Magenta House 2026 was the third season in the program series, with hundreds of 6th-8th grade students participating from six LAUSD schools submitting twenty projects for Expo showcase.
Magenta House is Pando’s program for middle-school that unites civic engagement with STEM curricular resources, all focused on water and power conservation, and efficiency. The program combines a science-fair-like expo for showcasing students’ community-based work with a project accelerator designed to help all students deliver excellent and competitive submissions.
The program offers infrastructure to support students who develop projects in their own communities on critical water- and power-related issues and teaches self-efficacy. Magenta House educational modules include water and power history of the California Southland and skills development in project-based brainstorming, project management, impact assessment, and presentation design. The program offers mentorship to participating teams.
The 2026 Magenta House program involved accelerating some twenty community-based projects across Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) middle schools. Of those twenty, eight were submitted as semi-finalists to the Expo, and five won awards (to see all teams go here). Winning teams will be honored The Pando Sustainability Awards at Caltech in October.
The winners were:
- The Build-Something-That-Matters Award – for engineering innovation in water conservation: Porter Middle School, Aqua Sense: The Smart Water Moisture Sensor
- The Willing-to-Get-Your-Hands-Dirty Award – for composting and waste management education: Palms Middle School, Know Before You Throw
- The It-All-Adds-Up Award – for building sustainability in over 100 little ways: Byrd Middle School, Little Things
- The Just-Roll-Up-Your-Sleeves Award – for modeling a DIY rain barrel solution: Roy Romer Middle School, Recycled Plastic Drums: Respect Every Drop
- The Audacity Award – for taking on an entire range of sustainability challenges, and actually doing something about them: Woodland Hills Academy Humanities Magnet, Rooted at Home
To read more about the program and how to get involved, go to MagentaHouse.org.
Related Programs
Magenta House Expo
A middle school student showcase for their most innovative water and power sustainability solutions.
Magenta House – Resources
Educational outreach provides homeowners and renters alike DIY tools to turn their homes Magenta.
Magenta House – Events
Pop-up and neighborhood events teach water conservation and power efficiency.
