Kids Can! Innovation Camp, education project of Francis Jim Tuscano recognized at the HundrED’s Spotlight on Sustainability as one of the world’s most inspiring innovations to educate youth on how to help save the planet

Kids Can! Innovation Camp, created by Francis Jim Tuscano, department chair and edtech coach at Xavier School, and first done in Xavier School – San Juan, Philippines, has been announced by global education nonprofit HundrED, as one of ten most inspiring K-12 innovations in sustainability education across the world. Kids Can! Innovation Camp, one of the innovations selected from nine countries to be recognized, focuses on teaching young students the UN Sustainable Development Goals and challenging them to solve global problems through design-thinking, project-based learning, and STEAM.

Since last March, HundrED partnered with MUSE School, a sustainability driven day school in Calabasas, CA, set out to discover ten innovations in K-12 that have the potential to increase sustainability in schools across the globe. Dubbed HundrED’s Spotlight on Sustainability, the research-based initiative shares impactful, scalable innovations that address educational solutions to overcome the growing environmental challenges facing the planet. Innovations were scored by an advisory board and the ten chosen recipients were selected based on their scores for impact, scalability and for addressing sustainability in education in a fresh way.

At the heart of Kids Can! Innovation Camp is the goal of involving, engaging & providing children with the opportunity to become critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers, & active agents of change. The journey towards the goal starts with empathy. The project integrates the Sustainable Development Goals, E+STEAM (Empathy and STEAM), design-thinking & ​project-based learning. The first Innovation Camp was done at the makeshift makerspace at the grade school last school year, now known as Fr. Angelo Secchi, SJ Collaboratory.

Kids Can! Innovation Camp was chosen due to its unique pioneering status and ability to create a scalable impact, reaching 90+ schools and 2,000 students and teachers from 20 countries around the world, including schools in the cities of Taguig, Batac and Cagayan de Oro, Philippines. Kids Can! Innovation Camp has been translated into 11 international languages by volunteer teachers from different countries. Xavier School continues to integrate the Innovation Camp approaches in formal academic subjects and after-school clubs. Recently, the Grade 6 Filipino GEMS students under Mrs. Gina Altares, who were featured in the video, used the Camp approaches in their unit project and discussions.

In addition to receiving recognition at the Sustainability Summit that took place at the  MUSE School campus earlier this month which was attended by leading environmental advocates, authors and education leaders, the selected innovators are also featured in a compelling new video and included in the inaugural Sustainability in Education Report that will be promoted globally.

“What the world desperately needs is evidence based and scalable education innovations on this field. Luckily there are forerunners, like Kids Can! Innovation Camp who have been working on this area for years. Our mission is to put a spotlight on them,”said Saku Tuominen, CEO of HundrED. “We express our sincere gratitude, encouragement and enthusiasm to Kids Can! Innovation Camp and the many individuals and organizations around the world who are dedicated to this common goal.”

To share these sustainability innovations, HundrED has created an online platform so that educators around the world can search, trial and review Kids Can! Innovation Camp as well as receive free 24/7 support. To explore the global innovations, please visit:www.hundred.org

More information about Kids Can! Innovation Camp can be found by visiting: http://kidscanproject.weebly.com/ and www.hundred.org.