Welcome to the Big Green Challenge!

The Big Green Challenge is a schools debating competition giving 1st to 3rd years across the Highlands and Islands the chance to take part in some exciting debates and win some fantastic prizes!

Congratulations to the winners of the Big Green Challenge 2008/9 - Sandwick Junior High School from Shetland, who win a trip to see renewable energy in action in Iceland.

Well done to all the teams who took part, and our thanks to the judges, host and audience for making the Grand Final such a great day.

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Congratulations to all the teams who made it through to the Grand Final:

Sandwick Junior High School

Arran High School

Gairloch High School

Portree High School

To download the latest issue of GreenZine, click here. Issue 1 and Issue 2 are both still available, too.

The Big Green Challenge event was broadcast live on the Scottish Parliament broadcasting website.

You can also view a list of all the teams who have taken part this year.

Well done to everyone who has taken part so far - many of the first round judges commented that it was difficult to choose between the high quality of argument and style offered by many of the teams.

Teams from schools across the north of Scotland are battling it out in three rounds of debates on renewable energy, with the first taking place in October 2008.

Each team's job is to progress to the next stage by winning the audience over through convincing arguments. At each stage, experts have been on hand to visit schools and give teams coaching, hints and tips. The Big Green Challenge will culminate in a grand final, to be judged by a panel of renewable energy experts. Last year's final was presented by BBC Newsround presenter Laura Jones.

There are prizes at every stage of the competition, with a grand prize of a trip to visit renewables projects Iceland, with the runners up receiving a visit to the fantastic Eden Project in Cornwall.

Please note, this is not the NESTA Big Green Challenge. The NESTA Big Green Challenge is a £1 million prize fund to find the most promising CO2 reduction ideas from groups of people, and to reward those that are most successful. The Challenge was open to not-for-profit groups with ideas for reducing CO2 emissions in their community. From over 350 entries from across the UK 10 Finalists are now putting their ideas into practice to compete for a share of the prize. The top 100 groups in the Challenge, as well as case studies of the 10 Finalists, can be found on the Big Green Challenge website (www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk). NESTA is also using the Big Green Challenge to better how ideas from communities in response to climate change can be supported and can grow.

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