The forest has always offered us ways to boost our well-being. The forests also hold the promise of tomorrow's well-being and sustainable growth. Future solutions in areas such as sustainable materials can be found in the forests that are familiar to us all and yet are home to undiscovered possibilities.
LUT University, in cooperation with the Marjatta and Eino Kolli Foundation, is organising a competition for middle school students (grades 7-9) which encourages young people to get to know the forests, their significance and potential and to come up with solutions for the future.
Highlight new ways to utilise forests – €6,000 in prizes to be won
Any one of us may have an excellent idea of how to increase appreciation for and value obtained from forests. We believe that young people in particular can see the forest with enthusiastic eyes, and find value where no one else has thought to look.
Through this competition, we encourage people to think about what the forest could enable us to do in the future, and how its value could be made available to others. By participating in the competition as individuals, small groups or classes, participants get the chance to be selected as one of the three prize-winning entries.
Instructions for participation
The participating classes, small groups or individual students are set the task of producing a video no longer than 5 minutes that relates to action, art, science, or emotions – or, at best, a combination of all these dimensions.The video should highlight ideas for finding more value added in forests. What is it about the forest that you yourself find important?
In order to participate in the competition, the group or student must have a teacher or other instructor as their contact person.
The video entries are uploaded to YouTube and you can enter the competition by filling in an online form.
Participate in Instagram
You can also participate in the competition on Instagram by following the steps below: share the video on Instagram using the hashtag #Metsä360kilpailu and add the information about your school or scout troop in the text field. Make sure that your Instagram account is an open account.
Winner selection and prizes
The winner of the competition and other prize winners are selected by LUT University's evaluation team together with the Marjatta and Eino Kolli Foundation.
When selecting the winning job, the team pays attention to the following criteria:
- highlighting the value of forests
- innovativeness
- opening up new perspectives: value being found where it has not been seen before
- visuality
- video’s illustrative quality and the strength of mental imagery
- speaking to young people
- strength of insight
The deadline for entries for the 2023 competition will end on September 30, 2023. The best entries will be announced later in the autumn of 2023 and the winners will be contacted in person.
The best video will be awarded a prize of €3,000, the second will receive €2,000 and the third €1,000.
Competition Winners for 2021
The Metsä360 competition was held for the second time in 2021, and the award-winning videos were announced at Lahti Science Day on 18 November 2021.