“Project winds of change” was a project that spanned almost 2 months, we started on 7th August 2022 and ended the project on 13th October. This project was based on our team of 3 people (me, Yaksh Patel, and Ryan Lee), we worked together as a collaborative team to participate in 2 competitions (International and national each). Where we worked to develop a sustainable air purifier, which can be used in educational environments. We had this product developed throughout these 2 competitions; we landed on 7th rank across the entire nation in the Indian Innovation Challenge which was conducted by the University of Sydney and after which we applied for an international competition named Gandhian Innovation Challenge conducted by Auro university for which we won first place in the School category Internationally. Considering we were first-timers and rookies, it was a great achievement for us. Through this project, we learned how to work in a team and collaboratively complete tasks, like how I worked on the main internal working and process of purification. The motivational reason behind taking a role in this project was mainly to learn and start working in a team and learn the application of knowledge in the field of science.

LO 1- Identify your own strengths and develop areas for growth.

While we were developing the Prototype of the air purifier, we as a team divided the work of the project based on our strengths. As my primary interest and strength are in the science and STEM field, and also I am very profound in chemistry and its related process. I took on the responsibility of deciding the technicality and the scientific process that would take place in our air purifier. Also, this was important to complete the scientific process and the technicality first because that would decide the internal and external design of the air purifier. There were problems while deciding upon the best and most efficient process. After all the decisions were taken on time which helped the designing and overall progress of the project to complete on time.

LO 2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills.

It was not a vacation during which we initiated this project, rather it was while our school was going on. Therefore there were quite a lot of challenges and problems that I and my team faced. The first and foremost challenge that we know would be there was time management and the clashing of meeting times. Throughout the project, we had to go through multiple meetings while we had to account for the school work. Moreover, throughout the development of our project, I had to get involved with research work and topics that were yet not introduced to us. So I had to invest my time more in this research work and the introduction to the higher level topic. All this resulted in the clashing of time and deadlines. Especially working on the phenomenon of “electrostatic precipitation” was a load for me, as this interfered with the other internal working of the air purifier. On top of which I had the bare minimum resources to test out the process and many times I had no clue would the process work or not because of the lack of experimentation that could be performed. But in the end, through some external research papers, and the help of my school teacher; I was able to confirm and perform some essential experiments. After this, we decided upon a final and efficient working process. Overall this project helped me to improve my thinking skills, and extend the domain of my knowledge and understanding of certain topics of science; helping me develop at an individual level.

LO 3- Initiate and plan a CAS experience.

The seed of this project was founded by me as an e-mail. After giving it some consideration I thought about taking a leap of faith and talked to some of my friends who I thought would be interested in this. Luckily they were interested and excited to be a part of it. So as a team, we proceeded with the project knowing the challenges and problems we were going to face. Knowing that more of the challenge would be the clashing of time from our school work, we had to start planning the team meeting and on a personal level, we started planning our personal schedule and timetable to meet the deadlines. Despite personally feeling that the planning was not foolproof, I think that the planning helped tremendously. There were some problems with the unpredicted project due to the resources available, changes in design, etc. We were able to complete the project on time and submit our effort before the deadline. I feel this team planning played an important role in the success of this project.

LO 4- Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience.

As previously mentioned, I had a lot of issues with the planning of the technical and scientific process that would be working behind the air purifier. As many times despite the concept being suitable for the project for the most of time, there would be some or other problems arising at the later end of the research. This was very problematic and frustrating for me and even my team members, as the pressure of completing this core part of the project built up. On top of which I couldn’t be careless with it too, as any mistake or fault could lead to the failure of the air purifier, project, and my team. All this pressure and frustration required a high amount of commitment toward the project and perseverance from each member. Despite me being a person serious about the daily routine, I committed to completing the task assigned to me and not letting my team down. I let go of the daily routine and solely focused on the development and research; even if it meant sometimes sacrificing the dedicated hours to studying for upcoming summative assessments during the project. This wasn’t only me even some of my members had been organizing school even and facing their part of the project at the time which also required commitment and perseverance towards this project. Giving more than 5 hours of my day towards single things wasn’t easy for me and my team members. Despite all the problems and the challenges faced, our team commitment and perseverance helped us; land 7th place out of 100 entries across India in the India Innovation challenge and 1st place out of 160 entries across the world in the AURO Gandhian Innovation Challenge.

LO 5- Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively.

Teamwork is one of the most important things to achieve success in something, is what we had heard from childhood and I am assured, that if you have worked in a team, as one you would agree to it. As a team, we took very core and essential decisions that separated us from winning and losing. Like in the starting phase of deciding upon the concept we had 3 ideas to go with, which were “carbon ink”, “sustainable air purifier” or “recycling process for labs” as a team we decided upon one common conclusion of going with “sustainable air purifier” considering the possibility, feasibility and the time budget. As a team, it was important to decide upon common conclusions like the allocation and distribution of tasks. This tactic took minimal time as my other team members were better than me in other equally important areas. Team working like this was the difference between losing and winning. Moreover beyond this working as a team helped us to achieve something much greater than what we could have been able to achieve individually. Teamwork helped us to achieve higher quality work and less individual burnout from excessive work.

LO 6- Engagement with issues of global significance.

We started this project and the design of the air purifier; keeping in mind the goal of sustainability to combat “climate change” in accordance with SDG “Climate Action ” and “good health and well-being” in mind. The issue which we took to solve at a certain level is a global issue, which needs to resolve by everyone. As our curriculum also focuses on global issues, we understand the importance of SDGs related to our project such as “Quality education”, “ Good Health and well-being”, “Sustainable cities and communities” and “Climate Action”. Therefore this allowed us to take actions accordingly and create a product that could help in solving those certain problems. Our Air-purifier was built keeping in mind the sustainability and the mass production that can be done by even less privileged school communities. Through our project, we aimed to provide a solution that can help in providing a clean and healthy educational environment. Despite our action being not global but at least at a local level we hope it motivates others to take steps towards fighting this global and serious issue.

LO 7- Recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

Throughout this whole project, some ethical choices had to be made. The first one was that we decided to make the air purifier accessible and sustainable; for which we made the design such that it can be made with locally available materials. This meant that the design could not include expensive and high-end technology that would cost a fortune. Taking this decision was an important one, knowing that it would make the project much harder to complete but still giving importance to fighting for humanity and healthier communities. On the other hand, this decision made us trapped in a dilemma. Knowing that the project and the model had to gain some authenticity and credibility before it would be accepted by others. For which we need to win the competition but the problem arises with the involvement of technology in our air purifier. So, to ensure that our project stood a chance against others, we had to add features like AQI sensors, and electronics that were not completely sustainable and recyclable. It was a big step that we took seeing the greater good that we could do. However, these choices were not all, we had to face another huge decision. Our Air-purifier was a complete working model that can easily be remodeled to look good and add in some more extra technical features after which it could be sold on the market as a working and less expensive air purifier. But considering that, if we would have stepped in that direction and taken that choice; our goal of making it widely available to less privileged communities and giving it a greater purpose would be lost. So keeping our aspect of dreams to help the community in one or another way first, we decided to make the design globally available to everyone. Feeling maybe it will bring sustainability and a ray of hope to some schools and their students somewhere in the world. Motivating us to consider and make an ethically right choice.