During the 2018-19 school year, teams of middle schoolers tackled the problem of plastic pollution in our waterways with the National Geographic GeoChallenge. First-place teams from sixteen regional competitions traveled to the 2019 Geo Championships in Washington, D.C. in May 2019. This blog series introduces you to each of those teams in their own words.* Registration for next year’s #NatGeoChallenge opens later this month at NatGeoEd.org/GeoChallenge.

Meet the Vicious Nachos!

Team Vicious Nachos seeks to tackle two challenges in Nairobi, Kenya: the lack of sports equipment and plastic pollution. The team developed a method to create shin guards with reused plastic bags. The team plans to travel to Nairobi in 2020 to implement a series of educational workshops to work with Kenyans to create shin guards and inspire other uses of plastic waste.

From: Yamhill Carlton Intermediate School, Oregon

Team Motto: All nachos are cheesy, but not all nachos are vicious.

A funny thing about your coach: His last name and personality closely mirror a certain 80’s movie about taking a day off in Chicago. For example he likes to sing and dance in class, even though he is really bad at it.

The biggest obstacle you had to overcome as a team: We are all close friends and very sociable individuals. While this helps us get along with each other, it often causes us to get distracted when we have independent time to work on our project.

List one way you’ve changed your single-use plastic use:

Ruth: I only use reusable water bottles.

Delaney: I switched to metal straws.

Maddy: I use a reusable lunch bag.

Kylie: My family makes sure to recycle all plastics.

Carson: I pick up litter from my road.

Gus: I make sure to recycle all plastic when possible.

 

Registration for the 2019-2020 National Geographic GeoChallenge opens soon! 

*Team responses have been lightly edited for grammar.