Lexus announced its fifth annual Lexus Eco Challenge—a chance for middle and high school students  to win part of $500,000 in grants and scholarships.

Over the past four years, the educational program and contest, has been giving a chance to more than 20,000 students to learn about the environment and take action to improve it. During these years more than $3 million has been awarded to students, teachers and schools across the USA to encourage their efforts.

This fall, Lexus, the luxury automaker, has joined with Scholastic Inc., the global children’s publishing, education and media company again. In collaboration they will create the eco-friendly educational school program.

Last year’s top winning projects included educating the community about the contamination of lobsters in local and global waters and raising money to purchase solar panels for their school and encouraging others to look into renewable energy.

«Last year the students and teachers went above and beyond the scope of the Lexus Eco Challenge,» said Mark Templin, Lexus group vice president and general manager. «We’re eager to see what the fifth year will bring us.  Every year, we see the students and their teachers being more resourceful and committed to their projects.  It’s wonderful to see how the Lexus Eco Challenge is making an impact on their schools, community and our environment.»

The structure of the Challenge has two elements. The first encourages teachers to integrate creative lesson plans into their classrooms to help teach students about the environment with standards-based supplementary educational materials.

The second is the competition to reward environmental action. Within this element, young people apply what they’ve learned in class through the program and participate in the environmental team challenges.

The Lexus Eco Challenge registration opens on September 26. The winners will be announced in spring 2012. Middle and high school teams, comprised of 5 to10 students and a teacher advisor can participate in one or both of the two initial challenges, each addressing different environmental elements—land/water and air/climate.

Another automaker, Hyundai has announced its ‘Hyundai Hope on Wheels Program’ which expands hospital grant awards to support National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month this September. With $7.1 million, Hyundai will fund 71 pediatric cancer research projects and programs at Children’s Oncology Group (COG) institutions across the USA. The company also launches ‘Hyundai Drive 4 Hope’ cross country tour and hosts inaugural 5k Run & Walk, says the press release.