Prince William Is in Dad Mode During a Rare TV Appearance — How the Kids Put Him to 'Shame'

The Prince of Wales invited the winners of the Blue Peter Earthshot Competition to Windsor Castle, where they made eco-friendly bird feeders together

Prince William's Earthshot Prize is already inspiring the next generation of environmental advocates.

The Prince of Wales, 42, recently welcomed the five winners of the Blue Peter Earthshot Competition to Windsor Castle. This competition, a collaboration between the BBC children's show Blue Peter and the Earthshot Prize, invited children aged 5 to 15 to propose innovative solutions to environmental challenges.

As seen in the episode airing Feb. 7, the children joined the royal for a Blue Peter "Here’s One I Made Earlier" moment, creating eco-friendly bird feeders together. The group cut out tree shapes from cardboard — and at one point, host Joel Mawhinney realized that the children were done with their work before himself and Prince William.

"Putting us to shame," Mawhinney said, to which William replied, "I know, seriously."

Related: Prince William Visits Recent Earthshot Prize Finalist NatureMetrics Alongside Schoolchildren: 'Best Day of My Life'

The winners also got the chance to ask the royal questions about the Earthshot Prize. Speaking in a kid-friendly way, Prince William shared that he tries to reduce his carbon footprint at home by turning off the lights, not letting the water run and recycling.

One girl asked, "What has been your most interesting Earthshot idea?"

William responded, "There's been so many," before explaining a project that created lab-grown coral reef that can withstand "super duper" hot temperatures.

The five winners were Marni (8, from London, who came up with an idea for family forests where a tree is planted for every person in the U.K.), Mia (8, from North Yorkshire, who wants to stop factory pollution and global warming by cleaning polluted water using algae ponds), Llewyn (9 from Glasgow, whose idea was to invent compostable glasses which allow people to see how much carbon dioxide is in the air), Ruby (10 from Devon, who entered with an idea to reduce waste with solar powered vans to give people access to refill services) and Annie (12 from Milton Keynes, who had an idea to help save coral reefs by supplying them with nutrients and calcium).

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A main motivator that inspired Prince William to start the Earthshot Prize were his own children — Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6. In 2021, the year after the environmental project launched, former chief executive of the Royal Foundation Jason Knauf said of Prince William, “The challenge [William] set himself was, 'What is the maximum positive personal contribution I can make in the next 10 years in the fight against climate change? What am I going to do in the next decade that means I can look my children in the eye and say that I did my bit?' Every aspect of the Prize bears the stamp of his contribution."

In the foreword for the book Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet, Prince William expounded on why he created the ambitious project, writing, “I have seen people all over the world face what seems like insurmountable challenges yet come together with collective ambition, and a can-do spirit, to find solutions to them. I strongly believe that change is possible when you put your mind to it.”