The Green Heart STEM Challenge is a purpose-driven STEM challenge where young people explore and identify environmental issues in their communities and design feasible solutions to address these problems. Student teams work through a human-centered design process to develop feasible solutions to the problems they have identified. Challenge submissions are delivered with a 90 second pitch video and a written proposal.

The Challenge extends over the months of January–April, and is open to middle school teams of 3-5 students in specific metropolitan areas. The 2026 Green Hearth STEM Challenge is focused on EARTH (Food Waste, Reforestation, and Regenerative Agriculture). This year, we have a special geographic focus on metro-Atlanta, metro-Houston, and metro-Miami. We invite educators in these cities to join us for upcoming information and teacher training sessions!

Finalist Teams compete in a formal “Pitch Event” (think Shark Tank) to a judging panel of experts. Winning Teams are invited to complete the Idea Incubator and have the opportunity to receive small implementation grants to put their ideas into ACTION.