LAWRENCE S.TING SCHOOL’S STUDENTS WON FIRST PLACE IN THE YOUNG ENVIRONMENTALISTS’ CHALLENGE SEASON 4

On April 1st, International University (IU-VNU) joined hands with Deakin University (Australia) to organize the Young Environmentalists’ Challenge Season 4 (YEC 2022-2023)’s Vietnam Final round. The competition sought participation from high school students in Vietnam.

Co-hosted by IU-VNU and Deakin University (Australia), “Young Environmentalists’ Challenge” (YEC) calls for participation from high school students in Vietnam with a goal to raising young people’s awareness toward environment protection and developing an academic researching competition. The competition was formerly known as “Vietnam – Saving Earth and Ecosystem Diversity”. For 3 consecutive years of 2019, 2020, and 2021, the competition had attracted numerous high school contestants, receiving the attention and support from the public, especially from various central and local media agencies.

YEC 2022-2023 marked the competition’s 4th comeback. Following the success of previous seasons, this year’s competition recorded the participation of nearly 70 high schoolers. Contestants joined the competition as groups with 4 members coming from the same school. Teams were required to create a short clip of 10-15 minutes in length to present ideas, propose initiatives, and offer solutions to solve environmental problems in Vietnam.

The Final round began with the song “Rung xanh xanh mai” from Ms. Huynh Mai – Vietnam Got Talent. On behalf of the Board of Presidents and Organizing Committee, Prof. Le Van Canh – Vice-President of IU – shared his opening speech and delivered the certificates to teams that had made it to the Final round. Prof. Le Van Canh shared: “We hope that the competition will not only raise the awareness of the young generation in fighting against environmental issues but also encourage them to make use of the knowledge they learnt from schools to come up with practical solutions.”

Ms. Huynh Mai – Vietnam Got Talent – began the Final round with the song “Rung xanh xanh mai.”

Prof. Le Van Canh – Vice-President of IU – shared his opening speech.

Prof. Le Van Canh and Ms. Nguyen Viet Thuy Trang – Representative from Deakin University – delivered the gifts and certificates of participation in the Young Environmentalists’ Challenge 2022-2023 to 8 excellent teams in the Final round of Vietnam.

The 8 excellent teams that made it to the Vietnam Final round were: Each team, including Overroll 4+2, K.E.L, CEY, and Talk-H from Nguyen Huu Huan High school, Peach and Psss, and Garyy Lee from Lawrence S.Ting School, Phu Nhuan Boyz from Phu Nhuan High school, and CVT.Journey from Vi Thanh High school for the Gifted (Hau Giang Province), delivered their 20-minute-long presentation to the Judges in English.

The heated performance from each team began with an 8-minute-long presentation and another 8-minute-long Q&A with the Judges.

The Board of Judges listened closely and gave feedback to every team.

After the presentations and Q&A sessions, the First prize was granted to Garyy Lee team with the project of “Creating soundproof materials from agricultural waste such as coconut fiber, sugarcane waste and peanut shells.”

Assoc. Prof. Huynh Kim Lam – Dean of IU’s School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering awarded the First prize to members of Garyy Lee team from Lawrence S.Ting School.

With their concerns about soundproof materials, Garyy Lee team from Lawrence S.Ting School shared the reasons behind their interesting choice of topic about materials: “Our team’s research focuses on the search and creation of soundproof materials from agricultural waste such as coconut fiber, sugarcane waste and peanut shells to make an eco-friendly soundproof material. We first prepared and removed lignin from the sugarcane waste then combining it with coconut fiber and peanut shells with the ratio of 3:7, 5:5, 7:3 in weight to create the soundproof materials. Test results show that the materials made from coconut fiber and sugarcane waste, sugarcane waste and peanut shells can absorb sound about 10% better than foam. Moreover, the results indicate that the sound insulation of materials made from coconut fiber and sugarcane waste, sugarcane waste and peanut shells will vary depending on the sound intensity. Experiments show that the material made from the mixing ratio of 3:7 has the best sound insulation, at 46.6% of sound insulation.”

K.E.L Team won the second prize with their project of “Investigating the adsorbent efficiency of activated carbon made from eco-friendly materials.” The members of K.E.L team (Nguyen Huu Huan High school) shared: “Nowadays, there are many causes of water pollution and one of those is heavy metal ions that cannot be seen with the naked eye. To partially fix this situation, we investigated the adsorbent efficiency of activated carbon made from eco-friendly materials. Materials such as water hyacinth, coconut shells and fruit peels are all natural ingredients, which are being wastefully discarded. We are making activated carbon from these materials as adsorbent agents to increase activated carbon’s adsorbent efficiency. This is also what makes our product special. In the future, we plan to develop it into a filter that can be equipped to water pipes, helping to purify water as it is being used or discharged.”

Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy – Vice Dean of IU’s School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering awarded the Second prize to K.E.L team from Nguyen Huu Huan High school.

Peach and Psss team excellently won the Third prize with their project of “Extracting pectin from Vietnamese orange peels to make eco-friendly wrap films for mangoes.” The group explained their project: “Nowadays, mango is an extremely nutritional kind of fruit and benefits the humans’ health in many ways. Therefore, as the demand for mangoes grows, Vietnamese mangoes are being exported worldwide in bulks. However, they quickly get these dark spots after ripening, leading to loss of aesthetics and quality is no longer at their best. For this reason, cling films are used to wrap mangoes and preserve them during export. This leads to another problem – cling films made from plastics are being used and discharged daily, which is detrimental for the environment. Therefore, our group thought of the idea to extract and make wrap films from pectin, a substance with a solid background in the field, to preserve Vietnamese mangoes in import and export. Through research, the team chose orange peels as the most effective source for pectin’s extraction.”

Ms. Nguyen Viet Thuy Trang awarded the Third prize to Peach and Psss team from Lawrence S.Ting School.

Additionally, the Impressive award was granted to CVT.Journey for their project of “Organic coagulators from Okra extraction for water treatment.” Members of CVT.Journey brought to the competition the organic coagulators from Okra extraction for water treatment. These polysaccharides are bio-degradable, non-toxic, eco-friendly, and are widely available for stable supply. “In our research, we propose methods to remove polystyrene in microplastics and treat water using okra coagulators, focusing on the 2 most urgent issues nowadays: Water treatment and Microplastics removal. Together, we hope to contribute, even just a little, to the journey to a sustainable future” – Quach Hai Nhu Quynh (Team leader of CVT.Journey) shared.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc M.A. – Leader of IU’s PR-Marketing Team awarded the Impressive award to CVT.Journey Team from Vi Thanh High school for the Gifted (Hau Giang Province).

All in all, the three top-ranked teams of the Vietnam Final Round including Garyy Lee, K.E.L, and Peach and Psss will continue to compete with teams from Sri Lanka and Malaysia at the International Finale scheduled to take place on April 4th.