Young helpers solve social challenges – Trondheim municipality

8th graders from 15 secondary schools in Trondheim participated in this year’s Innovation Camp. The students worked in groups, and had to choose between three problems:

1. How can we make Trondheim a greener society?
2. How can we contribute to Trondheim becoming a more inclusive city?
3. How can we make Trondheim a smarter city?

In the final, we were presented with ideas on everything from generating electricity using water turbines in pipes for dirty water and sewage, to how to organize carpooling for leisure activities via an app.

The 15 school teams competed for the victory in Trondheim. The winner was chosen on the basis of a “pitch” each of the groups presented to a jury, made up of members from politics, business and Trondheim municipality.

The jury assessed the ideas based on five assessment criteria:

1. Creativity – has the group developed a new, exciting solution?
2. Impact – Will the solution work? Does anyone have a use for it?
3. Feasibility – Can the idea be realised?
4. Is the solution connected to the sustainability goals?
5. Do the students believe in their own solution? Do they present it in an engaging, professional and persuasive way?

After thorough assessments, the final decision came from the jury:

The winner of this year’s innovation camp was the idea “the helper”, hatched by the students from Rosten secondary school. Hjelpern is an app where you can ask young people for help to get simple tasks done. In the app, it should be possible to write assessments of a job when it has been carried out, and to pay for assignments directly to the young person. The solution contributes both to people who need help easily finding someone who can contribute, and to young people gaining work experience and income.

The students beamed after the announcement. For them, the Innovation Camp contributed to several new experiences.

The most important thing we have learned is how to develop an idea and how to collaborate, the students say.

All student groups can apply for innovation funds from Trondheim municipality, if they want to work further with the idea. The groups that came in first, second and third place also get to pitch their idea to Mayor Kent Ranum in June. This year, ChaLyd came second, and Robotfisken third.

By holding the final in the common areas at Kalvskinnet, others could also come by and get a presentation of the students’ ideas. The location was not accidental.

We hope to inspire the student teachers to work with innovation in teaching, says Marte Aas from Young Entrepreneurship.

Innovation Camp 2023 is a collaboration between Trondheim municipality and Young Entrepreneurship Trøndelag.