In October and November 2022, 73 secondary school students aged 14 years took part in the inaugural NXplorers workshops at Istituto Omnicomprensivo in Marsicovetere, a small municipality in Potenza Province (Southern Italy). The students were thrilled about the new experience and excited to take part in hands-on activities and learn new skills. Students worked in teams to define a challenge of their choice and applied the NX tools to find creative solutions: the NXplorers programme provides fantastic opportunities to enhance the students critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills. The students engaged with local challenges with ease and came up with creative ideas to address them.

One group looked at the problem of food waste in the school canteen: in recent years, the problem of food waste has become an important topic worldwide and has claimed the attention of policy makers, associations, industries, and academics. Through the use of the NXplorers tools, they were able to see bio-gas as a possibility for food waste reuse.

Another group considered the problem of water waste and developed ideas to recycle rainwater to help in the irrigation of public green areas through the construction of cisterns and ad hoc distribution systems.

In the coming months, the students will develop their projects, and showcase them at a celebration event in May 2023.

“Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to be a part of NXplorers. Thanks to this program, we can become actors of our territory creating sustainable solutions to local problems.”

Student from Istituto Omnicomprensivo, Marsicovetere, Italy