“Green Innovation Camps 2022-24”

The two Partner schools in this project: Lillerudsgymnasiet, Karlstad, Sweden and Foss School, Oslo , Norway.

WHAT IS OUR SMALL-SCALE PROJECT ABOUT?

We applied for this project to adress environmental and climate challenges. We believe that it is important to learn more about environmental and climate challenges so that we can take the right actions. We want to adress the environmental and climate challenges by working with tasks and solutions through 4 “Green Innovation Camps”.

We wanted to contribute to more cooperation between educational institutions and businesses. We believe there is a gap between school and work life that must be recognized and filled. We want to reduce this gap by an entrepreneurial cooperation between school and usinesses through our 4 Green Innovation Camps.

We wanted to adress digital readiness, resilience and capacity. We believe that these can be good tools and actually a part of the solution to the environmental and climate challenges. We also wanted to get practical use of the “Innovation Camp App”, that we have developed in an earlier Erasmus+ project, in our 4 Green Innovation Camps.

We wanted our students to train entrepreneurial learning and education by practic cooperation with businesses and organizations.
And we wanted businesses and organizations to become more aware of the student’s skills and their own social responsibility

WHAT IS THE INNOVATION CAMP CONCEPT? (IC)

An Innovation Camp is a project-based, cross-curricular, intensive learning experience, where students engage in, and apply
entrepreneurial and collaborative learning by solving challenges in the community. Students work in groups and participate in brainstorming and ice-breaking exercises.

All teams are presented with a real challenge from a business/organisation, and the goal is to find a creative and innovative solution. Teams have access to business volunteers, who will mentor the
students to form an achievable and realistic solution. Teams present their solution before a panel of judges.

Through the IC concept, the students will achieve relevant entrepreneurial competences (initiative, creativity, self-confidence, taking responsibility, perseverance, resourcefulness, teamwork) and sustainability, which is required in curricula in both countries.

WHAT IS THE INNOVATION CAMP APP?

We have made an Innovation Camp App in an earlier Erasmus+ project, and this tool was very useful in this project. The Innovation Camp give the students information about the partner and challenge and is designed to give a good learning experience.

It’s organised into phases and steps guiding the students through the prosess. Input from the teams are collected into a summary which helps the team making a pitch to the jury. Jury, mentors and teachers can observe the groups prosess and guide them if necessary.

WHO WERE OUR COOPERATION PARTNERS?

Junior Achievement Oslo (JA)

has a good knowledge of IC’s, and is an avid user of the IC-App in different contexts. JA Oslo has a long-standing cooperation with Foss school and works for entrepreneurship schools and students in the area. JA Oslo has a broad experience with big arrangements like our IC’s. JA Oslo also have a large network with several Norwegian businesses and organisations. JA Oslo contribute in the project as supervisor, facilitator and jurymember at the IC’s.

Junior Achievement Värmland (JA)

have a long-standing good cooperation with Lillerudsgymnasiet and works for the entrepreneurship schools and students in the area. JA Värmland has a broad experience with big arrangements like the IC’s in our project. They have contact with several Swedish businesses and organisations. JA Värmland contributed in the project as supervisor, facilitator and jurymember at the IC’s.

Norwegian Business School, Oslo (BI)

offers an entrepreneurship cooperation with upper secondary schools and has cooperated with Foss school for many years. BI has a long tradition in teaching entrepreneurship, business and offers a diversity of studies in sustainability. BI has contact with several businesses and organisations, knows the IC concept well and contributed in the project as developer of the content in the IC’s, and as supervisor, facilitator and jury.

The task givers and their tasks

  • Innovation Camp No. 1: ELVIA, a large Norwegian Electricity Company. The task: How can we better reach out to the employees of Elvia with sustainability communication / how can we increase the competence of our employees in sustainability in a better way? How can we communicate Elvia’s work in sustainability in a good and credible way to external parties? (target group: 18 – 25 years)
  • Innovation Camp No. 2: BWELL, a Swedish Health App. The task: The app provides better physical and mental health to young people in a sustainable way, how can it be marketed in a better way?
Bwell
  • Innovation Camp No. 3: Q-MEIERIENE, a Norwegian dairy. The task: Create a sustainable dairy product or service. Think sustainability from “cradle to grave” and think about production, use, reuse and waste.
  • Innovation Camp No. 4: Löfberg’s Coffee, a large Swedish coffee Company in Karlstad. The task: Reduce the climate footprint from coffee consumption. How can we utilize the waste streams from coffee consumption?

WHAT WAS OUR GOALS AND THE CONCRETE OUTCOME OF OUR INNOVATION CAMPS?

1. We wanted an increased competency about environmental and climate challenges and focus on green solutions.

We worked towards this goal at all 4 Green Innovation Camps and this goal was clearly achieved. In an Innovation Camp the students get a challenge that a business or an organization work with in real life. And in our 4 Camps the students had to solve real environmental and climate challenges in very different areas. To understand the different challenges and to find the very best green solutions of the challenges at the 4 Camps, both students, teachers and businesses and organizations really immersed themselves in facts, research, new solutions, understanding connections and also worked with the
sustainability goals.

2. We wanted an increased cooperation between schools and working life.

The schools collaborated closely with businesses and organizations in the preparation of the Camps, both in terms of the actual challenge the students were to receive and the actual organization of the Camp. During the camps, the businesses and organizations also worked closely with the students, through detailed information in advance of the challenges, guidance during the work on the challenges and with good feedback after all the teams had delivered their solutions. The students were clearly surprised and inspired by the good follow-up they received from the businesses and organisations. And the businesses and organizations were also clearly impressed by and interested in the student’s many creative solutions.

3. We also wanted an increased digital readiness, resilience and capacity.

All participants had good practical use of our specially designed Innovation Camp App both in the preparations, during the Camp and after the Camps. Many of the students solutions were digital, delivered digitally and also presented digitally. It was particularly useful and clear to be able to see and collect all Camp material digitally in this app.

SOME OF THE BEST SOLUTIONS FROM THE STUDENTS

Innovation Camp No. 1:

ELVIA, a large Norwegian Electricity Company. The task: How can we better reach out to the employees of Elvia with sustainability communication / how can we increase the competence of our employees in sustainability in a better way? How can we communicate Elvia’s work in sustainability in a good and credible way to external parties? (target group: 18 – 25 years)

Innovation Camp No. 2:

Innovation Camp No. 2: BWELL, a Swedish Health App. The task: The app provides better physical and mental health to young people in a sustainable way, how can it be marketed in a better way?

Innovation Camp No. 3:

Innovation Camp No. 4:

Löfberg’s Coffee, a large Swedish coffee Company in Karlstad. The task: Reduce the climate footprint from coffee consumption. How can we utilize the waste streams from coffee consumption?

Löfberg’s solution

OUR EVALUATION

Due to GDPR, is the evaluation from the students on our internal part of this page, but it is possible to get an insight from this extract of the student evaluation from two of the camps:

Evaluation/evaluation of the responses received based on Green Innovation Camp No. 1 in Oslo. November 2022

The self-assessment/self-evaluation (carried out at the start of the camp): The students have a fairly good self-image and seem to have a good grasp of their strengths and weaknesses. All have the opinion that they will be able to contribute constructively during the camp.

Evaluation/Evaluation: (conducted at the end of the camp): In general, the students think that the language is difficult but that they make more effort when they collaborates with students from another country and another school. They feel that they are learning a lot about collaboration and that they need to take more responsibility in a job where they do not know the other group members. A personal development on several levels, in a new group and another language. The students consider themselves better after completing the camp. Greater confidence in themselves. Positive tendency on all questions. All values ​​increase from the self-assessment/self-evaluation to evaluation/evaluation.

CONCLUSION: The design of the camp should touch and provoke. Create curiosity and commitment to the target group (the students).

Evaluation/evaluation of the responses received based on Green Innovation Camp no. 2 in Sweden. 13-15 March 2023

Self-assessment and an evaluation. The self-assessment (before the camp): The students consider themselves better after completing the camp. Greater confidence in themselves. Positive tendency on all questions. The evaluation: In general, the students think that the language is difficult but that they put more effort into it when they cooperates with another country and another school. A personal development on several levels, in a new group and another language. Relevant topic. The young people have really reflected on the subject’s relevance and importance for their own well-being.

CONCLUSION:

The design of the camp should touch and provoke. Create curiosity and commitment to the target group (the students). The relevance of the subject is important for the students. We who organize the camps should think about this. The young people have really reflected about the topic’s relevance and importance for their own well-being

– through participating in Innovation Camps – for young entrepreneurs in Norway and Sweden