Competitions
Real World Design Challenge
This annual competition provides high school students, grades 9 – 12, the opportunity to work on real world engineering challenges in a team environment. Each year, student teams will be asked to address a challenge that confronts one of our nation’s leading industries.
The Governor’s Cup State Level Challenge will be issued to participating teams in October, 2008 and the submission deadline will be March 1st, 2009. Students will be competing against other teams within their state. The winning team from each of these states will receive an all expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to participate at the National Event in late April, 2009.
For more information, see http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/RWDC/index.html
National Competition for Grades 3-6
The Kids’ Science Challenge, backed by a National Science Foundation grant, is a nationwide competition designed to engage 3rd to 6th-graders in practicing science. Students submit experiments, questions or problems to scientists, who choose which ideas become reality. More information is available at http://www.kidsciencechallenge
Essay Contest
The “Green Light Contest” essay competition, sponsored by PC Mall Gov, in partnership with HP, InFocus and T.H.E. Journal, is seeking entries from students in two categories: grades 5 - 8 and 9 - 12. In essays of 1,000 words or less students are asked to describe how they and their teachers can utilize technology to protect the environment. The grand-prize will be a 30-seat “green” computer lab for the author’s school. More information is available at http://www.1105info.com/t.do?id=1685344:15483677
FIRST Competitions
For information on challenges organized by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology), search their website www.usfirst.org. Included are a robotics competition, tech challenge and a LEGO League.
Digital Photo Competition
Technology & Learning invites K-12 students to participate in the sixth annual digital photography contest. The competition, open to all K-12 students, challenges you to capture—and share—your unique vision of the world. If you have an artistic side, you also have the option to digitally enhance your photos with your favorite imaging software. The best digitally enhanced photo wins a special prize from Adobe. Other prizes include a digital camera, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and more. http://www.techlearning.com/portraits/
2009 TEAMS Competition
Registration opens in September, 2008 for the 2009 TEAMS competition sponsored by the Junior Engineering Technical Society, or JETS. TEAMS is an annual academic competition that gives high school students the opportunity to discover the practical applications of math and science by solving some of today’s greatest engineering challenges. More than 14,000 students compete every year. Competitions, hosted by colleges and universities, will take place between February 2 and March 15, 2009, at multiple locations across the country. For more information, click on http://www.jets.org/teams/index.cfm.
Premier Curriculum Award for K-12 Engineering
This is a biennial international award recognizing creation of an outstanding K-12 engineering curriculum.
Submit your original and creative high-quality, classroom-tested engineering lessons and activities. Winning curriculum must be made available, free of charge, to all teachers and students through the Engineering Pathway and the TeachEngineering digital libraries.
Submission deadline: October 15, 2008 at 5PM MST.
Eligibility
K-12 curriculum must be original, accurate, hands-on, classroom-tested and pervasively incorporate engineering.
Curriculum must be submitted by a K-12 educator. (Award goes to the educator, not any organization to which s/he may be employed.)
Submitted activities may require the purchase of materials and/or equipment; however, the winning curriculum itself must be made available free of charge.
For the first two awards, curriculum created by people at the institutions associated with the founding of TeachEngineering and Engineering Pathway are not eligible.
Curriculum may not be submitted more than twice.
Curriculum Submission Requirements
Submissions must be in English, in digital format (MS Word or Adobe PDF), and submitted by email.
A submission may be a unit, lesson(s) or activity(ies), but not any other type of learning resource (such as a java script), unless it is part of a unit, lesson or activity that meets the minimum curricular component requirement for the TeachEngineering digital library. See activities, lessons or units.
Activity: This is what the students “do” that helps them achieve the lesson and activity learning objectives. An activity document includes a materials list and procedures (among many other curricular components). An activity may be stand-alone or part of a lesson.
Lesson: A lesson provides learning instruction and includes background, introduction and assessment information for teachers (among many other curricular components). A lesson’s one or more associated activities are provided in separate linked activity documents.
Unit: A unit is a longer-term, theme-based learning experience composed of multiple lessons and/or activities.
Submissions must include the minimum required curricular components for activities, lessons or units.
While it is not required for your initial submission, to save time later (if you become a finalist), you may submit your curricuum using the TeachEngineering blank template(s).
If your submitted curriculum is available online, click here to catalog it on the Engineering Pathway.
As this award is restricted to curricular activities, lessons or units, K-12 courseware developers may want to submit to the Premier Courseware Award.
Submission Cover Letter
Prepare a cover letter that includes the following information:
Provide your name, address, email, phone, teaching subjects(s) and grade level(s), school affiliation(s).
List the activity(ies), lesson(s) or unit you are submitting.
Provide a brief summary of how engineering is part of your curriculum.
Describe your classroom testing using this curriculum; include a summary of your results, including when and where testing was done, and with how many students. If available, provide evidence that demonstrates student learning outcomes benefits (data and/or anecdotal) and a description of the submitted curriculum’s adoption for classroom use beyond its testing location.
Include a statement affirming that the curriculum you submit is original and created by you.
Include a statement indicating your willingness to publish your curriculum in the TeachEngineering and Engineering Pathway digital libraries for free if you are named a finalist.
Conclude with your electronic signature and date.
Review Criteria
Submissions will be evaluated against meeting all submission requirements, and addressing the review criteria included in the following rubrics: K-12 Content Review Rubric (pdf) and Engineering Content Review Rubric (pdf).
Award
The award is presented by TeachEngineering and Engineering Pathway.
The winner receives a plaque or trophy; a $1,000 cash award; recognition at ASEE, NSTA or ITEA conferences; recognition on the TeachEngineering and Engineering Pathway digital library websites; and $1,500 towards registration, travel and accommodations to attend one annual U.S. STEM education conference (ASEE, NSTA, ITEA) within a year of receiving the award.
Submission Process
1. Prepare your original curriculum, taking into consideration the eligibility, submission requirements and review criteria described above.
2. Complete a cover letter that includes the information listed above.
3. By October 15, 2008, email the letter and curriculum (in MS Word or Adobe PDF format) to the award submission coordinator.
4. By December 15, 2008, five to ten finalists are selected and notified.
5. By February 15, 2009, finalists must convert their curricula into the appropriate TeachEngineering template(s).
6. By March 15, 2009, winner is selected and notified.
Please direct any questions to the award coordinator.
Army eCYBERMISSION Competition
On-line registration opens August 1, 2008 for the U.S. Army’s eCYBERMISSION competition, a free, web-based contest that allows students in grades six through nine to compete for regional and national awards while working to solve problems in their communities. For more information, go to http://www.ecybermission.com.
PBS Design Squad Trash-to-Treasure Competition
For ages 5–19: Recycle, reuse, and re-engineer everyday materials into an out-of-the-box invention.
Your invention should:
* Move things or people, or
* Protect the environment, or
* Be used for indoor or outdoor play.
GRAND PRIZE
* $10,000
* A Dell™ laptop powered by Intel®
* A trip to Boston to see your design built
4 FINALISTS
Receive Dell™ laptops powered by Intel®
The winner and his or her product will appear on the Design Squad show or Web site.
Enter online until August 31, 2008. For more details, please see: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/contest/index.html .
