We were excited to welcome 250 school children from Hodge Hill for the launch of Generation Earthshot in February.

Led by Liam Byrne MP, Generation Earthshot is an East Birmingham version of Prince William’s ‘Earthshot Prize’ to raise awareness of the climate change challenge and encourage young people’s creativity in providing solutions.  Hodge Hill schools will pick one of the below five climate challenges and develop a practical solution that can be implemented locally.

“Our young people are amazing. And right now, we need their passion, creativity and their brainpower to help us save the planet. I don’t think there’s anywhere better to unlock this genius than here in Birmingham. Centuries ago, we were the home of the industrial revolution. Now we must become the home of the green revolution.”

Liam Byrne MP Birmingham Hodge Hill

To help inspire their imagination, the children were joined by Liam,  Millennium Point CEO Abbie Vlahakis, and industry leaders and experts from companies such as Wildlife Trust Birmingham & Black Country, Severn Trent Water, and Tyseley Energy.

‘I’m thrilled that Millennium Point is supporting Generation Earthshot and it’s mission to empower young people to create a greener future. The team at Millennium Point is constantly investigating ways to be more sustainable and so I’m excited to hear the students’ ideas for protecting our planet.’

Abbie Vlahakis CEO Millennium Point

The school children are now developing their solutions to present in the final at Millennium Point this summer. Thousands of pounds in prizes will be awarded to the schools whose teams produce the best projects so that their proposals can be turned into reality. We can’t wait to hear their ideas!

Why Millennium Point get involved

As a multi-award-winning charity in the heart of Birmingham who champion STEM education, it is vital we play our part in supporting initiatives like Generation Earthshot.

This is just one of the ways we support STEM and schools in the West Midlands. Discover more on how we support education in the West Midlands in our brochure.

Hall Green School is a secondary school located in Birmingham, with a track record of high standards and inclusivity for pupils of all backgrounds and abilities.

The challenge

The school’s budget had  become stretched with increasingly less money available for significant investment in equipment. They realised that, even with a money-saving plan, only basic equipment could be purchased which risked leaving their pupils uninspired.

Hall Green wanted to use the Millennium Point Trust Grant to fund their STEM week. Their aim was to inspire young people to learn about STEM careers such as engineering, science and other jobs that they may have never thought were accessible to them.

What impact has it made?

The Grant paid for workshops throughout the week including hiring a planetarium so students could travel through the stars in an immersive environment.

Hall Green School also launched a stargazing club for interested students who could learn about space, physics, and other astronomy topics.

Tying in with STEM week the school ran a competition to create a project on space with STEM prizes on offer. Talented students created posters, dioramas, and essays all around space and technology. The winner created a model of an astronaut walking on the moon and wrote a story about an alien visiting Earth for the first time. Four talented runners up also won prizes including a telescope, museum tickets and a light-up model of the moon.

Why did they receive a Grant?

When visiting Hall Green it was instantly reaffirmed why they deserved the Grant. The teachers who were strong ambassadors of STEM wanted to promote why knowing about space was important in the curriculum. They spoke about how in the future there is a possibility that people will visit the Moon again, as well as potentially voyage to Mars. This generation of students will most likely be the people working on these projects in their careers, heightening the importance of teaching it as a career option and school topic now.

Discover more about Millennium Point Trust

Our multi-award-winning charitable trust invests more than £3m each year towards furthering STEM education within the West Midlands.

Over the years we have provided funding to Scholarships, Grants and projects that benefit the region. Find out more about our Trust in our brand new brochure here.