice and design, your zine can show others that making a difference for the environment doesn’t have to be limited by age, and often begins with learning, caring and taking small steps.
Entry Requirements:
Deliver to the science education coordinator at Phipps in person or via certified mail (electronic submission is not accepted for this challenge):
- Challenge Entry Form
- Original zine that is labeled with student’s name and school name
- Schools can submit a maximum of 4 zines
- 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:
- How to Make a Zine: A Kid-Friendly DIY Guide | Brightly
- 10 Young Climate Activists Leading the Way | Earth.Org
- 13 Inspiring Examples of Young Environmentalists Making a Difference - Project Learning Tree
- Young climate activists demand action and inspire hope | UNICEF
- Home - This is Zero Hour | A Youth-led Movement
Standards:
Read below to find the standards for each grade level for Challenge 2 of the Middle School Fairchild Challenge
- 3.4.6-8.B Students who demonstrate understanding can analyze and interpret data about how different societies (economic and social systems) and cultures use and manage natural resources differently.
- 3.4.6-8.D Students who demonstrate understanding can gather, read, and synthesize information from multiple sources to investigate how Pennsylvania environmental issues affect Pennsylvania’s human and natural systems.
- 3.4.6-8.E Students who demonstrate understanding can collect, analyze, and interpret environmental data to describe a local environment.
- 3.4.6-8.G Students who demonstrate understanding can obtain and communicate information to describe how best resource management practices and environmental laws are designed to achieve environmental sustainability.
- 3.4.6-8.H Students who demonstrate understanding can design a solution to an environmental issue in which individuals and societies can engage as stewards of the environment.
- 3.4.6-8.I Students who demonstrate understanding can construct an explanation that describes regional environmental conditions and their implications on environmental justice and social equity.
- CC.3.5.6-8.A Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.
- CC.3.5.6-8.G Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
- CC.3.6.6-8.C Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- CC.3.6.6-8.D With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
- CC.3.6.6-8.E Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.
- CC.3.6.6-8.F Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
- CC.3.6.6-8.G Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
- CC.3.6.6-8.H Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research.
