Team “Hunter EcoHeroes" from Hunter Elementary School in Raleigh recently finished in second place at the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.

The national competition encourages students to identify an environmental issue and then create a green solution using Web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education.

Team “Hunter EcoHeroes” focused on reducing waste in the cafeteria and changing wasteful behavior. In order to measure whether their strategy made an impact, students collected data before and after they implemented their waste reduction strategy.

The students raised awareness of the amount of waste produced in the cafeteria and shared strategies for reduction.

“This year’s elementary school Challenge entrants were incredibly inventive and thoughtful, particularly for their age group. Team “Hunter EcoHeroes” demonstrated that students are never too young to find creative ways to effectively produce positive environmental change,” Jeniffer Harper-Taylor, president of the Siemens Foundation, said in a statement.

More than 15,000 students have participated in the competition since it began in 2008.