Four students from Eden Prairie’s Central Middle School (CMS) placed among the top winners in this year’s World of 8 Billion International Student Video Contest, which drew more than 4,500 entries from 67 countries, 48 U.S. states, and the District of Columbia.
This year’s contest challenged students to explore how population growth intersects with three critical global issues: child wellbeing, rainforest ecosystems and sanitation.
Eighth graders Hasini Dharmireddy and Advika Raut won second place in the child wellbeing category for their 60-second video “Overcoming Food Insecurity for Children.” Sarah Zhou and Aakriti Kurudumale, also CMS eighth graders, won second place in the sanitation category for their one-minute video “EcoSan Toilets: The Future to Sanitation Access.”
All four are the students of eighth grade social studies teacher Lindsay Klaverkamp.
Dharmireddy and Raut’s “Overcoming Food Insecurity for Children” video proposes farm-to-family partnerships that make food more accessible and cheaper for families around the world.
“We wanted to raise awareness about food insecurity,” they said. “The scale of the problem surprised us. A lot of parents can’t afford basic food for their children.”
Hasini wants to work to make people’s lives better and is planning to pursue a medical career. Advika is considering animation as a career but is leaving the door open to other possibilities.
Zhou and Kurudumale’s “EcoSan Toilets: The Future to Sanitation Access” video examines the relationship between population and sanitation and recommends the widespread use of composting toilets, followed by the separation of matter to be used as fertilizer.
Before creating the video, the two only knew that sanitation access issues were significant in some areas of the world and would worsen as populations increased. “It was really surprising that billions of people didn’t have access to a toilet,” they said. They saw prototypes of eco-toilets but came up with their own version of how the toilet would work for this project.
The annual contest is organized by Population Connection’s Population Education program, and is judged by a panel of educators, filmmakers and experts in sustainability.
Prizes for high school students are $1,200 for first place, $600 for second and $300 for honorable mention. Middle school first- and second-place winners received $600 and $300, respectively.
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