“Ripple Effect”
Created by: Mohamud Ismail & Mohamud Farah
(Calgary Islamic School)

“Shreds“
Created by: Nicholas Milczarczyk
(Resurrection Catholic Secondary School)

“The Emergency Brake“
Created by: Macy How & Ariyah Reuven
(Powell River Digital Film School)

The FOCUS! Student Climate Change Video competition was open to students in grades 7-12 in Canada who were invited to submit a video on any climate change subject. Videos of up to 5 minutes in length made by individuals or small teams (up to 5 members) in any video genre, including music videos, were eligible to be submitted.  The videos were assessed in terms of overall creativity, technical realization, quality and delivery of message, and overall impact and persuasiveness. Over the three years of this competition, more than 300 films involving more than 700 students have been submitted.

In the 2019/2020 competition, prizes were awarded by genre, including Animation, Live Action, and Documentary/PSA.

The award winner/winning team of each category received a prize of $2,500 with an additional $2,000 being awarded to their school.

WINNER

FOCUS! Teachers Excellence Award for Environmental Education and Communication

Ms. Christine Avey
(Westmount Charter School)

FINALIST

FOCUS! Teachers Excellence Award for Environmental Education and Communication

Ms. Catherine Corkery
(St. Anne Catholic Elementary School)

FINALIST

FOCUS! Teachers Excellence Award for Environmental Education and Communication

Mr. Duncan Sinclair
(East Elgin Secondary School)

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENT

FOCUS! Teachers Excellence Award for Environmental Education and Communication

Ms. Ali McTavish
(Mulgrave School)

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENT

FOCUS! Teachers Excellence Award for Environmental Education and Communication

Dr. Sacha Noukhovitch
(Earl Haig Secondary School)

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENT

FOCUS! Teachers Excellence Award for Environmental Education and Communication

Dr. Terri Willard
(Seven Oaks Met School)

The FOCUS! Teachers Excellence in Environmental Education and Communication Leadership award recognizes teachers who have demonstrated  excellence, innovation and leadership in any of the following areas:

• reforming curriculum to encourage environment, climate justice and/or sustainable living learning;
• implementing climate change action projects that help shape students’ understanding about climate change and their potential roles in mitigating its effects; and/or,
• creating, sharing and demonstrating up-take of their innovative approaches to environmental, climate justice and.or sustainable teaching within and/or beyond their profession.

The winner of the FOCUS! Teachers Excellence in Environmental Education and Communication award received $5,000 with an additional $2,000 awarded to their school.  Two additional “Finalist” prizes were awarded and provided $2,000 to the teacher and $1,000 to their school.

WINNER

FOCUS! Schools Take Action to Change Climate Change

St. George’s School of Montreal
(Principal: Ms. Nathalie Bossé)

WINNER

FOCUS! Schools Take Action to Change Climate Change

Career and Technology Centre
(Program Lead: Mr. Adam Robb)

The FOCUS! Schools Take Action to Change Climate Change award recognizes the central role that schools play in modelling and inspiring positive environmental action. Awards of $10,000 were granted to two schools that demonstrated excellence in environmental and climate change leadership in at least one or more of the following areas:

• significant reduction of the school’s carbon footprint, resource use, and/or waste output;
• development of innovative programs or initiatives that encourage climate change reduction activities by members of the school and/or local community;
• creation of innovative tools, approaches or programs that lead to significant environmental and leadership skills development by students that will uniquely equip them to become future climate change leaders;
• installation or performance of unique creative works that raise awareness, inspire action and which demonstrate the role creative works have in creating a sustainability-focused culture;
• implementation of programs, initiatives or a school culture that instills a high level of environmental sustainability and climate change consciousness among its student, educator, staff and broader community; and,
• implementation of an ongoing program of unique professional advancement activities in environmental education and climate change topics for its teaching staff with a demonstrated record of excellence in supporting innovation, risk taking, and experimentation by teachers seeking to enhance climate change awareness through their teaching and curricula.