Lagoon School Wins Conrad Contest

Lagoon School, Lekki, Lagos has won the 2020-2021 Conrad Challenge aimed at igniting and instilling innovative spirit among the youths. The school will represent Nigeria in the global Conrad challenge.

The Executive Director of the foundation, Mrs. Nancy Conrad said the challenge hinges on four thematic areas including; aerospace and aviation, cyber technology and security, energy and environment, as well as health and nutrition.

She added that education should go beyond the ability of students to read and write and should also provide various opportunities where young students can display their skills and solve world challenges.

She explained that the 2020-2021 challenge hosted 700 teams from 33 states and 49 countries, adding that over a hundred secondary schools, including those from Nigeria participated.

“Lagoon School was one of the 700 team of schools that participated in the challenge. Their project focused on: environmental conservation, sanitation and waste management. The Conrad Challenge consists of three rounds. In round one, students researched on global and local challenges within their chosen category. Then, teams created a product or service to address this challenge.”

To support development, Conrad said registered teams and coaches were given access to the Conrad Design Method, with brainstorming processes and instructional videos, access to subject matter experts, as well as the use of NASA technology. According to her, “during this round, teams must effectively explain the real-world solution by completing the investor pitch tab detailing their idea, while also illustrating its viability as an innovative solution on the market. Round two focused on business plan. In this round, teams developed a business plan outlining their innovation and they created a strategy to introduce their product/service to the market.

“The fields for the business plan included marketing, finance, intellectual property management, human resources management, and operations management information, graphic conceptualisation or full prototype creation, three to seven minute sales pitch video on the business proposal and its possible problem solver. Round three focused on innovation summit. This round is likened to an implementation stage, wherein the business plan is put in use.”

Asked what inspired Lagoon School’s participation in the challenge, a member of the team, Miss Elochukwu Emeasoba said: “Already, since the COVID-19 pandemic was a major stressor for all, we decided to lend a hand in keeping the environment clean, despite all odds. Then came the Conrad Challenge, our parents, teachers and other relevant stakeholders aided our goodwill with a lot of financial and otherwise contribution, they encouraged us and facilitated our ideas.”

In honour of her late husband, Charles Pete Conrad (junior), an astronaut, innovator and entrepreneur, Nancy Conrad established the Conrad Foundation in 2008 and gave rise to the annual Conrad Challenge.