{"id":361460,"date":"2025-06-10T17:30:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T07:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=361460"},"modified":"2025-06-10T17:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T07:43:51","slug":"students-tackle-our-big-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/10\/students-tackle-our-big-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Tackle Our Big Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Future Anything program manager Jarred Turner explains the challenge to students at Kingaroy Town Hall (Photo: BIEDO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 10, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 130 students from four South Burnett high schools enjoyed an opportunity to explore their “big ideas” at an all-day workshop held in Kingaroy Town Hall last week.<\/p>\n

The Year 7-10 students – from Wondai P-9 State School, St John’s Lutheran School and Kingaroy and Nanango State High Schools – were invited to pitch solution to real-life regional challenges, ie. “How do we make our region the best place to live, work and learn for young people?”.<\/p>\n

The day was facilitated by education organisation, Future Anything, and its program manager, Jarred Turner.<\/p>\n

The workshop aimed to foster “entrepreneurial thinking”.<\/p>\n

The students had to identify a problem, form a team, conduct research, refine their solution and then pitch their idea (much like the popular reality TV show, Shark Tank).<\/p>\n

They were assisted in their task by local businesspeople Amy Wicks (Murgon Real Estate), Katie Zerner (Knowledge To Practice), Sheena Lindholm (Push Pull Marketing), Margie Hams (South Burnett CTC) and Sharon Sippel (The Success Connector).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The final pitches were judged by South Burnett Mayor Kathy Duff, Deputy Mayor Jane Erkens, Cr Danita Potter and Cr Heath Sander.<\/p>\n

And the winners were … three students from Kingaroy State High School who pitched a “circular waste to energy” solution.<\/p>\n

They identified the problem as the growing waste volume and reliance on landfill.<\/p>\n

Their solution? A spiral incinerator that would burn waste more efficiently, extract reusable metal via magnets, convert ash into fertiliser, capture emissions with charcoal filters and use the heat created to generate electricity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The day was a great success and received outstanding feedback from the students,” Sharon Sippel said.<\/p>\n

“The students had insightful ideas and potential solutions to problems they see within the region.”<\/p>\n

The workshop was supported by the Burnett Inland Economic Development Organisation (BIEDO), South Burnett Regional Council and Powerlink.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Amy Wicks, right, talks to the students alongside Jarred Turner, Margie Hams and Katie Zerner
(Photo: BIEDO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Deputy Mayor Jane Erkens,\u00a0 Cr Danita Potter, Cr Heath Sander and Mayor Kathy Duff judge the students’ pitches (Photo: BIEDO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Jarred Turner, Cr Deb Dennien, Cr Heath Sander, Cr Ros Heit, Mayor Kathy Duff, Cr Danita Potter, Cr Linda Little and Deputy Mayor Jane Erkens with the KSHS students who pitched the winning idea at the workshop (Photo: BIEDO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 130 students from four South Burnett high schools enjoyed an opportunity to explore their “big ideas” at an all-day workshop held in Kingaroy Town Hall last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":361462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,22,3,395],"tags":[21,30,35,26],"yoast_head":"\nStudents Tackle Our Big Challenges - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"More than 130 students from four South Burnett high schools enjoyed an opportunity to explore their "big ideas" at an all-day workshop held in Kingaroy Town Hall last week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2025\/06\/10\/students-tackle-our-big-challenges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Students Tackle Our Big Challenges - 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